Organhaus, résidence

关于“空间印象” / Introduction

 

城市大门能向我们揭示什么关于城市如何构想自身的信息？

“空间印象”是一个长期的研究创作项目，旨在通过研究世界各地城市的城市大门，探索空间的心理表征以及场所的集体记忆。通过田野调查、艺术创作和社区互动，我们试图揭示围绕这些门槛的隐形意义层：那些嵌入石块与记忆中的神话、怀旧之情以及宇宙起源论。

 

What do urban gates tell us about the way cities dream of themselves?

Space Impressions is a long-term research-creation project exploring the mental representations of space and the collective memory of places, through the study of urban gates in cities around the world. Through fieldwork, artistic production and community encounters, we seek to reveal the invisible layers of meaning that surround these thresholds: the myths, the nostalgia, and the cosmogonies embedded in stone and memory.

 

活动 / Event

 

《空间印象》 (Space Impressions) 是由 Duo PROCESSUS 发起的艺术项目。它采取了一种“研究型创作（Research-creation）”的方法论，专门致力于将“城市门户/关隘 (Urban Gates)”作为集体记忆与城市想象（Urban Imaginary）的场域进行深度解构与研究。该项目的每一个章节都聚焦于一座不同的城市，将严谨的田野调查（Fieldwork）与跨媒介的混合艺术形态（Hybrid Artistic Forms）进行了有机结合。继 2023年对法国米卢斯 (Mulhouse) 以及 2024年对突尼斯诸多城市的研究之后，重庆成为了这一持续性学术与创作研究的第三章。

本次分享活动，我们期待能聚焦连结重庆本地的朋友与社群。并诚挚邀请大家，根据自身的兴趣以及与本项目的契合度，共同介入到我们后续的研究或创作生产之中。

我们正在面向公众广泛招募“协同创作者 (Contributions)”（例如：邀请您与我们一同前往城市的特定区域进行视觉与身体考察，分享您的空间感知；或是创作一件作品、开展一项与本项目产生精神共鸣的补充性研究）。正是这种公众介入的生产方式，将赋予这项研究展示我们所一直追求的“集体性维度 (Collective Dimension)”。

我们强烈的渴望，最终发表在Organhaus 的展览能够激发营造出一场“集体性的公共论辩 (Collective Discussion)”。在这场论辩中，不同参与者的个体视角将在展厅的各个角落交织、浮现，并与我们自身生产的作品以及搜集到的文献研究材料（Research Materials）产生互文本的碰撞。当然，所有这些来自公众的协同介入，都将在展览中被完整致谢与署名，并被悉数记录在我们的学术研究报告中。恰恰是这种互惠的、参与式的机制 (Participatory Aspect)**，将赋予该项目最完满的文本厚度与现实张力。

 

Space Impressions is a Duo PROCESSUS project, a research-creation approach dedicated to the study of urban gates as sites of collective memory and urban imaginary. Each chapter of the project focuses on a different city, combining rigorous fieldwork with hybrid artistic forms that span multiple mediums. Chongqing is the third chapter of this ongoing research, following our study Mulhouse city (France) in 2023 and Tunisian cities conducted in 2024.

This presentation of our project dedicated to Chongqing, aimed at residents and locals. Following the presentation, they would be invited to contribute to the project, whether on the research or production side, depending on their interests and affinities with the project.

We are looking for contribution (for example, by visiting certain areas of the city with us and sharing their impressions, or producing a work or supplementary research that echoes the project), this would give the research showcase the collective dimension we’re aiming for.

We really want the exhibition to feel like a collective discussion, from which the individual perspectives of different participants would emerge here and there, intertwining with the works we will have produced and the research materials we will have gathered. All these contributions will of course be credited in the exhibition and documented in the report of our research. It is precisely this participatory aspect that will give the project its full richness.

 

关于我们 / CVs

 

乌伊塞姆·莫阿拉 Ouissem Moalla（1990年出生于斯德哥尔摩）是一位视觉艺术家，毕业于法国莱茵艺术高等学院。他的作品通过行为艺术、装置和雕塑，探索空间、记忆与信仰之间的联系。受神话、文学和人文学科的启发，他的艺术实践质疑着我们与场所及集体想象之间的关系。

杰里米·德坎普 Jérémie Descamps（1978年出生于巴黎）是一位汉学家、城市规划师、地理学博士及艺术家。他立足于人文研究与艺术创作的交汇点，通过写作、声音、摄影、电影、行为艺术和装置艺术，发展出一套感知空间的方法。他的作品聚焦于当代地域的物理、象征和社会维度。

 

Ouissem Moalla (born in 1990 in Stockholm) is a visual artist formed at the Haute École des Arts du Rhin (France). His work explores the connections between space, memory and belief through performance, installation and sculpture. Informed by myth, literature and the humanities, his practice questions our relationship to places and collective imaginaries.

