Air Plant has something to say ── "Air Plant" curated by Chun-Yi CHANG

1. Description of the exhibition hall:

There are two exhibition areas, one is the "Youzhang Art Museum" in the center of the school, and the other is the North District Art Settlement of Taiwan Arts University. There are also some disconnected relationships. In the family quarters area consisting of bungalows, although some houses have been relocated one after another and some houses have been abandoned for many years, many houses are still inhabited. I think the main exhibition area is the North District Art Settlement, which is close to the folk settlements on the campus of National Taiwan University of Arts.

The hardware part, at least the part of the hardware used as the exhibition hall, is quite complete. The simple garden design plants in the yard have also retained their original appearance. The old dormitory spaces that have been emptied, a few have become dilapidated ruins, and some still retain the original walls, doors, windows, floors, and ceilings. The oil smoke, stains, rust, water Some were cleaned and repainted in white, which seemed to remove all the old marks, but the marks were not wiped off so immediately.

Even if it is cleaned more cleanly, the spatial pattern itself, which is specially designed for the home and later added to the compartment, retains the traces of the original owner's life, and even the appearance of the neighbor's building, spots, moss, plants and plants seen from each window. The scenery such as plants and telephone poles are also unique and profound visual memories of the family in the window.

Of course, many of the artists who were specially selected to participate in the exhibition were outstanding students of Taiwan Arts University in the past. They enter such a space with living memories to plan their creations. They should incorporate specific spaces, objects or memories through a large number of special responses to the current site, and jointly produce works that are at least slightly different from the past. Without such conditions, especially without a very large amount of free use space and ample time for production, many works cannot be reflected in other situations.

How many people lived, communicated and traveled here when the teacher and his relatives still lived in this place? How many normal, weird things are happening here? How many people left next? How many people came in and then left? Now I can go back to my thoughts on the concept of "Air Plant", and what is not directly mentioned in the discussion of "Air Plant", but vaguely suggested by the artistic experiments carried out in this peculiar space platform.

2. Think and ask "Air Plant":

Through the curatorial discussion, Zhang Junyi expressed his agreement with Nicolas Bourriaud, the founder of relational aesthetics: after the long postmodern period, a new modernity has arrived, and this new modernity "is not still To oscillate between linear progress and cyclical historical situations is not to sleep unconsciously in the cradle of normative thought, or to indulge in fetishistic nostalgia without end.” This new modernity Sex "is the 'altermoderne' developed on the basis of global dialogue for the first time in human history. In order to explain the 'altermoderne', Busio uses the metaphor of 'radicant', using this constant The image of plants growing new roots from stems and multiplying in different directions depicts a contemporary art form that is constantly changing. "

On the basis of "Roots on Stems"/"Derivative Modernity", the curator adds the concept of "cultural fertility" proposed by François Jullien and a micro-platform field that simulates global dialogue. The concept of "Air Plant".

Air Plant relies on its leaves to absorb "nutrients", so it can survive even in a barren environment, and its vitality is very tenacious. If there is an art practice field or cultural vein that allows the subject of artistic creation to draw nutrients from it, it should grow very well. This means that there are constantly new forms of life, and the real nutrients or cultural veins are actually It is the "cultural fertility" created by the "distance" between cultures.

From such an exhibition venue and the types of artists that we have absorbed in curating, we can probably understand that she wants to create a culturally fertile field platform, rather than a big harvest of curating as an artistic creation. A good exhibition that collects a large number of good works should not be the purpose. The point is to make good use of the existing platform and jointly create a process that can continuously create "cultural fertility". Therefore, she also managed a lot of discussions, which is also a direct manifestation of cultural fertility.

I knew Zhang Junyi before. She accompanied me to two exhibitions, there were many conversations in between, and I also saw her works. Her creations focus on an evolutionary transition process that has no beginning and no end. Later, I read a translation of Julian's book "On Time: Elements of a Philosophy of Life" that she sent me, which is a book on the concept of time, which contrasts the very different conceptions of time in China and the West. I think it is necessary to list some concepts related to the exhibition, and then it is easy for us to read some works of "Air Plant" more deeply, especially the dialogue between the works.

