東京「寫真」巡禮：攝影美學帶來的視覺衝擊

東京都寫真美術館外牆

（圖片來源: http://museum.tachikawaonline.jp/23_syabi/）


攝影之眼的貪婪，改變了那個洞穴—我們的世界—裡的幽禁條件。 –Susan Sontag

攝影藝術自發展以來便不斷衝擊我們所處的世界，而它本身更如同一面鏡子，同時反映的是現實又是虛擬，也反射著攝影者自己與觀者。那麼，究竟是什麼的存在使我們對影像如此著迷？是攝影影像所帶給我們的觀看語法？還是它所擷取的世界片段？

「東京都寫真美術館」為日本國內唯一具有完善典藏與策展系統的專業「攝影美術館」，館內定期舉辦特展與典藏展，舉凡各種類型的攝影藝術皆會在這個獨立於其他綜合性美術館的展示間中展出。今年五月到七月，由寫真美術館館方所策劃的《平成25年度東京都寫真美術館典藏展–攝影美學中的五元素》（Collection Exhibition2013-The Aesthetics of Photography-Five Elements），策展人整理出館內的典藏作品，並提出一個核心的疑問："Where lies the beauty in a photo?”，從這個問題出發，策展人將跨足早期1870年到近年的作品分門別類，以攝影美學中的五種元素作為展覽的子題，包括「光luminous」、「反映reflection」、「表層surface」、「喪失感sense of loss」以及「參照reference」。從這五個子題中，觀者便依循著這樣的導引路徑，試圖在子題中尋找出攝影之眼的美學是如何帶給視覺上的微妙衝擊。

 東京都寫真美術館外牆

 《平成25年度東京都寫真美術館典藏展–攝影美學中的五元素》展覽現場

(圖片來源: http://www.museum.or.jp/modules/topics/?action=view&id=295)

佐藤時啓，《Breath-graph ＃155YUBARI》，gelatin silver print，2180*2730cm，1992

Where lies the beauty in a photo?

 展覽動線從子題「光luminous」開始，一幅一幅攝影影像為觀者帶來光與影觸及的影像美學。從攝影本身來看，攝影在拉丁文中如同「被光擠壓表現作用的圖像」，亦即經由光的作用顯像。攝影的發展可追溯至西元前四世紀，當時希臘人發現有光線穿過牆或窗的小孔時，會在對面的牆上映出外面的影像，這種光與倒影的反應原理也就是著名的「暗箱原理」(Camera Obscure)。雖然暗箱原理在文藝復興時代就與繪畫相結合，以繪製出逼真的畫面，卻無法留住暗箱中的影像，直到十九世紀攝影技術的發明，才發展出使影像固定的攝影術。策展人在此展覽中刻意將光的子題放置於展覽的開頭，藉由攝影術最初的技術面，討論到光與影對於攝影的重要性，亦試圖從本體論的角度出發，首先邀請觀者思考：「攝影是什麼？」，藉由攝影最基本的元素「光」，作為展覽的開端。在這個子題中，作品多為小幅的尺寸，只有佐藤時啓的作品《Breath-graph＃155 YUBARI》以略為大尺寸的方式輸出，以呈現影像在觀者眼前的視覺衝擊。佐藤時啓的攝影作品長期運用光筆與光鏡，使光線在畫面中宛如微生物般的跳躍與呼吸。《Breath-graph＃155 YUBARI》畫面中的廢棄房屋，在無數個光點的圍繞下似乎有了生命力，在這件作品的引導下，觀者可以感受到攝影如魔術般的魔力，在這些光與影的包圍中感受到兩者之間的互動關係。

