Santiago Barrio 山地

摄影的暂住证

徐累

山地，一个西班牙人，不远万里，来到中国，出于什么机缘，没问，只知道他就 这样呆下来了，住在高碑店村，不懂汉语，没工作。

山地的暂住证，是他的摄影。他拍的东西，大多与高碑店村有关。此地以古家具市集闻名京城，山地借寓的“民俗园”，也是一个赏石市场，周边还有油画院，艺术村。我也住在附近，所以熟悉这一带，没事周边逛逛，看看朋友，赏赏古物，是一大乐趣。

山地所拍，即我所遇，但确非我所见。景还是这些景，物还是这些物，好比普通名词，山地复述一遍，已经换成了形容词。“外师造化，中得心源”，山地看山不是山，意思变了。例如，通往油画院的路上，围墙上画了一组老北京风俗画，其中一幅描绘杂耍的街头艺人，顶着缸。山地不知从哪里找来真的青花碎片，搁在前面地上，一拍，好像墙上的人儿不慎玩砸了，虚实对照，恍兮惚兮。又比如，地上的井盖，再平常不过了，山地找来清代家具的圆形合页，中间一放，这井盖立刻庭院深深，开始自命不凡起来。

类似的命题，类似的机巧，是山地作品的特点。他不甘心还原现实，而是游戏现实，剪接现实，鞭策现实，直到找出形而上的结论。看得出，每一次拍摄，他一定反复谋划，布置场景，直到符合他的意念，才按下快门。他的摄影，意在笔先，渐识，顿悟，迁想妙得。周边杂乱，山地有章，难得他有层出不穷的灵感，一次又一次在脑里显影，在现实中曝光。

摄影的一般意义，就是猎取。事件转瞬即逝，情绪立竿见影，即时记录下来， 以待日后成追忆，其意义，就在客观。山地的摄影，句句属实，却不客观，更像是意象。这似乎与诗有关了，尤其是现代诗。山地就有这样的气质，灵光乍现，诗性大发，物象转化为词语，从熟悉走向陌生，从过去走向未来，流动，固化，升华。所有的小事件，经他一调弄，看起来就像是真理，超出了习以为常，世俗站在了彼岸。

确实，山地的摄影，好些是警句，如果说是诗，也接近格言诗。其实有些话，不用说得这么肯定，这么满，留一点余味，效果会更好。当然，这只是像我这样的东方人的看法，对西方人来说，艺术是观念，是修辞，是以离奇制造惊叹，所以才有“缝纫机和雨伞”相遇的美。西方艺术，是亚麻布，是石头，直接、硬朗、 强制，而东方美学，如丝绸一样柔软，这也是手术刀和中药的差别。所以，山地的中国意象，过于思虑，视角另有手段，语不惊人，誓不罢手，还真不是中国人玩得出来的。

山地另有一个与中国有关的项目，就是拍摄当代艺术家，成篇了不少。我熟悉这些同行，也熟悉他们的作品，即便如此，山地还是提供给我不少惊喜。看得出，拍摄之前，山地案头工作做得细，除了人的状态，似乎也对他们的艺术风格一知半解，这就够了。如同拍摄那些日常物象一样，山地主张武断，却有神来之笔，情理之中，意料之外。这组摄影，构思巧妙，个性差异大，以一个摄影师的镜头，做到这般丰富，山地的才情不言而喻。

我也有幸出现在山地的镜头里。和我预料的一样，他有备而来，递上事先画好的草图，还带来了道具，一根长长的鞋带，非要系在我的鞋上，再拖到地上。鞋带与我有什么关系呢？没说，可能他是在讽刺我的拖延症吧。山地干净利落，就摆弄了一个镜头，完事，反倒是我意犹未尽。他的右臂有个好看的刺青，一条大大的鲤鱼。我拉他到我的画前，以这个手臂牵引画中的马，镜头下的深蓝，好像有点“梦里不知身是客”的迷离。

这个瞬间，我拍出了一个中国艺术家对山地的相惜，毕竟，他曾经离我们这么近。

THE TEMPORARY RESIDENT PERMIT OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Xu Lei

Santiago Barrio is a Spaniard who came from afar to China. I did not ask what brought him here; I only know that he has stayed. He lives in Gao Bei Dian Cun. He has no Chinese, nor does he have a job.

Photography is Santiago’s temporary resident permit. His photographic subjects are often related to Gao Bei Dian Cun. The area is famous in Beijing for its cluster of antique furniture markets. “Folk Park” where he lives features a precious stones market with arts schools and artist villages nearby. I also live close by, so I am familiar with the area. In my spare time I wander about, meet my friends and admire the beautiful antiques, which makes for many delightful hours.

