展期 Period：
2024.7.27—2024.9.8
艺术家 Artist：
马漓澧 Ma Lili策展人 Curator：
地点 Venue：
狮語画廊 Leo Gallery（上海）
前言 Foreword：
开启觉知之旅，探索未知深处的灵性与智慧之光。
在英国作家詹姆斯·希尔顿（James Hilton）1933年的小说《消失的地平线》（Lost Horizon）中，香格里拉（Shangri-La）是一个虚构的地名，它更像是一个精神上的归宿，位于昆仑山脉的西方，被群山所包围，神秘而和谐。而在现实世界中，在中国云南香格里拉德钦县，有一片隐秘的原始森林——尼丁原始森林——在藏语中, 尼丁的意思是“心坎上的地方”；尼丁森林不只是物理上的森林，更是精神的森林。
在经历了2020年至2023年的疫情之后，人们更加关注内心与当下，更多走进家人与自然——而在艺术界，从超验艺术、超现实主义到科技萨满……从2022年第59届威尼斯艺术双年展“梦想之乳”（The Milk of Dreams）开始，一股席卷全球的“灵性主义”浪潮正在强劲地回归。展览以《穿越尼丁森林》为题，从森林到峡谷，从河流到山川，期望一起去穿越物理世界、抵达精神的世界，深深关注生命的真正意义与人在宇宙中最终的灵性归宿。
一直以来，马漓澧在创作上都非常关注“人与自然超越肉体与时空的复杂精神关联”。她所描绘的人工植物花园，从都市中经由人工打造的、带有塑料质感的《中央花园》出发到2022年最新创作的《Matrix》植物系列，引发人对于真实的自然以及人与自然之间超链接的思考。
本次个展《穿越尼丁森林》中绝大多数作品都创作于2024年。从2023年的《Matrix》系列开始开始，马漓澧开启了她新的创作旅程。艺术家将世界看作一个被感知的基体，着重于发现存在于人类潜意识与自然之间的隐秘交互，并做结构化、具象与抽象交错而生的视觉呈现。艺术家相信当人回归本体，而去除掉所有后天赋予我们的身份认同标记，超越差异、纷争的情感链接才能广泛建立，这是艺术家回应当下向对抗转向的政治历史走向的方式。
2024年马漓澧为个展新创作的《Matrix》系列，让人联想到“神秘学（Esotericism）。形容词”esoteric”最早出现在公元2世纪，直到17世纪才有人开始尝试将“西方神秘学”呈现为一个连贯的领域。而在策展人宁文看来，“西方神秘学”与东方古代智慧（道家、佛家、禅宗思想），有着深刻的内在联系。
人类在每一次经历过重大危机后，视线似乎都会从物质世界暂时移开、更加去关注精神上的探索。无论是二战期间出现的“超验画派“（Transcendental Painting Group，1938-1945），20世纪60年代的“反文化运动”，还是疫情之后全球“灵性主义”、“神秘主义”的回归，似乎都在反复印证着这个其实一直都存在我们内心深处的需求。
20世纪初著名的神秘主义学者和灵性导师，希腊-亚美尼亚裔的乔治·伊凡诺维奇·葛吉夫 (George Gurdjieff，1866-1949)，发展出一种独立而原创的神秘学体系，旨在将我们的心灵从社会控制中解放出来，获得精神自由。葛吉夫认为，超越日常被催眠般“梦游”者的状态，进入到较高意识、全面发挥人类的潜能是有可能的。
马漓澧创作于2024年的新作《Matrix·红月亮》，从视觉上让人联想到超验主义先驱、著名瑞典女艺术家希尔玛·克林特(Hilma af Klint)的《Altapiece, No. 1, Group X》（1915）。在克林特的作品中，七彩的“神圣几何”向上飞升、正在穿越光芒万丈的太阳；而在马漓澧的作品中，幽静的山谷环抱一轮红月，瀑布飞流直下，星星点点的水珠犹如一颗颗珍珠，潜入湖底。
颗颗珍珠，灵性之光，引领我们进入一片精神的森林。如果说2023年之前马漓澧的创作是模糊了虚拟与现实的界限，那么新作中呈现的则是超越现实，关注一种普遍的、内在的灵性维度，打开觉知之眼。
“什么是进步”？“进步”是意味着彻底打破“传统”，还是意味着使古代真理能以新的方式得到领会的一场转变？无论是西方神秘学还是东方灵性，穿越精神的尼丁森林，关注我们的“内在发展”，去探索、去拥抱一种东西方古代智慧相协调的新的灵性的整体世界观。
灵性革命再次到来，这场革命正在改造主流文化，我们将进入一个新的灵性时代。
撰文 / 宁文
Embark on a journey of awareness, exploring the depths of the unknown and illuminating the light of spirituality and wisdom.
