Enza: Is there any material you like the most as support for your writing activity? For example, because of the way a material responds to your movements and to the ink.

Pan: I am very focused on the brush, since it has been used for thousand years, I want to explore how I can change the way to use it. It is an extension of my body, of my hand, of my brain and of my heart. In this moment of my life, I am very interested into glass. I am writing/painting on big glass windows around Europe, in Japan and China. My work, in this way, becomes a public performance. I like the idea of painting against the void and painting on the glass is like painting in the air. I use white acrylic, which I call “white ink”. The glass is part of the urban infrastructure, of the social texture and it is like I make some tattoos on the city. 

"The mantra of cloud and water " action writing, Aomori Triennial Japan, 29/01/2017

Enza: What about the process of creation?

Pan: I don’t make any plans; I don’t make a preparation for my artworks. I just go to the site with my brush and see what happens. Sometimes I have been thinking to have another studio in Finland too, but then I realize that I don’t need it. I only need my body and my brush. I enjoy this approach very much. I feel free and I feel like I could draw, write and paint everywhere. I could travel around only with my brush and the world becomes my paper. I can initiate a dialogue with the places, with the cities. Also, by writing on the glass, I create a double layer of communication, through the ink and through the shadow.

"Spring" action writing, Museum of contemporary art, Shanghai, 18/04/2018

Enza: What about the colours? Do they have a role or meaning in your work? I see a prevalence of black and white.

Pan: My idea of colour is related to Buddhism. Every time I think about colour, I think about the colour of life, of society, of reality. Also, the Chinese character for “colour” is very used in Buddhism philosophy and texts, so every time I read that character, I think about Buddhism.

As an artist, I see through and behind the colours we watch at. It is a kind of philosophical speculation. For me black or white are not black or white in reality, in fact it impossible to have a total black or white, so they are still colourful.

The Mantra of Cloud and Water, Aomori Triennial, Japan, 2017

It is very difficult to me to use different specific colours, since I need a very specific reason to do so. I used in the past, but lately I gave up. Also, in Finland there is a prevalence in the use of black and white, due to the minimalism we were talking about, maybe due to the colour of the environmental light. This influenced me too. In Finland people understand black and white, they have a positive and clear perception of them, while in China they don’t’ really like and they often ask me: why did you make it so dark? Every time I go back to Shanghai, I think it is very colourful!  

Black Angels, Six Minds on paper, Galleria Rankka, Helsinki, 2019

Enza: What about nature? The nature in Finland is a strong presence and I can see, in your images, many organic forms. Are those somehow inspired or related to nature?

Pan: I spent most of my life in the city and in particular in Shanghai, where nature is quite a distant concept. So, even if now I am living in this small village in Finland and I am totally surrounded by nature, I still have some problems to deeply connect with it. I am learning, maybe I am healing. But I am not ready yet to have such a deep relationship as Finnish have with nature. Nature is a new object for me. Maybe unconsciously I am just inspired by its shapes.

Enza: What if I ask you to choose one or a few projects to be the most representative of your present work philosophy and activity?   

Pan: The windows writing. I like the idea of a painting which is public, which people can’t buy and put in their home, but that is commissioned by cultural, artistic institutions to be enjoyed by everyone. As I said before, I enjoy this condition of being an artist without a studio but using the city as a studio and only bringing a brush, actually different brushes, with me.

I think the performative dimension of the project is also important, to make people rediscover the power of brush which becomes a tool for social writing.

Basically, I gave up everything, my studio, the paper, the canvas, the colours, except the brushes. Also, most important, I gave up the intentions. I mean that I gave up the intention of being an artist. Artists live in a constant tension generated by their ambitions and intentions, by their need to be defined as artists. I reached a peaceful dimension, where I don’t mind demonstrating anything and I don’t need to be called artist, I just want to show to the world what is possible to do with a brush. The only thing I need for starting a new project is an excuse, an invitation.

“The color of Void”, Art factory, Porvoo Triennale 2021, Finland, 29/05/2021

Enza: I find so powerful and authentic that you are building your work around this condition of giving up the intention and just waiting for an invitation! How this mode meets the market?

Pan: Actually, as I said, I prefer to work on public commission. I also work with galleries, as long as they invite me. I think that doing some exhibitions in galleries is also important to document your work. Also, with galleries I lately prefer to display in unconventional ways, that is basically painting on their windows, which becomes an invitation for people to look at my work while passing by. When they enter the gallery, they can experience the shadows of my work and they even become part of it.

“The black daydreams”, Makers Gallery, Vasa Finland, 2020

“The black daydreams”, Makers Gallery, Vasa Finland, 2020

Enza: Are there any places, countries, landscapes, cities where you wish to create your next social writing work?

Pan: Everywhere, just waiting for another invitation. An invitation for me and my brush!

Enza: Thank you Pan for such an inspiring conversation. I wish your work could spread in our cities to bring art, beauty and social action among people and to open a universal dialogue between different countries and cultures, between tradition and innovation and between technique and thought.