2016.03.19 Talk – Conversations on Au Sow-Yee’s Work-in-Progress: Out-of-body, haunted and co-constructed Ramayana and its transformations
區秀詒創作期中考掘對談:離體、附身、共構的羅摩衍那與其變身們

0319-Au

時間:3月19日下午3點
地點:台北當代藝術中心,台北市保安街49巷11號(捷運大橋頭站)
對談者:區秀詒、王墨林、Joel Suganth
活動以中英雙語進行

For English, please scroll down

「這裡和那裡,群眾迷失了。同時一段長而響亮的呢喃升起。滿月淹沒了天空,而海洋的波浪如閃電一般。」

– 節錄於羅摩衍那

這場對談源自區秀詒和台北當代藝術中心合作的項目。目前藝術家正展開新的錄像作品If the party goes on(暫名)之前置研究調查階段,試圖從一個現實上或許不可能的時間重來或扭轉,猶如班雅明筆下背對未來的歷史新天使的某種轉換,從逆反中想像未竟的未來;藉由再製歷史的方法,打開一般大眾對於所知歷史、時間、電影、影像等認知框架,以一種近乎考掘的方式,將各式檔案重新拆解、翻轉與爆破。研究期間,藝術家涉獵到的一組參照文本為印度史詩羅摩衍那,於是本次對談特別邀請劇場導演王墨林、印度藝術家Joel Suganth,以開放的形式一起進行延展性的考掘,而對談本身將從以下的關鍵字出發,並和觀眾一同開展出作品未來可能的天際線:

電視機裡的皮影戲、寶萊塢、馬來電影、林黛、葛蘭、瑪利亞。斷片。異化、他者化。自我異化/自我他者化。名字與靈魂,附身、寄居、離體。流動的、共構的、游離的、自身顯現的「邊界」?多重。多重交匯、多重檢視、置換、想像的歷史。不斷變形、懸置的羅摩衍那【註】、Hikayat Seri Rama、Lakshmana / Lakshman、Raksasa、Sejarah Melayu(馬來紀年)、梵文、 阿拉伯文、爪夷文、羅馬文字。變形的切片。「隱秘在世界邊緣」的,海上的、叢林的相會。曖昧不明的邊緣。Remains。

註:在「馬來西亞」懸置的、近乎「缺席」、消失的羅摩衍那,跟狼牙修、室利佛逝一樣,變異成巫師念咒一般,曖昧不明的名字。

 

講者介紹:
區秀詒長大於馬來西亞,畢業於文化大學戲劇系,舊金山藝術學院電影研究所。作品曾在泰國、台灣、香港、韓國、美國、德國等地發表。目前創作主要以錄像、觀念、裝置等混合型式,探討和擴延影像與影像製造及政治、權力的關係,近期注重關於如何把歷史從冷戰結構釋放出來,重新想像尤其是馬來西亞與東南亞的歷史問題意識。

王墨林,台灣小劇場運動先行者、資深劇場暨文化評論家。1991年創立跨文化/跨領域非主流藝術團體「身體氣象館」,並以「身體論」貫串其後策展、導演、論述等工作,曾發動的重要劇場行動、藝術祭包括:行動劇場《驅逐蘭嶼的惡靈》(1988)、「身體與歷史:表演藝術祭」(1992),擴展身心障礙者在劇場的表演人權及美學的「第六種官能國際表演藝術祭」(2001)、「顏色狂想藝術祭」(2002)等,並以駐節藝術家、工作坊導師等身分赴布魯塞爾、倫敦、香港等地的藝術節訪問,2005-2008年擔任牯嶺街小劇場藝術總監。編導的戲劇作品,包括由台灣原住民擔綱、於台北-北京兩地推出的希臘悲劇《Tsou伊底帕斯》(1997-1998);在東京、香港、北京、上海、澳門演出的「黑洞」系列(2000-2011);台北國家戲劇院監製的《軍史館殺人事件》、《雙姝怨》與《荒原》;與韓國演員合作的《再見!母親》(2010 / 2011)等;澳門藝術節製作《長夜漫漫路迢迢》(2013 / 2015台灣國際藝術節);牯嶺街小劇場年度公演節目-台韓合製《安蒂岡妮》(2013)等。著有《台灣身體論》等書 。

