Dai Guangyu 戴光郁
The Failure of Defense 失守, 2007
Performance photographs 行为图片
Fibre-based (FB) paper 相片纸
8 7/8 x 6 1/2 in x 7
22.5 x 16.5 cm x 7
22.5 x 16.5 cm x 7
Edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs
Copyright The Artist
路易斯安那现代艺术博物馆 Made in China (Live Performance Art Event) , Louisiana Museum of Modern Art , Humlebaek , Denmark. Curators : Anders Kold , Berenice Angremy ( 策展人：Anders Kold , Berenice...
路易斯安那现代艺术博物馆
Made in China (Live Performance Art Event) , Louisiana
Museum of Modern Art , Humlebaek , Denmark.
Curators : Anders Kold , Berenice Angremy
( 策展人：Anders Kold , Berenice Angremy)
The Failure of Defense Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art, Denmark
As with the performance installation Borderline (1997), or the performance Incontinence (2005), a central preoccupation in Dai Guangyu’s practice is the relationship between self and society, citizen and State, and the condition of the contemporary Nation-State, State-engineered nationalism, and the nation-building project at the core of the People’s Republic of China. His first iteration of this seminal performance work, The Failure of Defense (2007) was executed at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, as part of the Made In China exhibition, and curated by Anders Kold, and Berenice Angremy.
This performance explored the artist’s longstanding concern with the perils implicit in invidious ideological narratives of purity and exclusionary notions of national greatness. Standing at the center of a map of China, in which red stands for Communism and political-ideological purity, Guangyu methodically painted the map, and finally himself, black until all was obliterated. Black was a culturally specific symbol in China for the political taint of bad class family background. As in works such as White is Not Necessarily Good (2001), color takes on a semiotic weight and Guangyu plays with the relational connotations of various colors—especially red, black, and white—to explore political, social, and cultural questions, as well as historical. These ideological divisions thrust China into over a decade of chaos. Countless individuals’ bodies, minds, livelihoods, and families (including Dai Guangyu’s own) were wrecked, and the social fabric of the nation shredded by manipulated antagonisms and politically stoked hatred based on class differences. The mistrust, atomization and loss of solidarity that resulted, divided and conquered generations of Chinese citizens, producing political fatigue, and even outright terror at the very idea of politics. It was indeed a great failure of the nation to defend itself against these internally manufactured forces of destruction.
“失守”中红色地图代表1949 年后社会主义体制治下的中国。以红色为政治权力象征，是当今政
府精神图腾；黑色代表49 年以远的传统文化和政治秩序。一个诞生几十年的政治实体与行诸两千
年以上的文明较量，我们将失去什么不言自明。通过“失守”的视觉呈现，或将更加清晰。失守还
是坚守？谁失守谁坚守？意味着截然不同的结果。
红色的中国地图和白色的人（戴光郁）隐退于墨水涂抹中，最终留下的，却是一幅单纯的抽象水墨
图式。＂失守＂是个思想隐喻，所以是超现实的。但现实中无论政治、文化，还是其它领域，不遵
从事物发展规律而强制性地改变，结果总是事与愿违适得真反，甚至是灾难性的。
Made in China (Live Performance Art Event) , Louisiana
Museum of Modern Art , Humlebaek , Denmark.
Curators : Anders Kold , Berenice Angremy
( 策展人：Anders Kold , Berenice Angremy)
The Failure of Defense Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art, Denmark
As with the performance installation Borderline (1997), or the performance Incontinence (2005), a central preoccupation in Dai Guangyu’s practice is the relationship between self and society, citizen and State, and the condition of the contemporary Nation-State, State-engineered nationalism, and the nation-building project at the core of the People’s Republic of China. His first iteration of this seminal performance work, The Failure of Defense (2007) was executed at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, as part of the Made In China exhibition, and curated by Anders Kold, and Berenice Angremy.
This performance explored the artist’s longstanding concern with the perils implicit in invidious ideological narratives of purity and exclusionary notions of national greatness. Standing at the center of a map of China, in which red stands for Communism and political-ideological purity, Guangyu methodically painted the map, and finally himself, black until all was obliterated. Black was a culturally specific symbol in China for the political taint of bad class family background. As in works such as White is Not Necessarily Good (2001), color takes on a semiotic weight and Guangyu plays with the relational connotations of various colors—especially red, black, and white—to explore political, social, and cultural questions, as well as historical. These ideological divisions thrust China into over a decade of chaos. Countless individuals’ bodies, minds, livelihoods, and families (including Dai Guangyu’s own) were wrecked, and the social fabric of the nation shredded by manipulated antagonisms and politically stoked hatred based on class differences. The mistrust, atomization and loss of solidarity that resulted, divided and conquered generations of Chinese citizens, producing political fatigue, and even outright terror at the very idea of politics. It was indeed a great failure of the nation to defend itself against these internally manufactured forces of destruction.
“失守”中红色地图代表1949 年后社会主义体制治下的中国。以红色为政治权力象征，是当今政
府精神图腾；黑色代表49 年以远的传统文化和政治秩序。一个诞生几十年的政治实体与行诸两千
年以上的文明较量，我们将失去什么不言自明。通过“失守”的视觉呈现，或将更加清晰。失守还
是坚守？谁失守谁坚守？意味着截然不同的结果。
红色的中国地图和白色的人（戴光郁）隐退于墨水涂抹中，最终留下的，却是一幅单纯的抽象水墨
图式。＂失守＂是个思想隐喻，所以是超现实的。但现实中无论政治、文化，还是其它领域，不遵
从事物发展规律而强制性地改变，结果总是事与愿违适得真反，甚至是灾难性的。
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