What Santiago photographs is what one encounters, but not what one sees. The scenery is what it is, and the objects are what they are, just like ordinary nouns. When captured by Santiago, they turn into adjectives. “The creation of art stems from the rules of nature, and the comprehension within the artist.” Santiago sees something else than a mountain when he looks at it; its meaning changes. For instance, along the path to the art schools, there is a set of paintings of the scenery of Old Beijing. In one of these paintings is a street performer with a pot on his head. Santiago found some broken pieces of blue-and-white porcelain and threw them onto the ground in front of the painting, and photographed it. Abridging reality and illusion, it almost looks as if the street performer in the painting had broken his pot and left these shards on the ground. The manholes are the most ordinary objects. Santiago found some round shaped hinges of Qing Dynasty furniture and placed them in the middle of the manholes, transforming them into exceptional objects with classical touches.

Such propositions and coincidences mark Santiago’s works. He is not satisfied with reproducing reality, but sets out to experiment with, edit and challenge reality until he arrives at an existential conclusion. One can see that with every photograph Santiago contemplates and revises the setting, and he only presses the shutter when the image encapsulates his idea. His photographic works are meticulously composed, and they spell understanding and enlightenment. It is wondrous how Santiago has endless inspirations, which manifest in his mind and then in reality.

In general, the significance of photography is to capture. It is to record events that transpire and fade away, as well as fleeting emotions. Its significance lies in objective representation. Santiago’s photography captures reality but is in no way objective, and it is more akin to imagery. It seems to ring with connotations of poetry, especially modern poetry. Santiago has this peculiar temperament that illuminates the interiority of things, translating objects into language, turning what’s familiar into what’s new, bringing one from the past to the present, to a realm that lies between fluidity and solidity where all is elevated. Everything, even the most trivial, is rendered as truth when Santiago recreates it; it transcends the mundane.

Many of Santiago’s photographic works are like maxims. They are closer to motto poetry, if they are to be read as poetry. Many things need not be so clearly defined, and they have more impact when expressed with subtlety. Of course, this is an oriental perspective of mine. For Westerners, art is about concept and expression; it aims to surprise, and it thrives on both the contrast and echoes between different subjects. Western art is like linen or stone; it is direct, hard and forceful. Oriental aesthetics are soft as silk. This is also the difference between the surgical knife and Chinese medicine. In this context, Santiago’s Chinese imagery is calculated and its perspective is intended to stun. It is an aesthetic impact that we Chinese cannot create.

Santiago has another project related to China, which is photographing contemporary artists. A considerable number of works have been created for the project. I am familiar with these fellow artists as well as their works, and yet Santiago’s portraits surprise me. One can see how Santiago has studied his subjects before the photo shoot. Apart from the subjects, he also has certain insights into their artistic styles. Like his photographs of everyday objects, Santiago’s portraits show what’s real as much as what’s hidden and unexpected. This photography series fascinates with its intricacy and contrast, as Santiago’s talent shines where he conveys such richness with the photographic lens.

I am honored to be one of his photographic subjects. As I had expected, he came prepared. He showed me a sketch he drew, and he also had his prop ready. A long shoelace that he tied to my shoe and then placed on the floor. What did the shoelace have to do with me? He did not say. Maybe it was his poking fun at my procrastination. Swiftly he took his shot, and finished. It left me wanting more. Santiago has a beautiful tattoo on his right arm, a big carp. I led him to stand before my painting and placed his arm on it, as if he was leading the horse in the painting. Seen through the lens, the deep blue spelled intrigue of existing between dream and reality.

In this moment, I photographed the admiration of a Chinese artist for Santiago. After all, he was once so close to us.

山地（Santiago Barrio）

摄影艺术家，1970年出生于西班牙的北部城市毕尔巴鄂。

  在二十余年的摄影生涯中，他曾与世界知名杂志《VOGUE》《GQ》《TIME》《ELLE》《亮点》和法国《世界报》长期合作, 还曾为西班牙最具影响力的报纸《世界报》《国家报》和《阿贝赛报》供稿。他拍摄过的人物几乎囊括了世界上最顶尖的艺术创意人群，包括著名设计师、艺术家和欧洲顶级奢侈品牌的领军人物。

  由于从少年时期便开始接受武术培训，山地一直欣赏中华文化。从二十岁起，他多次来到中国学习太极。语言的障碍并没有阻断他对中国文化的热情，反而是道家思想启发了他的艺术创作。每当谈到摄影时，他总会说：“我希望能够在作品中尽量减少自己的影子，将不重要的东西移出相框，去抵达事物的本质。当与事物保持距离的时，你更能看清他们，这就是大道至简。”

  2012年起，山地开始在北京生活和创作。2013年他和团队开启了“东方艺术家肖像”的拍摄项目，在接下来的三年中走访了中国最重要的艺术家群体(包括靳尚谊、詹建俊、曾梵志、严培明、方力 钧、徐累等五十余位)，与他们对谈，用摄影语言创作出一幅幅艺术家肖像。2016年这本肖像集作为《INSIGHT》三部曲的第一部，由中国摄影出版社发行，这也是西方摄影师为中国当代艺术家群体拍摄的第一部肖像作品。同年他开始拍摄静物摄影作品计划《视觉之诗》。

