Dear Artist, 

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I hope you and all your loved ones are well. 

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Things have changed very fast since we drafted the open call for ‘Post from the Lockdown’. I write to you from my own isolation in London, while my family in Italy lives in   the area, which has been hit the worse by Covid-19. 

 

I thank all of you for your beautiful contributions.

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The exhibition that we were planning will have to take another format. We originally conceived the show as an exhibition of small works that could travel in an envelope, but since the post-office was inaccessible, the majority of the artists have sent works by email, most of which are not suitable to be printed.  

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Even more importantly, all public spaces in the United Kingdom have closed as of Friday 20 March 2020 and we are expecting them not to re-open for at least three months. 

 

The beginning of my lockdown seems to coincide with the end of yours. For our exhibition, I’m currently looking for institutional partners to publish the contributions in a book or online, while looking for ways to organize an exhibition with some of the works when the lockdown in Europe is over. I will keep you updated on all developments and ensure I get your permission before publishing material online.

 

A friend from China told me that some people in  the art community there have quoted Theodor Adorno's "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric" in reference to the art response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

 

I need to disagree with that, since receiving your work has brought an invaluable insight into the situation that we were about to face in Europe.  This art project has prepared me both practically and psychologically, more than any communication from the government or article that I’ve read in the newspapers.

 

Two months ago, when I first heard about the epidemic, I wanted to hear directly from artists in the Hubei region what was happening, since I didn’t trust the political and media filters between us. When the virus started appearing in Europe, many people maintained a complete disbelieve on the severity of what was happening.

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Many people in Europe, and firstly our politicians were in disbelief and denial of the danger we were facing. Europe has not had a large-scale epidemic for 100 years and somehow many people didn’t imagine it could be possible. In Italy already 11,500 people died. In the meanwhile, in the UK, where I live, school stayed open, while there were hundreds of new cases everyday (they closed only last week). 

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Through this process I realized that, although in Europe internet is mainly uncensored, our information outlets also have many faults. Here everyone has the right to publish their opinion, even if their opinion is a lie. This paired with internet algorithms that present us mainly with information that we are prone to like, places us into an echo-chamber, where we find proofs that reinforce whichever opinion we originally had. 

 

Here in London, many of my friends, who have full access to data from the World Health Organisation, were still believing there was no difference between Covid-19 and any other strong flue until 10 days ago.

 

After the first shock of the quarantine in Europe, people have started seeing the positive outcomes on the environment that our staying put and consuming less has achieved.

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Politically as well, the state has finally started to give more support to the healthcare system, to house homeless people, to give financial help to those in need. All things that, before the epidemic, were deemed impossible in the current economic context. 

 

We are wondering what our lives will be after the lockdown ends.

 

There is the possibility that going back to our previous habits may not be an option, but even if it was, I think that many people want to take the upcoming months as an opportunity to make a better dream.

 

As I begin my isolation and I congratulate you on the end of yours, I would like to thank you for keeping me two months ahead. I’ll keep looking at what you are doing to know more about my future. 

 

Gaia 

 

 

 

亲爱的艺术家们， 

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我希望您和您的家人都健康平安。

自从我们邀请大家参与“封城来信”以来，情况发生了极速的变化。 

我是独自隔离在伦敦时给您写的这封信。与此同时，我意大利的家人们正生活在这个世界上Covid-19最严重的受灾区域。

感谢你们出色的贡献。

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也由衷的希望大家能体谅，原计划的展览，将不得不采用其他方式。

当初邀请小型作品，本是希望可以通过平信邮寄。但现在，一是大多数的邮局皆停止营业；二是艺术家们很多选择了通过电子邮件发送了作品，并不适合印刷。 更重要的是，眼下英国所有的公共场所已于2020年3月20日星期五关闭，并预计至少未来的三个月内不会重新开放。 我经历封城的开始，似乎对应了你们封城的结束。 

 

关于此次展览，我目前正在寻找合作机构以书本或云端的方式发布，同时寻找在欧洲封城结束后展览的可能。 我将提供所有的最新动态，并在发布成线上展览之前确保得到您的许可。

 

来自中国的朋友告诉我，在艺术圈普遍认同西奥多·阿多诺 Theodor Adorno 所说的 “奥斯维辛之后，写诗是野蛮的”，只有沉默才是针对Covid-19所爆发的艺术回应。

 

我并不同意这一点，因为收到大家的作品后，不仅给我带来了无价的洞察力，也让我在欧洲将要发生的情况有所准备。这个艺术项目在实际和心理上，给我的启示比我在报纸上读到的任何新闻或政府宣布的文章都有效。   

 

两个月前，当我第一次听说这种流行病时，便想直接从湖北地区艺术家那里获取一手消息，因为我不相信媒体的传播和政治的外宣。当Covid-19开始在欧洲出现时，许多人完全不知道这个传染病的严重性。 首先是欧洲的政客们不相信和否认我们面临的危险。毕竟，欧洲已经100年没有大规模的流行病了，许多人没有想过这是可能的。当意大利已经有11500人死亡了，在我所居住的英国，学校却依旧开着，每天都有成百上千的新病例发生（直到上周才关闭）。

 

经历的这些过程让我意识到，尽管在欧洲互联网是未经审查的，开放的信息渠道也同样存在诸多缺陷。当每个人都有权发表自己的意见，即使他们所说的不实，也会有人相信。尤其与互联网运用算法相结合，加强了自我最初保持的任何观点，使我们进入了回声室效应，提供了想要看到听到的任何信息。在伦敦，直到10天之前，我的许多朋友（他们都可以访问世界卫生组织的数据），仍然认为Covid-19与其他的流感没有区别。  

 

在欧洲首次封城后，人们开始看到生态环境方面的积极效果。 在政治上，国家终于开始对医疗保健系统提供更多支持，安置无家可归者，向有需要的人提供财政帮助。 在流行病之前，这些都是为了维护经济所不被认可的举措。

我们想知道封城结束后，我们的生活会怎样？回到以前可能不再是一种选择。即便如此，我认为许多人寄希望接下来的几个月作为实现更好梦想的机会。

 

当我开始自我隔离时，我祝贺你们封城的结束。我要感谢您让我提前两个月了解疫情。我也会继续关注你们的现状，以便更多的了解我的未来。

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Gaia

Sha 译