Live Art Performance: 3 Small Rules

 

30.06.2017 – Ongoing

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Yingmei Duan invites everyone to join her Daily Live Art Performance. The performance’s aim is to inspire the audience with precious inputs regarding the artist’s work-life balance by explaining how she constantly improves her life quality thanks to ‘3 Small Rules‘. These rules reveal how Duan deals with its own time management in order to find a regular, disciplined and healthy daily rhythm.

 

Artist’s statement:

“As an artist you have a lot of freedom, but at the same time this freedom is dangerous. You are in control of your time, you can do whatever you like: either drinking all day or sleeping all day. You could either attend exhibition openings everyday or spend a great amount of time networking. You can either sit in front of the computer for a whole day or work in the studio. Briefly, you can either make yourself busy or spend each day relaxing.

 

Before I moved to Germany, I was living in Beijing as a freelance artist. There were not so many exhibitions to participate in at that time. I lived an irregular life due to my lack of self-control. I felt I didn’t have much passion to create art during my last two years in Beijing. After I moved to Germany I made a rule to go to the campus everyday. Therefore I knew almost every corner of my university, and I became one of the most diligent students. I was in a very good state to create art during my studies in Germany. Compared with China, art students in Germany have more freedom and can decide whether to go to the campus or not. Such a free environment was very comfortable, however, it also confused me at the same time. I knew I was lazy, that’s why after graduation I tried to manage my time and structure my daily plan. I set some rules for myself so that even when I did not have invitations I would think of concepts and develop them for future exhibitions.

 

I have been observing freelancers around me for a long time. A lot of them lead an irregular lifestyle, have unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking and staying up late. Over time this lifestyle harms people mentally and physically. When I got older I got used to a structured life. I follow three simple rules which help me to develop good habits for living and working. To constantly improve my self discipline and life quality I decide to keep setting new rules.

 

This Daily Live Art Performance is for everyone. If you are willing to and want to live and work regularly, please do not put off your plan until tomorrow. From now on, try to make a regular plan according to your own situation, just like I did for myself.

 

My 3 rules are following:

Get up at 7 or 8 o’clock every day, take a walk or go running for 45 minutes.

Take a 15-minute rest after working for 1.5 hours.

Go to bed before 11 pm.”

 

 

 

“艺术家这个职业非常自由，但其实也比较危险。因为时间都是由我们自己来支配的。你既可以让自己一整天喝酒、一整天睡觉，也可以让自己每天都参加开幕式，每天都在社交圈子里度过，还可以让自己在电脑前过一天，在工作室里工作一天。总之，我们既可以让自己忙起来，也可以让自己每天都过得很清闲。

 

人都有惰性，这是人的天性。来德国前，我一直都作为自由艺术家生活在北京。那时的展览很少，由于自我约束的能力比较差，再加上生活没有规律，我感觉到在北京生活的最后两年里我的创作激情总体来说不是很高。来到德国留学后，我给自己制定了一个规则，那就是每天必须要出现在学校里。以至于校园的每个角落几乎我都呆过，我也成了当时最勤奋的学生之一，在留学期间我也一直保持很好的艺术创作状态。德国的艺术院校，相对于国内的艺术院校，学生有很大的自由空间，可以自己决定待在学校的时间。这样自由的环境非常舒服，但同时在我的脑海中也出现了很多问号。

 

因为我知道自己很懒惰，所以毕业后，像上学时那样，还是给自己制定了一些小规则，比如在没有展览邀请的情况下，自己也会设计方案来实施。总之，我会让自己忙起来，使自己一直处于创作的状态，不断地去进行新的艺术创作。随着时间的积累，我也找到了属于自己的艺术发展方向。

 

很久以前我就开始观察周围的自由职业者，我发现很多人的生活缺少规则，以至于一些不好的习惯，比如抽烟、喝酒、熬夜及生活压力使得他们的身体和心理慢慢出现各类问题。为了让自己更好，我还需要继续制定小规则，努力提高自己的生活品质。随着年纪的增长，我发现我越来越喜欢有规律的作息和生活习惯了。我希望先从以下简单的生活规则开始，逐渐延伸。给自己的生活和工作养成好的习惯。

 

此次活动面向所有人，如果您也愿意，并希望有规则的生活和工作的话，请别把你的计划拖到明天，而从现在开始，和我一样根据自己的实际情况给自己制定一个有规律的计划, 您可以邀请您身边的一个或更多的朋友和您一起来参与到这件日常行为作品中来并相互鼓励督促。

 

以下是我为自己目前制定的小规则：

工作日期间，每天7点起床，然后去步行或跑步锻炼45分钟
工作一个半小时要休息15分钟
晚上11点前上床睡觉”