因空间搬迁，展览延期至2月26日。

感谢大家前来看展！

“陈杭燕：一天没有看到一棵树就是被浪费的一天”展览现场

开幕当日的活动

感谢G静、杨迪、Hü，影片由陈杭燕拍摄

问&答

SCHEIN 这次展览以一段你与海报设计师之间关于文字、排版与语言习惯的真实对话作为开端。你为什么选择把这样一段看似“工作层面”的交流放在展览的起点？在你看来，理解是如何在这些微小的偏移中发生，或无法发生的？This exhibition opens with a real conversation between you and the poster designer about text, layout, and linguistic habits. Why did you choose to place what appears to be a “working-level” exchange at the very beginning of the exhibition? In your view, how does understanding emerge—or fail to emerge—through these subtle displacements?

陈杭燕 因为在不同的个体体验和语言习惯中，理解在实践中慢慢走偏。偏移或许会一直存在，但我们也在尝试理解彼此。Because within different individual experiences and linguistic habits, understanding gradually drifts in the course of practice. The misalignment may always remain, yet we continue attempting to understand one another.

“陈杭燕：一天没有看到一棵树就是被浪费的一天”展览现场

SCHEIN 展览标题在中文、英语、法语之间并不能完全对齐。“一天”“one day”“Un jour”在语义与感受上的差异，对你来说意味着什么？你是否有意保留这种不可翻译、不可等价的状态？The exhibition title does not fully align across Chinese, English, and French—“一天,” “one day,” and “Un jour.” What do the semantic and affective differences between these versions mean to you? Did you intentionally preserve this state of untranslatability and non-equivalence?What does “alignment” mean here?

陈杭燕 这里的对齐是什么意思？What does “alignment” mean here?

SCHEIN 中文偏“生活的一天”，英语偏“一个可能的日子”，法语更像“叙述中的一天”。标题中出现了两次一天，我觉得这个强调或许对你来说有意义？In Chinese it leans toward “a day in everyday life,” in English it suggests “one possible day,” while in French it feels more like “a day within a narrative.” The title repeats “one day” twice — I wonder whether this emphasis holds a particular significance for you.

陈杭燕 我觉得这个问题更多发生在翻译的层面。因为我并不懂法语，这个句子从法语到英语、德语再到中文，究竟流失了多少，我其实也不清楚。或许正是这种流失，使“一天”本身包含着太多细小而容易被忽略的东西。一天之中有太多美好与细小在悄然流逝，而我们往往没有察觉。I feel that this question primarily unfolds on the level of translation. Since I do not speak French, I cannot really know how much has been lost as the sentence moves from French into English, German, and then Chinese. Perhaps it is precisely this sense of loss that allows “one day” itself to carry so many subtle elements that are easily overlooked. Within a single day, countless small and beautiful moments quietly slip away, often without our noticing.

SCHEIN 你在回看自己十年的摄影（相簿or日记）时才意识到，几乎每一年都在拍树。“树”是一个极其日常、普遍，甚至容易被忽略的意象。从你的视角出发，你是如何理解“树”的？它为何始终作为背景存在，而非被推到主题的位置？When revisiting a decade of your own photography (albums or diaries), you realized that you had photographed trees almost every year. “Tree” is an extremely ordinary, ubiquitous, and easily overlooked motif. From your perspective, how do you understand “trees”? Why do they consistently remain in the background rather than being pushed to the foreground as a subject?

陈杭燕 因为我没有“认真”拍过它们，“拍到”亦不等于“看见”。Because I never “seriously” photographed them; to have captured them does not mean to have truly seen them.

