策 展 緣 起

有一年﹐我車上載著以色列藝術家Tamar Raban和湯皇珍﹐從台南趕著到高雄豆皮在我策展的「行為愛上詩」活動上發表作品﹐在高速公路上遇到塞車﹐時間十分緊迫﹐大家自我解嘲我們的作品應該叫做〈在路上〉﹐在觀眾等到不耐煩打電話來問時﹐我們就可以說「是啊﹐我們是『在路上』呀！」

「在路上」﹐在地理上標明一種既已出發尚未抵達的游移不定狀態。人的一生從生到死亦常被指涉是一旅程﹐那麼我們生活於世不也是「在路上」。而現場行為這種強調過程﹐有時亦會與大眾產生互動的藝術﹐作品常常處於發展中的狀態﹐難有定本出現﹐同一個作品在不同時空下實施﹐甚至會有產生兩極面貌的可能性﹐所以行為藝術家面對自己的藝術處於「在路上」的感覺恐怕也很強烈吧！

這幾年我的確是一直「在路上」。關注節能減碳環保議題的吳瑪琍老師﹐曾在一次展覽座談會上說「也許子啟的行為藝術是比較不消耗能源的﹐因為不需要什麼物件」﹐我立刻回以「但我要開車﹐搭火車﹐搭飛機去做作品啊！」行為生涯至今的九年間﹐除了台灣本土﹐我到過日本﹐韓國﹐中國大陸﹐泰國﹐菲律賓﹐緬甸﹐印尼﹐美國﹐以色列﹐匈牙利﹐斯洛伐克﹐波蘭﹐芬蘭發表作品﹐與為數眾多的各國行為藝術家進行廣泛的交流。現場行為非得親身到現場不可﹐不是嗎？所以我和其他行為藝術家一樣﹐常常都是「在路上」。﹐雖然不見得是在同一條路上﹐但總有縱橫交錯的時刻﹐在某個十字路口﹐好比說那個行為藝術節﹐大家就這麼碰上了。然後在每個人的作品裡窺探出他如今是走在美學/人生路上的哪一點﹐仍在原地踏步﹐大躍進﹐退了幾步﹐還是左拐右轉了好幾個彎！幾年過去﹐大家且聚且散﹐在個別的路上尋求藝術大夢﹐同時也在共同的一個大方向上﹐慢慢往前推衍。

於是發現﹐雖說現場行為藝術是前衛且邊緣﹐且極少學者批評家垂青論述﹐但浸淫久了﹐卻也嗅得出其中仍有不同流派走向﹐發展各異其趣。

此次策展主軸﹐在於引進近一兩年﹐愈來愈多藝術家走出戶外進行的durational performance﹐一種介入/隱身日常公共空間裡的長時行為。另外﹐未經事先規範排練同時同地發生的集體行為展演也是此次活動的實驗重點。期待藉由新形式行為的演練與國內外藝術家面對面的交流對談﹐讓國外藝術家一窺當前台灣行為藝術家所思所做﹐並激發國內藝術家更多元廣泛的創作能量﹐與提昇作品的境界。（葉 子 啟）

(原文刊載於  《在路上：阿川國際行為藝術交流展》記錄手冊

                         台南：阿川行為群  2010/10/31)  

Curator’s  Words      Yeh  Tzu-chi

Geographically, “on the way” refers to a moving/unsettled state before one reaches some destination.  One’s life is also often looked as a journey.  It’s also “on the way”, isn’t it?  As an artist who practices an art form that emphasizes the process and interaction with the audience/public, a performance artist is hard to reach a fixed/final edition of his performance because sometimes even the same piece might develop to something different when practiced under different times and spaces.  It is therefore that he might have a very strong sense of “on the way,” too.

In about recent 10 years, many performance artists are always on their ways to perform in different festivals around the world, and to communicate with other international artists and the local audiences.  They are often on the ways, though not necessarily on the same way.  However, they do come across one another sometimes and somewhere.  When they see one another’s performance, they learn that this artist is doing this and that artist, that artist that, and this artist is going to this direction and that artist ,another.  That’s how they come to know that every one of them is pursuing his/her dream of art in this or that way.  And thus did they move, if slowly, toward some vague common direction.

As an avant-garde and marginal art form, live performance is comparatively hard to attract critics’ or scholars’ attention.  Consequently, there are not enough articles, research, or reports on it.  Perhaps that accounts why people fail to have a clear map of it in their head.   However, being a member of international performance art circle, I’ve found somehow there are still some different “schools” in this circle, and the fact that artists can develop in very various multiple ways.

In this event, we want to try more outdoor durational performance, to experience the durational that involves and hides itself in the daily public space.  For the past few years, we have quite a few indoor performances in Taiwan, but we hardly have outdoor durational.  Besides, a group performance that many individual performances happen at the same venue in the same time is also what we want to experiment this year. I hope that the practice of these new forms of performance may bring a new perspective to our local artists and audience, in the mean time, the overseas artists may know more about Taiwan, especially Taiwanese performance and artists. 

(originally published in  the documentary catalog of On The Way: ArTrend International Peformance Art Meeting    Tainan, 2010)