5 这是一个逃不掉的问题 This is A Question You Can Never Avoid

　　赵力：从经历角度来说，你80年代在内蒙师大学习，经历过85新潮，后来到北京进修，又做独立艺术家，发展到今天。你对当代艺术的理解是什么，它的发展逻辑和你有怎样的关系?

　　Zhao Li: With regard to your life experience, you studied in Inner Mongolian University in the 80s, experienced the ’85 New Wave Art Movement, went to Beijing for further education, and became a freelance artist up till today. So what’s your understanding of contemporary art, and what’s the relationship between its developing logic and you?

　　肖红：这是一个逃不掉的问题，艺术家都有意无意想过这个问题，却很难回答。

　　Xiao Hong: This is a question you can never avoid, and all artists think about it, deliberately or not, but it is difficult to answer.

　　赵力：或者说，我们回过头看，这么多年过去，当代艺术解决了什么样的问题，没解决什么样的问题?

　　Zhao Li: Or in other words, when we look back to the past, what questions has contemporary art answered and what has it not?

　　肖红：艺术家总想对社会批判，所谓批判现实主义，延续这点走了好多年，可现在看也没批判什么。面对厚重的社会，艺术家显得特别薄弱。好多艺术家想算了吧，把自己做好也不容易了。这几年我看到艺术有点转向，批判的东西越来越少，好多艺术家也被社会融进去了，显得更功利。从技术角度上说，中国当代艺术30年间把整个西方美术史快速复习一遍，把西方当代艺术简单、快速中国化一遍至少是一个过程，对和非，现在也不好判定，这是事实。到今天，我们也没有形成一个中国式、独立的当代艺术。我想把西方极乐世界描绘下来，某种意义上也是对现实的逃脱。

　　Xiao Hong: Artists always want to criticize society, which is called critical realism. They have been keeping this tradition for many years but it seems nothing has been really criticized until now. Facing such a mighty and complicated society, artists appear to be particularly weak. Many artists hold the opinion that they should just let it go because it is already difficult to take good care of themselves. I notice that the art circle is turning its direction a little bit in recent years, less and less are criticized and many artists are assimilated into common society and appear to be more profit-oriented. With regard to techniques, Chinese artists have reviewed the whole Western art history within 30 years. To simplify and localize contemporary Western art in China is at least a process, though it is difficult to tell whether it is right or wrong, truly. We still haven’t build up an independent contemporary art of Chinese style yet. My wish to paint Western Paradise is also an escape from the reality in a sense.