山脇 巌，《Reflection in Mirrored Ball》，gelatin silver print，171*229cm，1932

「反映reflection」為策展人提出的攝影美學裡的第二個元素，此子題中的作品涉及到影像的鏡像作用與相片中的三種客體。從山脇 巌在1932年的作品《Reflection in Mirrored Ball》中，我們看到畫面對焦於一球體，此球體作為「被攝者」反映出的是對面拍攝它的「拍攝者」，然而這個「拍攝者」其實只是一台相機，沒有創作者在球體反映出的影像當中，而我們「觀者」則是在這個影像的面前，看著球體的鏡像反射。策展人從這個子題延伸至「表層surface」，藉由作品討論如同像中像的影像反射，以及影像的材質是如何影響到我們對於攝影影像的觀看。「表層surface」從知名的曼．雷（Man Ray）到森山大道的幾件作品，觀者可以看到影像輸出後的材質與影象畫面本身的緊密關係。其中，此次展覽展出許多十九世紀末的早期肖像攝影，例如玉村康三郎．騎兵衛所拍攝的老照片，構圖如同早期肖像寫真館的拍攝方式，排除了紀實性，更加著重於人物與背景間的純粹美感。然而，此一系列老照片在展場中以家庭相簿的方式呈現，破除老照片的神秘性，雖然隔著展示櫃，卻仍不減其翻閱的親切感。

《平成25年度東京都寫真美術館典藏展–攝影美學中的五元素》展覽現場

(圖片來源: http://www.museum.or.jp/modules/topics/?action=view&id=295)

雜賀雄二，《軍艦島–被遺棄的島上景觀》，gelatin silver print，422*348cm，1985。

（圖片來源：http://geckotw.blogspot.tw/2012/01/gunkanjima.html

       http://www.artgene.net/detail.php?EID=13735）

第四個子題「喪失感sense of loss」從攝影影像中的廢墟、遺址中以紀實的攝影方式，呈現類似檔案式的攝影美學。其中，雜賀雄二於1985年拍攝的《軍艦島–被遺棄的島上景觀》系列，針對二十世紀初曾經因豐富煤礦而有大批人口湧入的軍艦島（亦稱為端島）。然而隨著高度的採礦，這座位於日本長崎外海的小島逐漸喪失其優勢，居民也在1974年跟隨煤礦業的關閉而離開。類似雜賀雄二的廢墟計畫，台灣藝術家姚瑞中曾於2007年走訪台灣各個離島，以身體行動的介入所進行的攝影計畫，拍攝出一組一組被遺忘的離島廢墟。兩個計畫的影像皆以黑白色調呈現的廢墟景象，帶領觀者進入那些經歷繁榮一時到荒蕪一人的記憶景觀。然而，雜賀雄二不僅拍攝整體的廢墟場景，亦著重於廢棄物件的拍攝，藉由這些物件，我們看到的不僅僅是荒蕪的景觀，更是那些記憶的痕跡，影像所呈現的是一層一層的記憶堆疊，也因此引發了觀者對畫面的意象思考。

森村泰昌，《創造劇場：畢卡索的自拍照》，gelatin silver print，1200*900cm，2010

(圖片來源: http://www.museum.or.jp/modules/topics/?action=view&id=295)

展覽最終提出攝影美學的另一元素：「參照reference」，此一子題中的作品多以「編導式攝影」的方式進行創作，也就是藝術家等同於導演，在拍攝前便決定好場景、道具、構圖等組成畫的各個部分，拍攝過程中等同於在一個攝影棚中完成屬於一場影像表演。其中，森村泰昌的《創造劇場：畢卡索的自拍照》是其2010年最新系列的其中一件作品，如同森村泰昌過去著名的「挪用」手法，他以「扮裝」的方式將自己塑造成過去或名畫中的知名人物，運用挪古喻今的方式將自己置入影像當中。從《創造劇場：畢卡索的自拍照》中觀者可以從細節處發現藝術家刻意添加的暗示，如同蒙太奇般促使你察覺影像中的各種不尋常。「參照reference」在此展覽中是重要的總結，策展人試圖告訴觀者攝影影像的美學不只是那決定性瞬間，當代影像可能透過編導式攝影的方式，宛如電影中的場面調度，影像中的各個細節，包括光影、空間、佈景、服裝、化妝等配置，而畫面中的人物等同於演員，在影像中是不可或缺的重要構成。

