Shadow of a Butterfly—in Memory of Rebecca Horn

Preface

Rebecca Horn passed away on September 6, 2024, and her long creative career has marked a precious memory in the history of contemporary art. Her legacy, imbued with profound insights, reverberates across time, much like her transformative “body sculptures”, which extend into space and will continue to resonate within diverse cultural dimensions.

For the inaugural Beijing Art Biennale in 2022, I had the honor of inviting her to participate in the “Endless Conversations”, where her work served as the prologue to the entire unit: two violins positioned close together that occasionally play on their own. Among the notable pieces in The Cloud Collection is her mechanical sculpture Der Traum des Chinesen, drawn from the allegory of Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly. Perhaps she was unaware that in China, there is a beautifully melodic violin concerto, Liang Zhu, inspired by a love story that often brings to mind this very allegory.

In essence, human existence is inseparable from mortality. The Taoist philosophy of “equanimity in life and death, unity among all beings” offers us a pathway to transcend the limitations of our finite lives. Now, we would rather believe that this legendary artist has become a butterfly, drifting above the European landscape, while the body of work she leaves behind serves as a tangible projection through which we can still encounter her presence. This commemorative exhibition will present a selection of video recordings capturing her performances, along with films she directed. Simultaneously, literature constitutes a fundamental source of her artistic inspiration, and she also engages in writing poetry and other texts. Consequently, we will host a poetry reading dedicated to her poetic works.

Zhu Zhu

November 2024