2017年 04月08日 - 2017年08月06日
at 泰忠美術館 JUT Art Museum 10666 台北市大安區市民大道三段178號
不存在的地方
「島嶼是天堂，也是地獄！」 ~茱迪思．夏朗斯基（Judith Schalansky）
藝術的一從空來，使創作的生產過程有如宗教祭典般的充滿奇幻、神秘和聖性；其創造者—藝術家作為自己宗教和世界的王者，在王國領土內展現巨大能量，既能呼風喚雨，也能點石成金，更是超凡入聖；每一次的創作都是開天闢地的初生一般，是第一次也是最後一次，然每次過程卻必須經歷著生老病死的輪迴，是一種宿命的循環，既像造物者般巨大又如眾生一般脆弱；同樣的，藝術家面對每一次的創作，也都是親臨廣袤的心靈蠻荒，它從無開始，不知去向，是一場史無前例的壯遊，披荊斬棘，搜尋探索，發現天地，進而建造華麗的宮殿、城堡以及繁花盛開的庭園，最後完美於豐盈並暫居此地，而後又成為孤獨的游牧者，再次出走，無一例外。
歷史上傑出的藝術創作和藝術家為人類精神文明留下了無數經典的開創、痕跡和記錄，他們特殊的存在狀態，如德國作家茱迪思．夏朗斯基（Judith Schalansky）在《寂寞島嶼：50座我從未也永遠不會踏上的島嶼》這本文學作品裡的每一座獨特島嶼一樣，都有自己的歷史過往、現實狀態、生命處境和虛構故事，誘發人們的好奇心前去探勘。在虛實交錯的魔幻情節中，作者以自己無限的想像力映射、創造並賦予那些位於天涯海角的島嶼們各別身分，引領讀者進入島上國王、奴隸、移居者、叛逆者、非自願者、背德者、理想主義者等背後的生存理由、存在價值以及引人入勝的生命故事。儘管這些島嶼都僅是地圖上的符號、線條、科學數據和某種因緣下的真實佔據，他們獨有的存在超越人們侷限的經驗，一如天邊的星河與球體，這些在個人現實經驗裡不存在的地方，等著我們想像力的馳騁迸發並前往神遊探索。
藝術家就是人類心靈地圖上的一座座寂寞島嶼，他們遠離眾人賴以維生的豐盈之地，在這些我們難以企及的世界邊緣和盡頭，勇敢地在資源匱乏的海洋中面對孤獨寂寞與狂風巨浪，繼之以藝術創作抵抗之，他們就是宇宙萬物的創造者，心靈的探險者和墾荒者，在島嶼上開闢路徑，推開層層迷障與霧靄，透過祭典、儀式、咒語和技法與外界達成連結，召喚並開啟人們的天眼，走進這些陌生的地域，透過藝術在我們眼前開展豐富的生命經驗和創造力。
我們很難從作品中真實體驗出藝術家如何在創作過程中經歷著空洞、疑惑、失落、迷惘、愉悅、高潮、成功等的多重複雜情緒和精神狀態，並理解其從複雜的精神狀態中一步一步邁開步伐，建造出那些不存在的地方，那些連他們自己都未曾親臨的烏托邦？藝術，這不存在之地，既神秘又清澈，有如一把鑰匙、指南針或者地圖，為我們指引方向。作為觀者的我們，能做的只是從作品外顯而出的表情與內藏發散的氣味，盡其所能的感同身受，試圖趨近並登陸這些汪洋之島、不存在之地，踏上一場心靈風景的探險，從自我身體往內以及向外觀看，了解世界也認識自己。 文／策展人胡朝聖
策展人：胡朝聖
展出藝術家： 尚恩‧格萊德維爾 Shaun Gladwell（澳洲） 林德羅‧厄利什 Leandro Erlich（阿根廷） 格雷戈里‧克魯森 Gregory Crewdson（美國） 袁廣鳴（臺灣） 陶亞倫（臺灣） 崔廣宇（臺灣） 鈴木貴彥 Takahiko Suzuki（日本） 瑞秋‧麥克林 Rachel Maclean（英國） 廖昭豪（臺灣） 鄭先喻（臺灣） 蘇匯宇（臺灣）
A Nonexistent Place
Curatorial Statement
Paradise is an island. So is hell. —Judith Schalansky
Creatio ex nihilo, one of the arts’mesmerizing qualities, makes artistic origination per se nothing short of religious ceremonies that radiate a fantastic, mysterious and sacred aura. As the captain of their own religions and worlds, artists exude endless creative energy in their domains where they can get their will done one way or another and turn ordinary materials into strokes of genius, through which they transcend the worldliness and their careers achieve apotheosis. Each of their creative practices is little more than the Genesis. It is the first time as well as the last. Each creative process embodies the cycle of birth, aging, illness and demise, an inevitable fate written in the stars. It is as powerful as the Creator and meanwhile as susceptible as sentient beings. To embark on a new creation, artists must face the vast spiritual wilderness that emerges from nothing and stretches endlessly into the distance. It implies that artists must, without exception, set out on an epic journey into the unknown where they search, explore new places and blaze new trails through all difficulties, thereby constructing magnificent palaces, splendid castles and blossoming gardens that serve as the perfect and consummate places where they can temporarily dwell before going on another solo voyage in a nomadic style.