3. Time explained by "coincidental" - good opportunity:

"It is hopeless to think about life under 'time', or at least that is fruitless, because all life, even the life to come, as soon as it appears, it must pass away, and it is destined to be so. There is no end to thinking about life with "time-time", because there is no need to long for time to pause, and there is no need to take a moment to extend her into a period of time, because the source exists in the "time" of "time", Life resides in the 'come' of 'opportunity', and resources are taken from the 'opportunity' of the time." (p. 145)

"This "come" as the coming of "time" does not mark the beginning and the end, nor is it a place where any desire or regret can arise. Here, the coming is not to be "collected", but only to the good opportunity of the time Open." (p. 144) "Not space, but location, not time but time. Is this what we often say, the deep-rooted preference of the Chinese for specific matters? Because, I see comparisons not from individual to general relationship, but a phenomenon in China when the symptom of the evolution of the situation is regarded as the primary fact, and the symptom of the evolution of the situation is defined by the 'time-place.'" (p. "The occasional cause has always been secondary, while the effectual cause (God) is always the only and direct one, whereas in China, these things that form 'occasion-opportunity' are thought to be sufficient and even absolutely certain. ” (p. 155)

After reading these clips, you will find that in the discussion of theAir Plant, in addition to the concepts of "differentiated modernity" and "roots on the stem" of Buccio, more importantly, through the philosopher Julian, he wants to break through the Western concept of time. When looking for a breakthrough from the traditional Chinese concept of time and space, he especially emphasizes a free time and space concept based on "coincidence". Why can't "cultural fertility" be built on the "coincidence-opportunity" of different cultures? In this way, "Air Plant" is not only a strong vitality, it is also an intelligent individual who can grasp, use and transform "adaptation-opportunity" or many differences anytime, anywhere. I think there needs to be some concrete examples to illustrate the very life-like wisdom of "coincidence-opportunity".

4. Multiple “times-opportunities” in the substantive matrix of idle dormitories:

Area C: 1. He Cairou + Huang Sinong "254 Yen" / 2. Cai Yingcheng "No.212"

1. He Cairou + Huang Sinong "254 Yen": I think it is most convenient to start with this group of creations. This idle teacher's dormitory was once intruded into and lived in, but never came back, but left a lot of living utensils and some imprints of life, including the notice of the mental sanatorium and the 254 scattered in the backpack. Japanese yen and so on. The lives outlined by all the messages are unexpectedly and inexplicably similar to the fictional characters of the artist's work. This room has been repainted with pure white cement paint, which on the one hand strongly covers it, and on the other hand uses installations and videos to restore various possible encounters.

2. Cai Yingcheng's "No. 212", this work is installed at the bottom of a pond in the yard of the same dormitory. The community of this teacher's dormitory of Taiwan Arts University is composed of different eras and life fragments. The structure of the buildings and alleys that expand and mutate with the needs of time, the history of this old community that the residents have left seems best to unfold in the pool in the courtyard of the idle space, and as the water grows moss or the water changes. cloudy and gradually submerged.

Area D: 1. Lu Shijie's "Performer" / 2. Guo Yuenv's "Layered Space"

1. Lu Shijie's "Performer": a square space with walls painted with blue curtains. After the performers dance in it, the dancer's image can be superimposed with any other background, and transferred to any space through synthesis, from another. An angle, the blue-screened space, exists from a physical point of view, but it does not exist at all in the video world.

2. Guo Yuenv's "Layered Space": Located on the second floor of a rather dilapidated dormitory, the artist used resin to repeatedly smear the wall of the old house with peeling off, and let part of it separate from the wall to create a layered space .

The two works are quite close to the previous two, and of course they are quite different, but there seems to be a very magical connection between these gaps, or it can stimulate and create connections and produce new images, such as: the middle layer of space The mutual covering of layers of historical traces, and the magical disappearance of specific people into the space of images or archives, etc.

Area B: 1. Peng Yesheng's "Track and Collision" / 2. Su Weijia, Zhang Junyi, Peng Yesheng's "Free Step - Listening to Body Transformation" / 3. Xu Ruiqian "From"

1. "Track and Collision" by Peng Yesheng: In a home space that was painted white and some of the walls were opened, several groups of sound art works were arranged. Peng Yesheng, who often collaborates with dancers, sometimes performs live performances with recordings and electronic instruments, sometimes makes soundtracks for dances, and sometimes records the sound of body movements (sounds with positional changes) in space, and he revisits these recordings , and use four channels to reproduce the spatiality of the constant movement of absent theatrical characters. Also when we sat on an old chair in the middle of the roof with a small skylight and put on our headphones, it seemed like there was a crowd of prayers all around. I asked the artist, he smiled and said nothing.

2. "Freedom Step - Listening to Changes" by Su Weijia, Zhang Junyi, and Peng Yesheng: Peng Yesheng uses a homogeneous, neutral voice to choreograph and direct Su Jiawei on the four walls of the small secret room, and Zhang Junyi makes a video for the pas de deux "Freedom." In the video dialogue of the "Step" series, on another wall outside the partition, the focus is on the waist and buttocks of the pair of dancers. The picture shows the subtle flow and interweaving of indiscernible but calligraphic lines. At this time, the relationship between the body and the touch Incorporated into abstract line silhouettes, or calligraphic lines can also be interpreted with the intimate experience of intertwining and touching the body?

