Southeast Asia Topology
南洋拓樸
2014.05.09~06.01
南洋拓樸
2014.05.09~06.01
Southeast Asia Topology is an interleaving of memories between rivers and oceans and is a cause for the beginning of comprehension and re-acknowledgment of our neighboring region, which, like us, is also situated in the midst of the sea and faced with powerful mainland force. The exhibition explores Southeast Asian societies and their art mechanisms, which are fostered under the circumstances of globalization and confronted with multiple risks. The following four artists are invited for two exhibitions and correlated academic events in 2014, and they are: Jompet Kuswidananto(Indonesia), Sutthirat Supaparinya(Thailand), Dinh Q. Lê(Vietnam), and Ho Tzu Nyen(Singapore). From the diverse perspectives based on the historical, political, and social issues pertaining to Southeast Asia, these artists have gathered to collectively weave together a topology to prompt for the formation of communal memories.
The focus of the art project, Southeast Asia Topology, is to investigate how different groups located in various geological locations have come to form connections and interactions, and also with attempts to extend the mutual understandings to the new immigrants living in Taiwan. The objective is not to focus on a singular ethnic culture. The region of Southeast Asia has an extensive colonial history, with perspectives that are wide and diverse in its scale and scope, which expand beyond transnational issues to include transitions of ethnic, religious, gender, class, political, language, cultural, generational, and theoretical discourses. How many of us can precisely describe locations of familiar names, such as the Chao Phraya River, Ho Chi Minh City, and Malacca? Through the four contributing artists of this project, discussions of distinctive social issues and cultural conflicts from different Southeast Asian societies will be conducted. By guiding contemplative perceptions toward the direction of cultural hybridity resembling that of post-colonial concepts, the emphasis is placed on the fusion and innovation of cultures, with cultural egoism made obsolete. Multiple Memory Interleaving Taiwan is faced with overwhelming cultural pressures from China and the West, and has long neglected Southeast Asian cultures and contemporary arts. However with the recent influx of new immigrants, a surge of interest has emerged in Taiwan for Southeast Asia’s high level of hybridity, mobility, and innovativeness, which have resulted in the surpassing of the preconceived national frameworks leading to the boarder-crossing excavations of historical connections, social-cultural changes, political revolutions, and economic reforms. From which, a deconstruction could also be made for the “Asian-style” neo-liberal hegemony that is implicit in the “Special Economic Zones” implemented by China in Southeast Asia. Taiwan’s awareness for the oceans and rivers are quite self-confined; however, Southeast Asia, having undergone similar destructions during World War II, much like other East Asia nations of Taiwan, China, and Korea, and thus with a presumed similar historical fate as these nations, is nonetheless