Live from Liste Art Fair Basel by friendly partner SOYL

來自友好夥伴所有SOYL現場觀察

6/13是Liste Art Fair Basel的貴賓預覽日，早上十點，展會尚未開放，入口處廣場就聚集了一大群來自世界各地，暢飲大會迎賓酒的觀眾。身為參加今年Liste 的唯一台灣代表，就在藝術空間為來自全球的藝術愛好者呈獻，藝術家張徐展的逐格動畫《複眼叢林》。

全球藝術圈熬過2020 2021兩年博覽會冷颼颼的困境，展覽人潮終於獲得紓解 。在Liste現場，幾乎沒有人戴口罩，這也是歐洲全面解放的縮影，日常社交 跨國看展，逐漸熱絡起來。

國際大型博覽會回歸以往的狀態，尤其歐洲人，看展覽本來就是他們的日常。Liste的觀眾形形色色，有一看就知道是”大戶“的藏家，有拄拐杖 打石膏的hardcore觀眾，更有經驗豐富的觀眾，自備摺疊椅，一到展位從容坐定。

就在藝術總監林珮鈺表示，「相較之下，台灣比較沒有這樣的氣氛。另一個有趣發現，是複眼叢林所吸引的群眾，來自紐約的畫廊和重量級藝術顧問詢問度特別高，我想是因為和藝術淵源長遠的歐洲比起來，美國對於數位和新媒體藝術的接受度更高。也有來自亞洲的重要美術館，以及巴塞爾當地以數位藝術為主要收藏的大型機構積極洽詢。」 不少來自Art Basel國際大畫廊的代表，逛過一圈Liste之後，都表示對張徐展的作品印象最深刻。

《複眼叢林》探討亞洲民間故事的相似性，張徐展改編東南亞知名的「⿏⿅過河」寓言，揉和日本「兔⼦與螃蟹」華⼈「⽼⿏與⽔⽜」...等，小動物智取大型動物或猛獸過河相似的故事，並以「臺灣動物藝陣舞蹈表演」重新詮釋。影像的拍攝透過蒼蠅的複眼觀看，多種動物形象穿梭在同⼀線性敘事當中，回應世界民間故事之間的相通，以及形象的流動與多變。

After two difficult years, Liste finally opened to an eager crowd from all over the world on June 13. Project Fulfill Director Peggy Lin shares her observation thus far of the fair-goers’ response to “Compound Eyes of Tropical,” a video work by award-winning Taiwanese artist Zhang Xu Zhang shown at her booth.

“The enthusiastic response is definitely different from in Taiwan. Another interesting thing is that gallerists and important art advisors from New York are particularly drawn to Zhang’s work. This is likely because digital and media art is more widely embraced in the U.S. than in Europe. Major Asian art museums and large local institutions that focus on digital art in Basel have also expressed interests in putting the work in their collections.”

Zhang Xu Zhan’s stop-motion animated videos stem from his family’s background in traditional Taiwanese paper crafts and his interest in the evolution of cultural beliefs. His latest video work “Compound Eyes of Tropical” is based on the familiar folktale of a clever animal crossing a treacherous river by outwitting a larger, stronger animal. Such folktales from many regions often share the same narrative structure, with different local animals as the main characters. His work portrays this cultural flow by interchanging different animals within the same narrative, reflecting the universality yet transformative nature of our cultural containers.