綜觀當代視覺文化，攝影影像的影響力早已滲透至我們的日常生活之中，我們無法否認攝影影像所帶來的各種衝擊。談及影像的「觀看」，除了一般藉由相機的協助與記錄的「觀看」之外，還有一種「攝影式觀看」，這種觀看過程中會因影像中的各種修辭，而觸發了觀者的身體感知。《平成25年度東京都寫真美術館典藏展–攝影美學中的五元素》一展，提出攝影美學中的五個元素，試圖從「外延意」的層面歸納出屬於這些影像的內在脈絡。而影像的「內延意」則根據影像的文化與脈絡而定，同時觀者的介入更是建構其意義的關鍵。因此，藉由此次展覽，觀者從中隱隱的拉出屬於攝影美學的各種面向，亦可從中察覺日本的攝影藝術如何發展；如何受到西方攝影藝術的影響，同時亦能夠意識到自我與影像之間的關係是如何藉由觀看而產生連結。

參考資料

Roland Barthes著，許綺玲譯：《明室．攝影札記》（台北：台灣攝影工作室，1997年）。

鄭意萱：《攝影藝術簡史》（台北：藝術家，2007年）。

東京都寫真美術館官方網站：http://syabi.com/e/contents/exhibition/index-1869.html

An Overview of Tokyo”Photography”: Visual Impact from Photography aesthetics

This very insatiability of the photographing eye changes the terms of confinement in the cave,our world.

–Susan Sontag

Photographic art has been impacting the world in which we live since it was developed. As a mirror itself, photographic art simultaneously reflects the reality which not only is virtuality but also reflexes the photographer and viewer. If so, what is there that makes us so fascinated to image? Is it watching grammar to us brought by photographic image? Or is it a slice of world retrieved by photographic image? 

 

 “Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography” is the only professional Photography Museum with complete collection and exhibition event system, in which special and collection exhibition were regularly held, all kinds of photographic arts exhibited in this exhibition space independent of other comprehensive art galleries. The Office of Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography planned the event of “Collection Exhibition2013-The Aesthetics of Photography-Five Elements “ from this May to July. The curator arranged the collection works in the gallery and proposed a core question: "Where lies the beauty in a photo?”. Starting from this question, the curator would across the categories of works from early 1870 to the recent years based on five elements in aesthetic of photography as sub-topic of the exhibition, including “luminous”, ” reflection”, “surface”, ” sense of loss” and “reference”. The viewer in these five sub-topics can follow such a guiding path intending to find out how aesthetics of photographing eye brings subtle impact to the vision.

Where lies the beauty in a photo?

Traffic flow of the exhibition beginning from the “luminous” sub-topic brought image aesthetics that light and shadow in contact with from photographic images piece by piece. Photography in Latin means “the image squeezed by luminance to perform function”, i.e. the imaging through luminous function. The development of photography can be traced back to the 4^th century A.D. that the Greeks discovered the light could reflect outside image on the opposite wall when passing through the wall or small hole of the window. The principle of reaction between light and reflection is called “Camera Obscure”. Although camera obscure was combined with the painting in the Renaissance Era for the painting of vivid picture, it couldn’t remain the image inside of camera obscure. Photography for fixed image was not developed until photographic technique was invented in the 19^th century. 

The curator deliberately placed the luminous sub-topic on the top of exhibition, trying to discuss the importance of light and shadow on the photography through initial technical basis, and invite the viewers to think “what the photography is?” “Luminance”, the most basic element in the photography was used to initiate the exhibition. Most works in this sub-topic are small size except the work “Breath-graph＃155 of YUBARI” was exported with little large size to show visual impact of the image in front of viewers’ eyes. Yubari’s photography works is used with light pen and light microscope to make light as if a living creature jumps and breathes in the picture. Abandoned houses on the picture of ”Breath-graph＃155 YUBARI” seemed to be the vitality around numbers of light spots. The viewers guided by this work could feel the photography as fascination as magic and interaction between both surrounded by light and shadow. 

 “Reflection” is the second element proposed by the curator for photography aesthetics, the work of this sub-topic involved three objects including mirror effect of the image and photo. We could see that the picture focused on a sphere from “Reflection in Mirrored Ball”, the work of YAMAWAKI Iwao in 1932, which the sphere was used as a “ subject” to reflect its “photographer” opposite. However, this “photographer” was nothing but a camera without any creator in the image reflected by the sphere. The “viewers” like us were seeing specular reflection of the sphere in front of this image.

