观者透过橱窗可以看到这个象盒子的幻像，幻像将观者的所见所忆欺骗。这空间与想象并非看到的那样，而是中国艺术家颜磊在挑衅。
对那些持续关注罗马的小画廊代理的艺术家与作品的人、或留意第五小巷中动静的过客而言，瞧这件作品头一眼时，或会感到有些困惑与惊讶。在玻璃窗外，有点古怪，有点不对劲。小房间仿佛变大了，但这与人们日常的经验不符，因为墙不会自个儿走路。之前展出的Bruna Esposito的作品还在。但回头想，又觉得事有蹊跷，因为门上赫然写着“颜磊”二字。这位闻名全球的艺术家在意大利参加过的展览也不少，包括第50届威尼斯双年展的紧急展区（Zone d’Urgenza）。颜磊（1965年出生）的创作媒介多样，从摄影到录像，借绘画来实现其（观念）作品。他在参加常青画廊（圣吉米那诺）群展“进行中的对话”（A Continuous Dialogue）时被认为是中国前卫主义艺术的一员，而此次为“晚报摊”（Edicola Notte）带来了一件（观念转化的）摄影装置。
秘密的背后是观者看见的大幅背光照片占满了展厅四壁。事实上，照片拍下了曾在“晚报摊”展出的Bruna Esposito的霓虹灯管装置“买黄金”（Compro Oro）；这些照片貌似摆在空间的底部，实则恰置于正中心。就好比罗马波罗米尼的斯帕达宫的立柱或米兰圣萨特（San Satiro）布拉曼特的后殿。这一诡巧镜头营造了一个双重空间的幻象，重现了前个展览。这一景象让观者错愕，甚至有些陶醉、入迷。作品处在交叉引用的语境中，落入随机反应、胡思乱想、典故、现成品与回忆中。颜磊更像是罗宾（Lupin）而非罗宾汉（Robin Hood），发挥着颇有成效的海绵效应，图片和艺术家Bruna的作品作为现成品，被其语境改头换面后再利用。这些看似不经意间日常抓取的图片，其实恰是颜磊的生活与思考。这些艺术家亲历的时刻也在其回忆中留下痕迹。
丹妮艾拉 翠西亚（Daniela Trincia）
英译中：顾灵
中文校对：李振华
Eyes and memories deceived by the big box’s illusion you can see through the showcase. The space and the imagination are not what they seem. That’s the provocation of the Chinese artist Yan Lei
Those who keep track of the passing of works and artists in the tiny roman gallery, as well as the passer aware of what happens in Vicolo del Cinque, experiences a feeling of confusion and of surprise at a first glance. There’s something strange, something not clear beyond the window. The little room appears bigger, but it can’t be true because walls are impossible to move. Bruna Esposito’s work seems still exposed from the previous exhibition. But, another time, it can’t be true because on the door is written Yan Lei. This artist is well known all over the world and he has joined many exhibition even in Italy. Among those the 50th Biennale di Venezia where I has exposed in Zone d’Urgenza. Yan Lei (Hebei,1965; now working in Hong Kong) uses different media, from photography to video, passing through painting, to realize his works. The artist, considered a member of L’Avanguardia Cinese in Italia by A Continuous Dialogue – a Galleria Continua’s exhibition-, has carried out a photographic installation for Edicola Notte.
So the mistery is disclosed: actually what we see is a big, backlit picture that takes up all the perimeter of the gallery. In fact, the image presents again the neon writing Compro Oro by Bruna Esposito that was exposed at Edicola Notte before; the picture seems placed at the bottom of the space, whereas it is placed basically in its core. It is as Borromini’s columns at Palazzo Spada in Rome or as Bramante’s apse at San Satiro in Milan. The conceived shot creates the illusion of a doubled space rebuilding that one of the previous exhibition. So a short-circuit starts and the visitor feels charmed and pinned, situated among the texture of cross-references, of spontaneous speculation, of quotations, ready-made and memory. Yan Lei, more as Lupin than as Robin Hood, showing a fruitfully sponging behaviour, steals images, changes their context and reutilises them in a new shape. These images, that seems accidentally caught during the flowing of daily life, are, instead, moments of Yan’ life and thoughts. The artist has lived these moments and they have left a sign in his memories.
Daniela Trincia