In history, artists par excellence, along with their tours de force, have bequeathed the human civilization innumerous precious creations, legacies and documents. The sui generis state of their existence bear more than a passing resemblance to the description by German writer Judith Schalansky of every unique islands in her literary masterpiece Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, that is, each of them has its own historical past, real state, life condition and fictional story that arouse people’s curiosity about it. In the magical plot in which the real and the virtual brilliantly intersect with each other, the author projected her untrammeled imagination to construct individual identities for these remote islands, guiding the readers to grasp the raisons d’être, values and engrossing life-stories of the islands dwellers such as kings, slaves, migrants, rebels, non-volunteers, immoralists and idealists. Although these islands are nothing but contingent combinations of symbols, lines and scientific data, they live a one-of-a-kind existence beyond people’s limited intellectual horizons in a way that the stars and galaxies in the universe do. These places are nonexistent in personal real-life experiences though, they have become alluring holds on human imagination.
Artists are dead ringers for the remote islands on the map of human mind. They isolate themselves from the fertile lands on which the multitudes physically and mentally survive and thrive. On the sea at the world’s edge out of our reach, artists make valiant efforts to weather the storms and loneliness with their artistic practices and a paucity of resources. They are the creators of everything, the explorers of human mind, and the pioneers on these islands. They clear new paths through the curtains of mist and connect themselves with the external world with ceremonies, rites, enchantments and skills. They summon us to these strange territories and help us open our inner eye, unfolding their exuberant life experiences and great creativity by virtue of artworks that offer us magnificent scenery beyond our ordinary sight.
Artworks seldom tell us about how their creators experienced a complex set of emotions such as the senses of hollowness, doubt, loss, confusion, joy, ecstasy, achievement and all that in the creative processes, nor can they help us understand how artists managed to build those nonexistent places, namely the utopias they have never set foot on, step by step from the intricate maze of their mental states. The arts, as nonexistent places, are as mysterious as crystalline. They show us directions like a key, a compass or a map does. As spectators, all what we can do is to empathize ourselves as much as possible with the expressions shown and charms oozed by artworks, thereby approaching and landing on these remote islands in the measureless ocean, the nonexistent places, where we will be ready to embark on a fantasy adventure through which we get to understand both the external world and our innermost feelings by looking inwards and outwards.
Curator: Sean C.S. Hu
Exhibiting Artists
Shaun Gladwell (Australia), Leandro Erlich (Argentina), Gregory Crewdson (U.S.A.), Goang-Ming Yuan, Ya-Lun Tao, Kuang-Yu Tsui, Takahiko Suzuki (Japan), Rachel Maclean (U.K.), Chao-Hao Liao (Taiwan), Hsien-Yu Cheng and Hui-Yu Su (In the order of the number of strokes in Chinese surnames.)
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