The curator extended “surface” from this sub-topic to discuss refection same as an image in another image and how the image material affected us to watch photographic image. The views could see a close relationship between material after image exported and image itself regarding “surface” from few works of well-known Man Ray and Daido Moriyama. Many early portrait photography in the 19^th century were displayed in this exhibition, e.g. old photos took by TAMAMURA Kozaburo,Kihee showing compositions same as those shooting models used by early portrait photo shops; these photos excluded documentary but focused on pure aesthetic perception between figures and their backgrounds. However, the series of old photos showed in the exhibition as the family photo albums broke down mystery of old photos, but intimacy was noting changed even separated with display cabinet.    

The 4^th sub-topic “sense of loss” showed file-based photography aesthetics with documentary photography from ruins and relics of photographic image, in which the series of “Gunkan-jima-The Ladscape of abandoned island” took by SAIGA Yuji in 1985 for the Gunkan-jima where a large number of population flooded into for rich coal mine in the early twentieth century. However, this island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan had gradually lost its advantage with highly mining, and the residents left following the closure of the coal industry in 1974.  Yao Jui-Chung, Taiwan artist used the similar ruin project to that of SAIGA Yuji, visiting offshore islands of Taiwan in 2007 to shoot forgotten ruins of isolated islands set by set by involving the body action in on-going photography plan.       

Picture of the ruin were presented with black and white images for both plans, leading the viewers to access from once-booming to deserted memory landscape. Nevertheless, SAIGA Yuji shot not only overall ruin scene but also waste object. What we saw was not only desolate landscape but also memory traces. The images showed layer upon layer memory stacked to initiate image thinking of the viewer on the picture.  

The final element of photography aesthetics proposed in the exhibition is “reference”. The works in this sub-topic were mostly created by the way of “Staged Photography”, meaning the artist acts same as the director to decide all ingredients of a picture, including scenes, props and compositions, etc. Shooting process is equivalent to an image show in a photostudio. Yasumasa Morimura ‘s “A Requiem:Theater of Creativeity/Self-portrait as Pablo Picasso” is one of his new series in 2010, the skill of which was same as his famous “appropriation” in the past. He “made up” himself to be a well-known figure in the past or the painting, applying the way of using the past to allude the present and put himself into the image.  

The viewer could find it from the details of “A Requiem:Theater of Creativeity/Self-portrait as Pablo Picasso” that the hints were deliberately added by the artist, bringing you to perceiving various remarkableness same as Montage. “Reference” was an important conclusion in this exhibition. The curator intended to tell the audiences that aesthetics of photographic image is not just in the decisive moment but the contemporary image may be showed through the way of fabricated photography as if scene control in a film for every detail of the images, including allocation of shadow, space, setting, costume and make-up, etc. While figures in a picture are same as actors, they’re indispensible and significant compositions in a picture. 

Collection and Exhibition of Photography: Demand for the Establishment of The Museum of Taiwan Photography

“Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography” has not only complete system for the collection, but also regularly invites foreign famous photographic works of art to organize special exhibitions. The exhibition “Collection Exhibition2013-The Aesthetics of Photography-Five Elements “this time showed more fully the completeness of photography collection mechanism in Japan. In contrast Taiwan, many people in cultural circles appealed Ministry of Culture to establish The Museum of Taiwan Photography from last year and no further news till now.

The position and influence of photographic culture in Taiwan’s historical evolution has sufficiently constituted a complete cultural content. From early Taiwan landscape photography took by British photographers or missionary Mackay to anthropology photography in Japanese colonial period and then to the development in Republican’s years for portraits took by photo shops. In 60s, the works of contemporary photography, for example, those for Chang Chao-Tang'et al, in 80s, those photography for documentary reports and various contemporary photography created by contemporary artists…what these works need exhibition space one after another independent of ordinary art works and professional collection mechanism. When we rethink profoundly about the successful case of Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Ministry of Culture should understand the importance of photographic culture on Taiwan culture, and the necessity as well as urgency for the promotion of The Museum of Taiwan Photography.