  2017~2019年，山地完成了第二部肖像作品集，瞄准了中国最有影响力的建筑师、设计师和艺术家群体，拍摄了包括梁志天、林丰年、梁建国、孟建国、伍仲匡、陈暄、王冬龄、瞿广慈等等。

2020年，山地开始为第三部作品集“东方音乐家肖像”进行创作。这部作品集关注的是中国最有影响力的民族音乐家，讲述音乐与哲学的故事，体现中国的鼓琴、琵琶、胡琴、笛箫等等民族乐器的演奏家们如何进行传承和创新。同年，他多次进入故宫博物院，完成了“视觉之诗”系列作品集之《照见紫禁城》。

Santiago Barrio,

Photographer, born in 1970 in the northern city of Bilbao, Spain.

In his photographic career spanning more than 25 years, he has worked with such publications as Vogue, GQ, Time, Elle, Stern or Le Monde, and he has been a contributor to Spanish’s most influential newspaper as El Mundo, El pais and ABC. The subjects of his portraits have included some of the world’s creative elites including renowned artists， designers, as well as the chief executive directors of European luxury.  

As a result of martial arts training since childhood, he has always been very interested in oriental culture. Since twenty years old, he has come to China many times to study Tai Ji in the Wu Dang Mountain. The language barrier did not block his enthusiasm for Chinese culture, the Taoist thought inspired his artistic creation. When it comes to photography, he says: "I hope to minimize my influence in my works, move unimportant things out of the picture frame, and reach the essence of things. When you keep a distance from objects, you can see them better. The greatest truths are always in simplicity. "

In 2012, he moved to Beijing to start a more personal way of art photography. Since 2013, he started the shooting project of " INSIGHT- the Portraits of the Oriental Artists". He visited more than 50 of the most important artists in China (including Jin Shangyi, Zhan Jianjun, Zeng Fanzhi, Xu Bing, Yan Peiming, Fang Lijun, Xu Lei and so on), talked with them and took the portraits. In 2016, his first INSIGHT of Portraits of Oriental Artists was published by the Photography Publishing House of China. At the same time he started the shooting plan of the Visual Poetry.

In 2017-2019, he completed the second collection of " INSIGHT– the Portraits of Oriental Designers". This time he aimed at the most influential architects and designers in China, including Liang Zhitian, Lin Fengnian, Liang Jianguo, Meng Jianguo, Wu Zhongkuang, etc. This collection discussed the relationship between architecture, design and art.

In 2020, he began to create for his third collection “INSIGHT- the Portraits of Oriental Musicians”. This collection focuses on the most influential national folk musicians in east Asia. It tells the story of music, life and philosophy, reflects how the performers of Chinese gu qin, pipa, er hu and flute carry out inheritance and innovation. This year he also went into the Palace Museum many times to finish the album of “INSIGHT- the Forbidden City”.

视觉之诗

山地

我们总是用自己习惯的眼光来看这个世界：面对一件事物，我们对功能的关注度常常超过这件事物的本身，也会因为那些作为形象使者的通用语言或符号而丢掉对事物独特本质的洞察。如果能跳脱于这种惯常方式，调整到不同的逻辑频道，我们就有可能更接近事物的本真。而相比其它形式，摄影常被看作对现实最精确的镜面反射，这种“有图有真相”的假想，让相纸上记录的影像变的更具有说服力。那些我们生活中再熟悉不过的事物，更容易把观者引向一种全新的、有时难以用文字表述清楚的诗化语言。这些影像作品的目的不仅仅是用美学意义上的漂亮图片来取悦大家，创作者想要展现的美，恰恰是那些在照片上看不到的东西。勇敢地打破再回归于传统逻辑，通常是人类延展智慧的好方法。而如今，一张照片让这一切成为可能。

VISUAL POETRY

Santiago Barrio

The way we see things is shaped by habit: we very often see the function of an object more than the object itself, and lose the unique essence of an object behind the generic word or symbol we employ as its ambassador. By moving away from such conventional ways of seeing and aligning with a different logic, we can both escape from and play with this process - thereby allowing us to get into direct contact with the true essence of things. Further, as it is supposed that photography, more than any other discipline, holds up the most accurate mirror to reality, the false assumption that what we see in a photographic image is truer makes these images become all the more powerful. Familiar objects are used to more closely involve and lead the viewer through a new and sometimes difficult poetic language. The purpose is not to surprise the viewer with a beautiful image aesthetically-speaking: the beauty here is what is not seen; it is the viewer´s intellectual process - daring to break free from traditional logic to return to it again, but this time different - all of this being possible within the context of a single photograph.