demonstrating far more social, ethnical, and religious diversities compare to other Asian regions, with political systems and focuses on the arts and cultures also quite different from other nations. Today in Taiwan, there is a 1/10 ratio with a newborn child being the result of a transnational marriage. With the relationship between Taiwan and Southeast Asia growing increasingly more intimate, it is necessary for us to learn and understand Southeast Asian cultures and histories and also the developments of contemporary art in the region. The Changing Navigational Path, the Symbol of Crossing-Domains Southeast Asia Topology symbolizes the crossing of geo-political boundaries, with emphasis placed on history, the impacts of territorial disputes for the people, and additionally with the topological positions based on the self, rivers, oceans, and memories expanded to concentrate on the identity shifts with Southeast Asian migrant workers as well as a variety of community-based self-initiated social movements. Traces of colonialism, separation, foreign intervention and other incidents and processes have remained in the region, which have helped to shape its cultural memory. The exploration of the diverse contemporary arts flourishing in this area and the juxtaposition and comparison of Southeast Asia and Taiwan are still quite weak and uncommon in Taiwan. Therefore, these contributing artists have gathered to encourage for a greater focus on multiculturalism, biodiversity, diverse economic and ethnic power relations. The vision is that through Southeast Asia Topology, an inspection on a changing navigational path and a project of crossing-domains, we could further understand this region that we are geographically close to and exchange frequent interactions with, but somehow seem to be quite spiritually distant from. 「南洋拓樸」是跨越河流與海洋的記憶交織,開啓理解的契機,重新認識和我們一樣處於海洋和大陸強權周邊的地區。探究其在多元風險社會全球化處境之下所孕育出的東南亞社會、藝術機制。藉由2014年的兩場展示與周邊學術活動邀請到四位藝術家:強派特.庫斯納托(Jompet Kuswidananto)(印尼)、蘇圖西亞.蘇芭芭恩雅(Sutthirat Supaparinya)(泰國)、黎光頂(Dinh Q. Lê)(越南)、何子彥 (Ho zu Nyen)(新加坡)。分別就東南亞的歴史、政治、社會等多重議題編織出屬於集體記憶的拓樸(Topology)考察。 「南洋拓樸」這藝術計劃關注思索的是:不同的地理相位之間的族群如何在生活上產生連結,相互激盪。透過彼此理解將同樣生活在台灣的新移民?而不是只有展示單一族群的文化。東南亞區域具有相當的殖民歷史,多元性關照以及「跨界」視野,不只是跨越國界、更是族群、宗教、性別、階級、政黨、語言、文化、世代與理論議題上的相位轉變。諸如媚南河、胡自明市、麻六甲等等我們耳熟能詳的地理相位,你我能正確描述出來的又有多少?本計劃分別透過四位藝術家討論東南亞社會各自的社會議題、文化衝突。將思考的眼界導向類似於後殖民概念下的文化雜交(hybrid)概念,強調文化的融合與創新生成,拋棄了文化的本位主義。 多元的記憶交織 台灣處在中國與西方的強勢文化壓力之下,對於東南亞的文化、當代藝術,長期以來就是視而不見的忽略。但台灣近期的新移民關係,對於東南亞再度燃起了對本區域長久以來的高度混合性、流動性與創新性的興趣,而致力於超越今日既有國家框架,以挖掘跨界的歷史連帶、社會文化變遷、政治革新、與經濟制度。甚至從中解構中國到東南亞之「經濟特區」所隱含的「亞洲風」新自由主義霸權。 台灣對於海洋與河流的認知,是封閉自我設限的,而南洋地區在二戰時期和臺灣、中國、韓國等大部份的東亞地區一樣接受到砲火猛烈摧殘。有著即為類似的歷史命運。當今東南亞的社會、人種、宗教除了遠比亞洲其他區域來的豐富、多采多姿之外,各政府體制、對藝術文化的重視程度也和其他國家不同。現今的台灣社會每年的新生兒就有超過1/10的比例,都是跨國婚姻的新台灣之子。隨著臺灣和東南亞越來越密切的關係,我們有其必要認識、理解東南亞的文化歷史和當代藝術的發展。 流變的航道,越域的象徵 「南洋拓樸」象徵一份超越地理與政治框框、重視歷史、邊境等領土爭議對人民的意義之外,關於自身、河流、海洋和記憶的拓樸相位,放大到注視東南亞移工的身份轉變以及各式社群為主的自發型社會運動。殖民、分裂、外國介入等事件及過程,在區內仍然殘留著痕跡,塑造了文化記憶的一部分。探討當代藝術在這個百花齊放的地區內之多樣化風格,把東南亞作為和台灣的對照探討,在台灣尚是弱勢。藝術家們接鼓勵對多元文化、生物多樣性、多元經濟與多族群間權力關係的著重。 冀望,透過「南洋拓樸」這個流變的航道考察,跨越界域的計劃,讓我們更加認識這些地理位置臨近,交往頻繁卻又在精神上十分遙遠的區域。 |
藝術家 Artists
Jompet Kuswidananto 強派特.庫斯納托 Sutthirat Supaparinya 蘇圖西亞.蘇芭芭恩雅 Dinh Q. Lê 黎光頂 |