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製造「互動」：談ART STUDIO「藝術佔領書店」計畫

《The Black Reading Room 黑色書房》／劉文瑄　展覽現場

（圖片來源: http://yateousz.blogspot.tw/）

信義誠品三樓的ART STUDIO自2011年開始開放藝術家申請展覽，第一屆以「讀．藝術」為主題，邀請各類型的藝術創作者嘗試進行各種展演。今年則推出「藝術佔領書店」徵件計畫，邀請藝術創作者重新思考「書」與其創作之間的連結，更希望藉由「互動」的方式，使創作者與觀眾皆可以反思在這個數位媒體的時代洪流中，「書」之於我們每個「個體」的關係為何？

藝術「佔領」與「介入」書店

自當代藝術發展以來，作品的完成不再只是藝術家於工作室創作完作品的那一刻，更包括作品在展覽場地的最後呈現，而觀眾在其中的重要性也日益增加。俄國的文學理論家巴赫汀（Milhail Bakhtin）認為，藝術作品能夠被視為一種跟外在世界的「溝通」，亦為一個呈現差異的詮釋場域。從「藝術佔領書店」計畫的宗旨來看，一個介入書店的展覽空間，它的性質不應該僅作為一個獨立的展演空間，更是一個貼近觀眾的平台，如同它的名字一般：藝術的「工作室」，在這一個非完整白盒子的展覽空間中，觀眾可以放下在美術館中的莊嚴，帶著自在的心情直接面對藝術創作。

        此計畫的第一檔展覽是劉文瑄的《The Black Reading Room 黑色書房》，展覽試圖回歸書籍本身的「物質性」，抽取書籍上中的各種元素，經過遮蔽與包覆，組合成一種另類雕塑。與觀眾互動的部分，藝術家於特定的駐店時間，為參與觀眾量身訂製一個經過拆解與重組的書封，在近乎滿版的黑色配置，依然可找尋到屬於原本書籍的符號。《The Black Reading Room 黑色書房》的互動性質與第三檔的《This is a book》較為類似，藝術家張立人展出了自己的空間「作品集」，以書本的編排形式做為展示規劃，我們在展場中看到的不是過去展出的作品，而是那些作品在創作時的草稿、草圖，或是展覽的展出紀錄等，同時張立人亦直接將他的想法寫在展示牆上，這樣偏向文件展的展示型態加上手感的塗鴉，讓觀眾更加貼近藝術家的創作過程。不只藝術家可以有一本作品集，參與的觀眾亦可於藝術家駐店時間，報名並與藝術家構思一本屬於你自己的一本書，等待藝術家完成後於展覽期間展示於現場。這兩檔展覽的互動皆為觀眾量身訂做屬於他們的一本書，不同的地方在於，劉文瑄著重於書本身的「物質性」，透過紙本媒材的重新拆解，觀眾可以體驗到不同以往的視覺經驗；張立人則將書作為一個「媒介」，藉由它，我們更能夠在屬於自己的一本書中找到自己，如同藝術家在展場中對自我的「整理」，我們每個人都可以藉由拼湊與歸納，找出自我的故事與脈絡。

 《This is a book》／張立人　展覽現場

(圖片來源: Art Studio facebook page)

第二檔展覽《一句 Excerpts》是牛俊強與觀眾的另類「集體創作」，報名駐店活動的觀眾需選擇書店中的一本書，以「遮蔽」臉部的動作給牛俊強進行拍攝，同時觀眾需要擷取書中的「一句」話，拍攝後藝術家再經由對於各個觀眾的形象、選擇的書籍以及那「一句」，以類似回應的方式給予每個人「一句」話於展覽現場。在《一句Excerpts》系列中，書本的選擇實則反映出這個人，即使神情的遮蔽去除，我們仍可以「閱讀」出被攝者的態度，其中包括他們對拍攝者、觀者與自我的態度。拍攝前，選擇書本的意識可能來自於被攝者自我的喜好，同時也是他們希望自己被呈現出來的樣子，也就是對於自我的認同。此檔展覽透過書店的互動性，將觀者的參與，結合影像與文本，表現肖像影像本身的認同作用，以及在文本的書寫中，產生一種詩意的對話性。同樣地，目前正在展出的《The Answer Is ( ).》展覽亦試圖突破傳統作品與觀眾之間的那段界線，此兩檔展覽的作品皆由藝術家與觀眾的互動而協力完成，在這樣的過程中，觀眾不再只是被動的觀看關係模式，而是介入藝術創作的其中一部份，作為一個積極的、參與性的交流作用。藝術家王建浩希望觀眾重新思考「書」在我們日常生活中的角色，展覽的左牆為呈現王建浩對於書的各種詮釋與想像，而右牆則是各個觀眾在展覽期間所填寫的問卷，大家需要填寫藝術家所提出的問題：「如果書是一種（　）」、「在末日，書變成一種（　）」、「在未來，書變成一種（　）」。藉由這些提問，藝術家與觀眾共同在空間完成了一份對書籍的意象詮釋。在這個數位化的時代下，此檔展覽試圖讓觀眾重新思考書籍本身之於我們每個人的關係，三個提問在不同的時間概念下，邀請觀眾以詼諧的角度思考書除了閱讀之外的各種潛能。