Jérémie Descamps (born in 1978 in Paris) is a sinologist, urban planner, PhD in Geography, and artist. At the intersection of humanities research and artistic creation, he develops a sensory approach to space through writing, sound, photography, film, performance and installation. His work focuses on the physical, symbolic and social dimensions of contemporary territories.

 

研究方法与脉络 / The Research

 

作为 PROCESSUS 组合的共同创办人，威塞姆·莫阿拉 (Ouissem Moalla) 与 杰里米·德康 (Jérémie Descamps) 自 2023 年起便持续推进着《空间印象》(Space Impressions) 这一艺术计划。这是一个采取 “研究型创作（Research-creation）”的方法论，专门致力于将 “城市门户/关隘 (Urban Gates)” 作为集体记忆与城市想象（Urban Imaginary）的场域进行深度解构与研究的项目。该项目的每一个章节都聚焦于一座不同的城市，将严谨的田野调查（Fieldwork）与跨越多种媒介的混合艺术形态（Hybrid Artistic Forms）进行了有机结合。

在我们的学术与创作实践路径中（Our Protocol），我们通过肉身步履拓扑地去丈量这些新旧关隘曾经存在或依然伫立的场域，以此搜集丰富的视觉、物质与声音数据。在此基础之上，我们生产出能够映射、指涉这些特定空间衍生出的集体想象的混合多媒体作品。同时，我们广泛收集、采编来自当地居民、艺术家、历史学家、城市规划师、建筑师以及本土社群的 “空间印记（Impressions）”。我们的方法论围绕着三个有机推进的阶段展开——搜集（Collection）、建档（Inventory）以及装配（Assembly）——并最终在展厅中以一场综合成果汇报展览的形式得以完整呈现（Restitution）。

针对每一座被纳入研究版图的城市，我们都将对全部研究文献进行悉数记录，并逐步将其数字化公开于网络。随着本计划的层层递进，我们正在孕育一个更具雄心的出版设想——编纂一本《关隘之书》（ »A Book of Gates »）_（包含数字与实体印刷双版本），旨在将这一长期的地缘文献研究、实地考察、以及从中派生出的所有艺术创作进行全景式的集结与出版。

 

Together as PROCESSUS, Ouissem Moalla and Jérémie Descamps have been developing Space Impressions since 2023: a research-creation approach dedicated to the study of urban gates as sites of collective memory and urban imaginary. Each chapter of the project focuses on a different city, combining rigorous fieldwork with hybrid artistic forms that span multiple mediums.

In our protocol, we walk through the places where these various gates once stood or still stand in order to collect visual, material and sound data, from which we produce hybrid artistic works that refer to the imaginaries attached to these places. We also gather the impressions of residents, artists, historians, urban planners, architects and local communities. Our methodology unfolds in three phases — collection, inventory and assembly — culminating in a restitution in the form of an exhibition.

For each city studied, we document all our research and progressively make it available online. As the project develops, we are nurturing the idea of producing « a book of gates » (both in digital and printed form) that would bring together all the research and artistic productions that stem from it.

 

重庆：关闭城门 / Chongqing: Closing The Gates

 

继 2023 年对法国米卢斯 (Mulhouse) 以及 2024 年在法国文化协会（French Institute）支持下对突尼斯诸城市的研究之后，重庆成为了我们这项持续性艺术研究的第三章。这座城市古老关隘在城市规划与民间民俗学上所展现出的非凡特异性，深深地吸引着我们。

大约十年前，这座城市多座深埋地下的古城门被重新发掘，瞬间点燃了公众对城市历史的重估与热情，并唤醒了广泛的怀旧情结（魏晓莉，2014）。

然而，最让我们着迷的，是隐藏在这些城门空间布局背后的“宇宙论逻辑” (Cosmogonic Logic)。筑于 14 世纪（明代洪武年间）的重庆城墙，是围绕着“十七门”的结构展开的——其中9门大开以迎世界，8门则被刻意紧闭（当地人称“九开八闭”门）。这种“开”与“闭”的对立、通道与屏障的互锁、显现与隐藏的辩证，恰恰构成了我们本次艺术探索的绝对核心。在这些城门中，最具象征意义的莫过于“朝天门” (Gate Erected Toward the Sky)——它在数个世纪的沧桑中历经拆毁与不断重建，仿佛这座城市拒绝让它的历史阈限（Thresholds）被世人遗忘。而其他的城门，例如曾经关闭的“人和门 (Renhemen)，同样牢牢吸引着我们的目光，去解构并理解这套“开/闭城门系统”。