左：2024年6月，卡尔斯鲁厄

右：2024年3月，卡尔斯鲁厄

2023年我回柏林，经过哈克市场（Hackescher Markt），发现一棵大树被砍了，触目惊心以及心中各种疑问。我回想起那是炎热夏日遮阴的地方，是我初到柏林那几年一定经过，一定看见过的树。我确信自己在这里拍过无数张照片，却发现没有一张关于这棵树的。我只能在 google 街景中重新找到它的样子。第二天，我看到有人为它竖起了墓碑。In 2023, when I returned to Berlin and passed through Hackescher Markt, I discovered that a large tree had been cut down. The sight was shocking and raised many questions. I recalled how it had once provided shade during hot summers, a tree I must have passed—and seen—during my early years in Berlin. I was certain that I had taken countless photographs there, yet I found not a single image of that tree. I could only rediscover its appearance through Google Street View. The next day, I saw that someone had erected a tombstone for it.

自左至右：拼贴 (2023年2月, 柏林/

2025年7月, 巴黎/ 2024年4月, 杭州)；2015年12月，柏林；2015年12月，柏林；

2025年11月，杭州

那次经历让我不断回想起其他被砍掉或消失的树，卡尔斯鲁厄斯图加特大街被砍掉的苹果树，上海街边连根拔起的梧桐树，杭州西湖边被吹倒的柳树，苏黎世街头那棵早已不存在的树。它们在消失之后，才突然从背景变成了一个清晰的存在。That experience made me think repeatedly of other trees that had been cut down or disappeared: the apple trees felled on Stuttgarter Stra?e in Karlsruhe, the plane trees uprooted along Shanghai’s streets, the willows blown down by the West Lake in Hangzhou, and a tree on a street in Zurich that no longer exists. Only after they vanished did they suddenly shift from background into a distinct presence.

左：2022年8月，卡尔斯鲁厄

右：2019年1月，里斯本

树之所以始终作为背景存在，并不是它不重要，而恰恰是因为它过于日常，过于理所当然。Trees remain in the background not because they are unimportant, but precisely because they are too ordinary—too taken for granted.

2025年8月，塔林

SCHEIN 这次展览同样是从“树”出发，但你明确提到，并不是在研究树或试图挖掘其象征意义。当树不再承担被解释的对象时，它在展览中更像是一种什么样的存在或入口？Although this exhibition also departs from “trees,” you clearly state that you are not studying trees or attempting to excavate their symbolism. When trees no longer function as objects to be interpreted, what kind of presence or entry point do they become within the exhibition？

陈杭燕 树在这里不是符号，也不是答案，而是一种允许观看的状态，夹杂着个人的生活，迁移与回忆。Here, the tree is neither symbol nor answer; it is a state that allows for looking—entangled with personal life, migration, and memory.

SCHEIN 在长期的异地生活与多语言环境中，你不断意识到语言的局限。对你而言，摄影是否成为一种替代语言，或是一种暂时避开语言的方式？在什么时刻，它同样显露出自身的失效？Through prolonged experiences of living abroad and navigating multilingual environments, you have become increasingly aware of the limits of language. For you, has photography become a substitute language, or a way of temporarily stepping aside from language? At what moments does it also reveal its own failure?

陈杭燕 在长期的异地生活与多语言环境中，我越来越意识到，语言的局限并不只存在于词汇或表达能力上，而是在语言背后所承载的文化与集体记忆上。我和我的德国朋友们现在可以非常顺畅地交流，我们的兴趣、审美，甚至童年看过的动画片，在全球化的语境下变得越来越相似。但他们所拥有的童年经验、成长背景和社会记忆，与我的依然是截然不同的。即使我们使用同一种语言，有些东西我也无法真正进入。Over time, I have realized that the limits of language do not lie only in vocabulary or expressive ability, but in the cultural frameworks and collective memories embedded behind it.My German friends and I can now communicate very fluently. Our interests, aesthetics, and even the cartoons we watched as children have become increasingly similar under globalization. Yet their childhood experiences, social contexts, and historical memories remain fundamentally different from mine. Even when we share the same language, there are things I cannot truly enter.

