Xian / 线

Based on a personal approach, Thomas Sauvin has dispatched several touts specialised in vintage photography, who search for unusual material in Chinese markets under a single watchword: ‘surprise me’. In this way, in 2014 while one of them was in Baoguosi market in Beijing, he telephoned informing him of his discovery – “a strange album”. Once Sauvin held the object in his hands, he quickly understood he was handling an unusual elaborate couturier’s sewing kit, a work that was entirely handmade, a maze of folded paper in which threads, needles and patterns cut out of newspapers intertwined with one another.

When he contemplated this object, he saw more than mere paraphernalia necessary for housewives in 1960s China: he deciphered a similar kind of magic that surrounded cabinets of curiosities in the Renaissance period and Chinese materia medica closets, which comprised multiple drawers hiding well-kept secrets. This is how he has developed the idea of populating this quirky object with faithful facsimiles of vintage prints, which belong to the collection he has been acquiring from all over China for several years.
Entitled “Xian”, similarly to the thread Sauvin has found inside one of these minuscule paper boxes, the object is revisited and composed of fifty-nine boxes that unveil, in turn, ninety prints of variable sizes that one randomly discovers as and when one allows drawers to open. The paper maintains its initial shape. Its fibres memorize every single folding and unfolding; it does not fear hand manipulation. In fact, “Xian” is not designed to become a photographic mausoleum but rather a living thing, an ideal assemblage of a memory in progress. The images – selected from a richly varied archive – emerge from their black boxes, delighted to see the light and to be taken by a hand that plays around with them so as to scrutinize them. Mentally disordered persons, coquettish women, and amazed tourists appear either in black and white or in colour. Butterfly-shaped portraits of anonymous persons coexist with strange celebrities, such as the acrobat Huang Shulin or the apeman Yu Zhenhuan. Flowers adorned with admirable calligraphy spread out nearby archaeological remains.

“Xian” unfolds and discloses Chinese modern and contemporary memory by revealing images that function as reminders against oblivion, images that one simply needs to remove from their pharmaceutical drawer. Fifth publication of Sauvin – collector since 2006 – “Xian” does not designate only the couturier’s thread; it also reifies the thread of a story. One can freely remodel the plot as one opens the little and skilfully folded envelopes inside which, perhaps, other fragments of life will eventually blend together.

深谙眼力的重要性，苏文特别委派了几位老照片领域的行家买手去帮他在中国大大小小的市集上搜罗稀罕玩意儿。他只有一个要求：“来点儿不一样的”。2014年，其中一位买手在北京宝国寺市场给苏文打来电话，说他发现了一本奇特的相册。当苏文把这个东西拿在手里后，他很快意识到自己捧着的是一个裁缝的缝纫工具箱，是个纯手工搭建的折纸迷宫。在这个迷宫里，针线和报纸剪成的图案样式纵横交错在一起。

在苏文眼里，这不只是一个60年代中国主妇的居家日用品，而是具备着一种堪比文艺复兴时期的珍奇屋、中式药橱的魔力：无穷无尽的抽屉里隐藏着纷繁复杂的秘密。这也正是苏文全新作品的灵感来源：将他在中国多年搜藏而来的老照片装进这个古怪迷人的盒子中。

书名《线》乃是取自苏文在其中一格纸匣中发现的线头。书中载有59个小纸匣，依次展开便会看到隐藏其中、尺寸各异的59张图片。折纸带有记忆功能，能够轻松恢复原始状态，摆弄起来无需担心。《线》的设计初衷并非是成为尘封照片的古董柜，确切地说，它更像是流动记忆的理想集成体。从规模庞大的档案库中精挑细选的照片隐藏在包裹它们的黑匣子之中，等待着重见天日，等待着被赏玩者细细端详。谵妄的病患，风尘的女人，惊讶的游客们轮番充当黑白亦或彩色照片的主角。张三李四的蝴蝶形状肖像照与杂技演员黄淑英或是“毛孩” 于震寰等奇人异士的写真平起平坐；鲜花书法与考古遗迹并置。

《线》启封了那些原本为了纪念、却被封藏遗忘的照片，揭开和呈现了中国社会现当代记忆的一隅。2006年正式入行的收藏家苏文的第五本著作 ——《线》所指的不仅是裁缝手中穿引的工具，更是贯穿一个故事的脉络。你完全可以自己来编写剧情。小匣子的开合之间，生活的碎片也跃然眼前，连点成线。

Awards

Entered the collection of Centre Pompidou, 2019
Nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, 2017
Entered the collection of Hirsch Library /The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2017
Winner of the ADC AWARDS, category Book Design, 2017
Entered the collection of Pier 24, 2016
Entered the collection of BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France), 2016
Entered the collection of Musee de l'Élysée, 2016
Entered the collection of Tate Britain, 2016
Entered the collection of Getty Images, 2016
Entered the collection of Fondation Auer Ory, 2016

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