3. Xu Ruiqian's "From": threading needles in this space, and even pulling them outdoors. Here, hidden lines, invisible lines, or powerful lines are thematically revealed in the empty ruined dormitory space.

Zone E: 1. Xu Ruiqian's "From" / 2. He Cairou's "The Everyman's"

1. Xu Ruiqian's "From", a room with a large number of square meters, the interior was cleaned quite cleanly, and it was carefully painted with thick white paint. It seemed to cover many traces, but the location, size, equipment, etc. It is possible to guess what was previously used for, and what can happen in these places. The artist placed some steel frames similar to building materials, small pieces of walls or roofs (gypsum cement blocks framed by steel frames) in the interior of this space, which should be his original creative elements, and finally used several It is a kind of irregular sphere with the function of a spool, which is formed by facing each other and staggered together, driving long elastic lines to connect and weave in space. Stop and go here and there, or start somewhere else, in short, we are constantly being taken to different spaces, especially backstages that we don’t usually go to, private, dark spaces, like kitchens that have no utensils, dark storage rooms , and dark and cramped toilets, etc. The curator also took me up the roof from the small secret road, and the scenery suddenly became clear, and the whole old community was at my feet.

2. He Cairou's "The Everyman's": This is a small but highly visible red work. A ribbon is tied around the ponytail on the girl's head, extending from inside the painting to outside the painting with tight tension, and then to the ground The last piece of large-angle steel, then passed through a very sharp break... and entered a transparent glass, like a short poem with great tension.

Here geometric, industrial, architectural, and especially line elements are used a lot. In the living room space, it is combined with the original architectural elements to form a new self-contained whole, but the lines continue like tree roots or aerial roots. Stretching and meandering to other spaces we don't normally go to, the many long-disappeared spirits of ancient spaces, summoned by it to come out to meet us, the focus has shifted.

Area F: Li Kuizhi, "Recycling Landscape"

In contrast to the lines with abstract structure and guiding function mentioned above, Li Kuizhi, who is good at making landscape art with natural materials, chose a two-storey room that was severely damaged and had been invaded by the strong trunk, roots and aerial roots of the banyan tree. Building Ruin Space. The artist uses the collected branches and roots to weave into a state of liquid and ferocious flow, which runs through and shuttles around the interior of the building through ingenious connections. He said that it was the ferocious water flow that ran through the house during the great flood. In addition to the image of the water flow, it also combined with the wires and cables that are omnipresent in the environment and convey energy messages.

Area G: Sewing Studio ─ Sewing House

Four artists of very different nature developed works highly evocative of old memories in different rooms of a house, such as the room with the shadow of fallen leaves, the damp bathroom with small potted plants in the corner with red lights, and the unwillingness to The ghost of the grudge who left, the strange image in the small storage room by the door. They strive to find invisible lines that can travel through the gaps in the works with great differences, and during the exhibition period, because of the presence of people, they continue to focus their energy on them. Here lines are invisible, and the focus is on the relationship between the connected spatial situations.

Area H: Liu Yanhong - Glazed Grass, Earth, Fire, Wind and Sky

The artist is obviously a practitioner. He has a keen sense of mood, body, environment and various things. He can sense the dynamic relationship between the five mysterious elements of earth, water, fire, wind and air, and transform them into artistic creations. Liu Yanhong is the artist who has been stationed here for the longest time among all artists. This work is to understand the earth, water, fire and wind in individual spaces through images, paintings, sculptures, installations and behaviors in a home space with a complex structure and a special sense of time. and void.

Conclusion:

"Air Plant" is a very special exhibition operation. Of course, it has very good space conditions. Different artists are selected, especially those who are good at absorbing various nutrients and transforming them into their own new energy like air plant. The curator is probably the most important. She sees various conditions and gives an easy-to-understand schema with the discussion of Air Plant. Artists also respond to Air Plant  in various ways. I feel that the ability to make good use of opportunities and even turn a disadvantage into an advantage needs to be complemented by the ability of the Air Plant, which can use the delicate term of "coincidental". In fact, "air grass" also has the ability to "Air Plant" in a relatively less anxious state. The "coincidental" method of "cultural fertility". In Zhang Junyi's curatorial work, we can see a high degree of concentration, delicacy, and very important wisdom, but also a certain attitude of inaction and freedom. After giving enough conditions, let everything change.