In British author James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon, Shangri-La is a fictional place, more of a spiritual haven, situated west of the Kunlun Mountains, surrounded by peaks, mysterious and harmonious. In the real world, in Deqin County, Shangri-La, Yunnan, China, there lies a hidden primary forest - Niding Primeval Forest. In Tibetan, Niding means "the place of the heart." In this sense, the Niding Forest is not just a physical forest but a spiritual one.
Following the pandemic from 2020 to 2023, people have become m ore attuned to their inner selves and the present moment, increasingly connecting with family and nature. In the art world, from transcendental art and surrealism to techno-shamanism, a strong wave of “spirituality” has been making a global comeback since the 59th Venice Art Biennale in 2022, themed The Milk of Dreams. The exhibition, Travelling Through the Niding Forest, spans forests, canyons, rivers, and mountains, aiming to journey through the physical world to reach the spiritual realm, focusing deeply on the true meaning of life and humanity’s ultimate spiritual destination in the universe.
Throughout her artistic career, Ma Lili has focused on the complex spiritual connections between humans and nature that transcend corporeal bodies, time, and space. Her presentations of artificial botanical gardens, from the urban, plastic-textured Central Garden to the latest Matrix series depicting plants in 2022, provoke reflections on genuine nature and the hyperlinked relationship between humans and nature.
Most works in this solo exhibition, Travelling Through the Niding Forest, were created in 2024. Starting with the Matrix series in 2023, Ma Lili began a new creative journey. The artist perceives the world as a substrate of perception, emphasizing the discovery of hidden interactions between the human subconscious and nature, presenting structured visual representations where concreteness and abstraction intertwine. She believes that when individuals return to their essence and shed all imposed labels of identities, emotional connections that transcend differences and conflicts can be established. This is the artist’s response to the current political and historical trends toward confrontation.
Ma Lili's new Matrix series, created for the 2024 solo exhibition, evokes thoughts of “Esotericism”. The adjective “esoteric” first appeared in the 2nd century AD, but it wasn’t until the 17th century that people attempted to present “Western Esotericism” as a field with an inherent structure. Curator Ning Wen sees a profound internal connection between “Western Esotericism” and ancient Eastern wisdom (Taoism, Buddhism, and Zen).
After each major crisis, humanity seems to temporarily shift focus from the material world to spiritual exploration. Whether it was the Transcendental Painting Group (1938-1945) during World War II, the counterculture movement of the 1960s, or the post-pandemic global return to spiritualism and mysticism, these all repeatedly confirm a deeply ingrained need within us.
In the early 20th century, renowned mystic scholar and spiritual teacher George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1866-1949), of Greek-Armenian descent, developed an independent and original esoteric system aimed at liberating our minds from societal control to achieve spiritual freedom. Gurdjieff believed that it is possible to transcend the hypnotic “sleepwalking” state of daily life and enter a higher consciousness, fully realizing human potential.
Ma Lili's new work Matrix·Red Moon (2024) visually recalls the work of transcendentalism pioneer, famous Swedish female artist Hilma af Klint's Altarpiece, No. 1, Group X (1915). In af Klint’s work, the multicolored “sacred geometry” ascends, passing through a radiant sun; in Ma Lili’s work, a serene valley embraces a red moon, with waterfalls cascading down, and water droplets like pearls plunging into the lake.
Pearls of spirituality guide us into a spiritual forest. If Ma Lili’s creations before 2023 blurred the boundaries between virtual and reality, her new works transcend reality, focusing on a universal, intrinsic spiritual dimension, opening the eye of awareness.
“What is progress?” Does “progress” mean breaking away from “tradition” entirely, or does it signify a transformation that allows ancient truths to be understood in new ways? Whether it is Western Esotericism or Eastern spirituality, Travelling through the spiritual Niding Forest focuses on our “inner development,” exploring and embracing a new spiritual worldview that harmonizes ancient wisdom from both the East and the West.
A spiritual revolution is upon us once again. This revolution is transforming mainstream culture, ushering us into a new spiritual era.
Text / Ning Wen
