Dialogue

Foreword

Foreword Gao Minglu Translated by Archibald McKenzie Although Xiao Lu’s Dialogue is written in the form of a novel, it is based on a true story. However, it is not only the story of a single individual. At the same time it presents a particularly important event in the history of Chinese contemporary art. All the names in the book are fictitious, but they are based on the authentic character of real people. For instance, in the novel, Xiao Lu’s name becomes “Xiao Xiao”, and the real person behind another important character, called “Lan Jun,” is Tang Song. I began the preparations for the China Avant-garde Exhibition in 1986. This was the first time in Chinese history that the Chinese themselves curated an exhibition for contemporary Chinese artists. I was the principal curator on the preparatory committee for this exhibition. All the members of the preparatory committee were critics and scholars who were prominently active at the time. All the hosting editorial committee members of Dushu [Study] and Wenhua: Zhongguo yu shijie [Culture: Chinese and the World], publications that flourished during the 1980s, took part in the exhibition activities. The preparations took three years. The opening almost took place on 1 July 1987, but it was postponed because of the sudden unleashing of the Chinese Communist Party’s political movement, “Against Bourgeois Liberalization”. At the time, the leaders of the art world came to see me with the documents of the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party and virtually compelled me to suspend the preparations, so the plans for the exhibition had to be cancelled. After six months of discussions with the Director of the National Art Museum of China, the China Avant-garde exhibition finally received official permission to open at the Chinese National Art Museum in Beijing on 5 February 1989, the eve of the traditional Chinese Spring Festival. The preparatory process was full of hardships, and the available funds were very constricted. It took me two years after the exhibition closed to pay off the debts incurred. At about 11.10 a.m. on 5 February 1989, about two hours Dialogue viii after the opening of the China Avant-garde Exhibition, Xiao Lu, standing in the ground floor exhibition hall, suddenly raised a handgun and fired two shots at her own installation work, Dialogue. The sound of these gunshots not only shook the National Art Museum of China, it also attracted widespread attention among the Chinese and international media. The China Avant-garde Exhibition was immediately closed by the Public Security. Xiao Lu instantly became a public figure who stirred both China and the world. Four months after these gunshots, the June 4 Tiananmen Incident occurred. Thereupon, immediately after June 4, Xiao Lu’s gunshots were called by conservative persons in the art world “the first gunshots of Tiananmen”, just as the China Avant-garde Exhibition was described – after June 4 – as “the little Tiananmen Square”. Against the larger social background of that time, this manner of speech clearly made sense, for the Avant-garde Art Movement of the 1980s as a whole was of a piece with the modern demand for democracy. Xiao Lu’s gunshots challenged the National Art Museum of China. They also challenged the official authorities of the time. Whether or not they arose from purely political considerations, their objective consequence actually did serve a libertarian and anti-authoritarian social purpose, and this work of art was undoubtedly one of the most iconic works in the history of Chinese contemporary art. However, as to the specific motivation for Xiao Lu to fire the gun, as to her individual background, how her artistic conception was formed, and other fundamental questions, it was impossible to understand any of them deeply amid agitation and frenzy of the time. My checklist of the exhibition only includes Xiao Lu’s installation work Dialogue, and no one on the exhibition committee knew about Xiao Lu’s “open fire” plan. After she fired the gun, Xiao Lu and Tang Song were detained, and when the June 4 Incident happened, Xiao Lu managed to get to Australia, where Tang Song joined her as an illegal entrant after being smuggled into Hong Kong. Normal art historical research became completely impossible. Therefore, although I was the principal curator of the China Avant-garde Exhibition, I in fact had no understanding of Xiao Lu’s true intentions. She remained silent for many years. Thus, based on all the media...