Joel Suganth 為來自印度清奈的攝影師、視覺藝術教育者。他曾廣遊印度進行印度視覺文化的研究,其攝影作品曾在紐約、倫敦、印度數個城市中展出,目前居住在台北。

 

Time: March 19, 3pm
Venue: Taipei Contemporary Art Center, No. 11, Lane 49, Baoan Street, Taipei (MRT Daqiaotou Station)
Speakers: Au Sow-Yee, Wang Mo-Lin, Joel Suganth
The event will be conducted in Chinese and English

This way and that way strayed the crowd,
While rose a murmur long and loud,
As when the full moon floods the skies.
And Ocean’s waves with thunder rise.
– Ramayana

This conversation is generated from the collaboration between Au Sow-Yee and Taipei Contemporary Art Center. Au has been conducting a research for her new project If the party goes on (working title). While trying to imagine the yet to be coming future through the reversal of time, the project is an attempt to twist “reality,” which is often regarded as irreversible, as some kind of substitution or argument on Walter Benjamin’s metaphor that an angel’s face is turned toward the past, and to “brush history against the grain.” Through the methodology of reinventing history, she attempts to deconstruct, overthrow and invalidate common recognitions of history, time and moving-image, while exploring new perspective on archival materials as well. The Indian epic Ramayana appears as one of her references during the research. Hence, this conversation together with guest speakers, director Wang Mo-Lin and Indian artist Joel Suganth, will once again extend different views on related references. As an open-ended work-in-progress research presentation, this talk invite audience to imagine the possible skyline for this upcoming work, extending from the keywords as listed below:

Wayang kulit, Bollywood, Malaysian Cinema, Lin Dai, Grace Chang, Maria Cordero. Fragment. Alienation, othering. Self-estrangement/Self-othering. Name and soul. Haunted, sojourned, out-of-body experience. Fluid, co-constructed, disassociated, self-manifested “border”? Multiple. Multiple conjunctions, multiple examinations, replacement, imaginary history. Transforming and suspended Ramayana (1), Hikayat Seri Rama, Lakshmana / Lakshman, Raksasa, Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals), Sanskrit, Arabic, Jawi, Rumi. Deformed slice. “Hidden at the world’s end.” Encounters on the sea and in the jungles. Obscure boundary. Remains.

1. Ramayana is suspended, absent and almost disappeared in Malaysia. It becomes an ambiguous name as witch’s spell like Langkasuka and Srivijaya Empire.

 

About Speakers
Au Sow-Yee grew up in Malaysia, and graduated from the Department of Theatre Art, Chinese Culture University and San Francisco Art Institute. Her works has been exhibiting widely among Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, USA and Germany. Her practice focuses mainly in questioning, exploring as well as expanding the relation between images, image making, history, politics and power, through video installation and other mediums. Sow-Yee’s recent and future works focus on re-imagining history of Malaysia, Southeast Asia and it’s related region from perceptions and ideologies bounded by the Cold War.

Wang Mo-Lin is the pioneer of the Little Theatres Movement in Taiwan and a senior theatre and culture critic. He established the interdisciplinary group Body Phase Studio in 1991, and his Body Theory has been manifested in his curatorial, directorial and writing practice. The major theatre movements and festivals he initiated include Expelling the Demon of Orchid Island (1988) as an action theatre, Sixth Sense in Performance Arts Festival (2001) and Color Frenzy Festival (2002) working with the disabled. He had also participated in international festivals in Brussels, London, Hong Kong as artist and workshop mentor. He acted as the artistic director of Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre from 2005 to 2008. Wang has directed numerous of theatre works, including, Tsou Oedipus (1997-8), Black Hole series (2000-11), A Soldier’s Pay, The Children’s Hour, and Wasted Land. He collaborated with Korean actors for Mom, Bye!, directed Wall of Fog (2013 Macau Arts Festival, 2015 Taiwan International Festival of Arts), Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre’s annual play Antigone (2013), etc. He is also the writer of the book Theory of Body.

Joel Suganth is a photographer and a visual arts educator from Chennai, India. Joel has travelled extensively in India researching the visual culture of India and his work as a photographer has been exhibited in New York, London and in several cities in India. Joel currently lives in Taipei.