《关闭城门》 (Closing The Gates) 是我们的一次尝试：试图穿过那些从未被允许开启的闭门，去俯身倾听它们至今仍在回荡、守候的低吟。

 

Chongqing is the third chapter of this ongoing research, following our study Mulhouse city (France) in 2023 and Tunisian cities conducted in 2024, with the support of French Institute. It draws us in for the remarkable urbanistic and folkloric specificities of its ancient gates. 

About ten years ago, long-buried gates of the city were rediscovered, sparking renewed public interest in the city’s history and awakening a widespread sense of nostalgia (Wei Xiaoli, 2014).

What draws us most deeply, however, is the cosmogonic logic underlying the arrangement of these gates. The city wall of Chongqing, built in the 14th century, was structured around 17 gates — 9 open to the world, and 8 deliberately kept closed. This opposition between the open and the closed, between passage and barrier, between the visible and the hidden, lies at the very heart of our quest. One of the most emblematic of these gates is the « Gate Erected Toward the Sky » (Chaotianmen), demolished over the centuries and later rebuilt, as if the city refused to let its thresholds be forgotten. Other gates, such as the former closed gate Renhemen, will surely catch our intention to understand this open/close gate system.

Closing The Gates is our attempt to enter through those that were never meant to be opened, to listen to what they still hold.

 

支持单位 / Support

 

《空间印象——重庆：关闭城门》 (Space Impressions – Chongqing: Closing The Gates) 获得了法国大东部大区 Région Grand Est（法国东部支持文化与研究项目的区域政府）以及法国文化部下属大区文化事务局 DRAC（Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs）的资金资助。本计划亦是一项荣获法国驻华大使馆 “MFCE/中法环境月” (MFCE / Franco-Chinese Month of the Environment) 官方认证的学术与创作研究项目。同时，PROCESSUS 组合亦受邀作为 器·Haus空间 (Organhaus) 2026 年度的驻留艺术家展开工作。

 

Space Impressions – Chongqing: Closing The Gates is funded by Région Grand Est (a regional government in eastern France supporting cultural and research projects), the DRAC (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, a Sino-French Environmental Month of the Environment (MFCE) labelled research (France Ambassy to China). PROCESSUS is also a guest of Organhaus in 2026.

 

人和门，重庆古城墙的8座封闭城门之一，摄于2026年 / The Renhemen Gate, one of the 8 sealed gates of Chongqing’s medieval city wall, 2026

 

2024年，与一位当地人一起漫步在突尼斯苏斯市的中世纪城门周围 / Strolling with a local around the medieval gates of the city of Sousse, Tunisia, 2024

 

2026年，江北嘴河岸边，一位渔民的剪影，身后是朝天门塔楼 / Silhouette of a fisherman on the Jiangbeizui riverbank, overlooked by the towers of Chaotianmen Gate, 2026.（图片由艺术家惠允 Image courtesy of the artist ）

 

About Organhaus

 

Organhaus  is an artist- and curator-run art organization that focuses on residency programs and independent curatorial projects. The institution opens its doors to practitioners engaged in cross-media, interdisciplinary, and intercultural artistic practices. It welcomes creators committed to challenging institutional paradigms within contemporary art and culture, with a particular emphasis on young explorers. At Organhaus, exhibition curation and event production are treated as temporary laboratories and creative production sites, where inquiry and exploration unfold, serving as mediums for transformation.

Founded in 2006 by Yang Shu and Ni Kun, the space was originally located at the  501 Art Base in Chongqing before relocating to a defunct facility of the Beibei Glass Factory in 2023. It now includes four shared studios spanning 250 square meters, seven bedrooms, and a 100-square-meter exhibition space with an open kitchen.

Artistic and General Director: Yang Shu

Artistic Direction and Curation: Ni Kun

 

Partner Institutions 2026

 

Artangel (London, UK)

Kulturamt Düsseldorf (DE)

Scânteia Foundation (Bucharest, RO)

FotoCreativaBA (Buenos Aires, ARG)

MuSou Gallery (Tokyo, JP）

Open Field Arts Fund (Hangzhou, CN)

Chongqing Work Institute (CN)

Richaus (Chongqing, CN)