2025年4月，卡尔斯鲁厄

例如，用语言去讲述外管局的经历——很多年前朋友凌晨三点就在柏林外管局门口排队这个故事在叙述层面是清楚的，但它并不属于本地人的亲身记忆。对于留学生来说，这是一种可以被立刻感知和共鸣的经验；而对没有经历过的人，它始终只是一个被转述的事件。

在这样的情境下，摄影对我来说并不完全是一种替代语言，而更像是一种暂时避开“语言”的方式。它允许模糊、不完整和沉默，有时无需过度解释的视觉语言。

For instance, describing experiences at the Foreigners’ Registration Office: years ago, a friend queued at 3 a.m. outside the Berlin immigration office. Narratively, the story is clear, yet it does not belong to local people’s lived memory. For international students, it is an experience that can be immediately sensed and empathized with; for those who have not lived it, it remains a mediated account.

In such situations, photography is not entirely a substitute language for me, but rather a temporary detour around language. It allows for ambiguity, incompleteness, and silence—a visual language that does not always require excessive explanation.

自左至右：2025年6月，海德堡；2025年5月，卡尔斯鲁厄；2025年6月，卡尔斯鲁厄

2025年5月，卡尔斯鲁厄

SCHEIN 本次展览中，你邀请了手语日常使用者与正在学习手语的艺术家参与解读。手语作为一种依赖身体而非声音的语言，如何改变了你对“理解”与“观看”的认识？In this exhibition, you invited a daily user of sign language and an artist currently learning sign language to participate in the interpretation. As a language that relies on the body rather than voice, how has sign language reshaped your understanding of “comprehension” and “seeing”?

陈杭燕 我最初也以为，以为手语只是一种依赖身体，而非声音的语言，但在与手语使用者杨迪和正在学习手语的艺术家Hü 接触的过程中，我逐渐意识到，这种理解本身是片面的。每次不同的手势之间发出清脆的撞击声和摩擦声，原来手语并不是无声的。语言也不再被集中在说上，而是分布在整个身体运动里。理解不是单纯的声音回应，而是一种需要身体参与的过程，观看也不再是纯粹的视觉行为。这里也想再次谢谢她们，这段短暂而美好的学习体验，目前我也有计划了解并学习德语手语。At first, I also assumed that sign language depended solely on the body rather than sound. Yet through engaging with Yang Di, a sign-language user, and Hü, an artist learning sign language, I gradually realized that this assumption was partial. Each gesture produces crisp sounds of contact and friction—sign language is not truly silent. Language is no longer concentrated in speech but distributed across the movement of the entire body. Understanding is not merely an auditory response but a process requiring bodily participation, and seeing is no longer a purely visual act. I would also like to thank them again; this brief and beautiful learning experience has inspired me to continue studying, and I am currently planning to learn German Sign Language as well.

自左至右：G静、杨迪、Hü、陈杭燕 ，拍摄：美琪 

SCHEIN 如果说树在你的作品中是一种沉默的、始终在场的背景，那么手语同样是一种不被主流听觉系统捕捉的语言。你是否将二者视为某种并置的关系？它们在展览中分别承担了怎样的角色？If trees in your work are a silent yet constantly present background, sign language could also be seen as a language not captured by the dominant auditory system. Do you consider the two to exist in a kind of juxtaposition? What roles do they each assume within the exhibition?

陈杭燕 我并不认为树和手语处于一种被对应或者解释的并置关系中，我把它们同时抛出来，在同一个空间里发生。在展览中，看着杨迪用手语“述说”她个人的观看经验，引导大家一起做出大树、小树、森林、草地、河流、大海的手势时，那种体验非常动人。身体的动作像波浪一样在空间中传递，观看不再只是站在一旁，而是被邀请进入其中，成为一部分。这种“wave”的观看经验，并不是通过解释发生的，而是在集体的身体参与中自然展开。I do not see trees and sign language as a paired or explanatory juxtaposition. I place them together so that they can unfold within the same space. Watching Yang Di “narrate” her personal viewing experience through sign language—guiding participants to form gestures of large trees, small trees, forests, grasslands, rivers, and oceans—was deeply moving. Bodily movement spread through the space like waves; viewing was no longer standing aside but becoming part of it. This “wave-like” mode of spectatorship did not emerge through explanation but unfolded through collective bodily participation.

