Zhao Rong grew up in Mayi City outside Yanmen Pass of the Great Wall. He is an artist who likes to measure the world with his own feet. Zhao Rong has left me with the impression that he is always on the road, walking non-stop, walking in space, and walking in time. He lingers in the historic ruins and ancient cities, in seek of traces of lives that were once lived. Walking is his archaeological action, where he searches for history and also the past and present of himself. His maverick personality has kept me in the full imagination that he is a knight riding a gallant horse to reclaim the territory his ancestors once owned. Faced with the wind, he takes his son in front and his wife at back, galloping all the way. But different from ordinary knights, regaining territory is not his sole purpose. He enjoys the scenery along the road while he rides ahead, and often gets lost because of the beautiful views. This brings me into thoughts: is life not just like a one-way journey? The abundance of life lies in exactly the scenery along the road. However, people are busy and rushed to go further ahead, how many could really make a stop and enjoy the scenery around them on the way?
Walking, observing, writing and painting while on the road, he has accumulated a lot of travel notes, poems, paintings, photos and archaeological research essays, etc. This exhibition is not a sheer exhibition of paintings simply, rather more of a personal documenta, which includes his artistic works and researches, as well as the memories and collections that he treasured in life, a shared memory of his family and friends. Zhao Rong is also a super dad, who has taken his son, ever since as little as one year old, to travel with him around China and the world. Now, his son is a personable young boy and his wife is their wings.
His travels are neither grand nor tortuous, without any war experiences or great hardships, nor any myths or romantic encounters, rather they are real life and true experiences of the sunshine, soil and culture of foreign lands. Traveling is his life, his life is his art, and maybe I could put it this way, art is his spiritual secretion. All of these come naturally: his paintings, writings, and photography are as relaxed and unintentional as his life, mild and clear, yet leaving an unforgettable, pleasant aftertaste.
For him, life is art. Whether it is a painting, a photo or a line in the diary, it is the footprint of life. Whether it is the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the cozy guest house in Jerusalem, or the rainy night in Nara, it is worth treasuring.
Look, I see a tiger from Naples!
Written by CHENG Xi
2022.4.25 艺术家介绍
Artist introduction
赵荣
ZHAO Rong
1983年生于山西,2007年毕业于中央美术学院版画系。研究方向中国南北朝石窟壁画、中国传统古建筑等,现居德国。
Born in 1983 in Shuozhou, Shanxi Province, China and graduated in 2007 from Printmaking Department, Central Academy of Fine Art (Beijing).
Besides being a visual artist, he is a passionate researcher into the history of ancient sculptures of China, the East-Asian art history, etc. He has devoted himself for the last ten years in the field study of ancient Chinese art as well as the study of oversea East-Asian antiquities. He now works and lives in Germany.