2021年4月，卡尔斯鲁厄（四幅一组）

在这个时刻，树不再只是一个沉默的背景，手语也不再只是某种“非主流”的语言。它们共同创造了一种短暂但真实的共享经验。展览中的这些故事，也许在展览结束之后就会消散，树和手语也会重新回到各自被忽视的位置，但它们留下的，并不是一个被固定的意义，而是一段美好的、温柔的，被身体记住的记忆。In that moment, the tree was no longer merely a silent background, and sign language was no longer simply a “non-mainstream” language. Together, they created a fleeting yet genuine shared experience. These stories may dissipate once the exhibition ends, and trees and sign language may return to their overlooked positions, but what remains is not a fixed meaning—it is a tender memory inscribed in the body.

2025年6月，海德堡

SCHEIN 在你看来，那些“无法被完整说出”的经验，是否反而更容易通过影像、身体或背景性的存在被保存下来？这是否也是你持续拍摄树的原因之一？In your view, are experiences that “cannot be fully articulated” perhaps more easily preserved through images, the body, or background presences? Is this also one of the reasons you continue to photograph trees?

陈杭燕 语言的述说和表达有时候像把利器，尤其在面对最亲近的人时候，不断的解释和回应。而按下快门的时刻，同样是一种表达，但它并不要求立刻被理解。拍摄树并不是为了指向某种明确的意义，而更像是在提醒我去观察生活中那些被忽略的角落。Verbal expression can sometimes feel like a sharp instrument, especially with those closest to us, demanding constant explanation and response. Pressing the shutter is also a form of expression, yet it does not demand immediate understanding. Photographing trees is not about pointing toward a definitive meaning; rather, it reminds me to notice the overlooked corners of everyday life.

左：拼贴 (2024年4月, 杭州/2023年4月, 卡尔斯鲁厄)

右：2023年4月，卡尔斯鲁厄

SCHEIN 展览最后写道：“树不是主题，而是入口。”如果把这句话放回你的整体创作脉络中，这个入口最终通向的是个人记忆、迁移经验，还是一种关于语言与感知的更广泛问题？The exhibition concludes with the statement: “The tree is not the subject, but the entry.” If we place this sentence back into the trajectory of your broader practice, does this entry ultimately lead toward personal memory, migratory experience, or a broader inquiry into language and perception?

陈杭燕 最终通向哪里或许没那么重要，入口并不是通向答案的路口，而是一种进入方式，允许观看者从自身的经验出发。Where it ultimately leads may not be so important. An entry is not a gateway to an answer, but a mode of access—one that allows viewers to begin from their own experiences.

“陈杭燕：一天没有看到一棵树就是被浪费的一天”展览现场

??

杨迪 听障咖啡师，手语日常使用者

Yang Di  Deaf barista; daily user of sign language.

胡沁迪 鸟类与手语学习中～

Hu Qindi  Engaged in bird-related practice; currently learning sign language.

陈杭燕目前生活和工作于德国卡尔斯鲁厄。她毕业于卡尔斯鲁厄艺术与设计大学（HfG）以及苏黎世艺术大学（ZHdK）。她的创作实践涵盖摄影、影像、出版及艺术家书，强调跨学科的工作方法。她是 BookBauFestival 的联合组织者，同时也在 Rollo Press 工作。

Hangyan Chen is currently living and working in Karlsruhe, Germany. She graduated from the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe (HfG) and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Her practice engages with photography, moving image, publishing, and artist’s books, with a strong focus on interdisciplinary approaches. She is a co-organizer of BookBau Festival and also works for Rollo Press.

Web: https://hangyanchen.de/

IG: @chenooozzz