 《一句 Excerpts》／牛俊強　展覽現場

（圖片來源: Art Studio facebook page）

《一句 Excerpts》／牛俊強　駐店活動紀錄

（圖片來源: Art Studio facebook page）

 《The Answer Is ( ).》／王建浩 展覽現場

（圖片來源: http://www.biosmonthly.com/contactd.php?id=3574）

《The Answer Is ( ).》／王建浩 展覽現場的觀眾問卷局部

（圖片來源: http://www.biosmonthly.com/contactd.php?id=3574）

對話性創作：當代藝術中的觀眾溝通

討論到當代藝術中的觀眾溝通，擅長處理藝術與社群溝通的藝術家Stephen Willats曾提出一種美學交流的形式，這個形式不同於過去藝術家與觀眾之間有著一道無形的牆，在觀看的關係中，兩者之間只能各自建立起各自的迴路。然而，日漸強調溝通的當代藝術，作品其實更背負著重要的任務：「與世界溝通」。因此，觀眾與作品的平行互動，其實更能夠產生反思的檢視作用。Willats的作品便是透過與觀眾的合作與反饋，最後呈現出來的是作品是一個對話的過程。近期他於Modern Art Oxford舉辦的個展《Conscious – Unconscious》，便將創作更深入至社群當中，例如其中《How the Future Looks From Here》作品是與一對夫妻共同完成。藝術家認為，藝術創作是社會的一部分；是人與人之間的關係產物，透過在創作時的互動，作品更能夠介入生活；貼近日常經驗。同樣強調互動，但形式較不同於Willats的實地訪問再展出的作法，「藝術佔領書店計畫」比較希望的是在書店這個空間中持續一段時間的「互動」，如此一來，藝術空間本身的性質便不再侷限於靜態的展演，而是全民介入的藝術計畫。「藝術佔領書店計畫」今年的這四檔展覽都嘗試製造一個對話與交流的創造性空間，藉由觀眾互動，以解除傳統觀看框架，試圖提出一個互動的機制，賦予觀眾貼近藝術創作的機會。

刺激思考的藝術計畫

「人們會比過去更清楚，他自己就在建立關係，從不同的位置和不同的燈光及空間關係裡，了解這些物件。」　　　　　　　　　　　　　　                                      －Robert Morris

誠品ART STUDIO藝術計畫在頗受好評的推動之下，不僅累積了不少主動參與藝術的觀眾，更能夠讓更多新生代的藝術家有不一樣的展出機會。筆者認為，現今這個手機、平板電腦不離身的數位化時代，許多書籍已漸漸轉為電子書，人們是否依然記得擁有書籍的那份感動？藉由「藝術佔領書店」計畫，從劉文瑄的《The Black Reading Room 黑色書房》我們重新找回對於書的物質感受，再至牛俊強的《一句 Excerpts》以及張立人的《This is a book》，觀眾漸漸意識到書籍之於自身的關係。如同目前展出的《The Answer Is ( ).》，觀眾開始思考書籍在時光的流逝與科技的日新月異之下，他們該何去何從？藝術家王建浩希望觀眾在寫問卷之餘，不妨拿起展覽現場的電話，回答這個問題：「如果書變成一種時間單位，你想對經歷「一本書」後的自己說些什麼？」或許，這樣的反問與回饋，更能夠刺激觀眾建立對於書籍的想像與期許。

參考資料

Grant Kester著，吳瑪悧、謝明學、梁錦鋆譯：《對話性創作：現代藝術中的社群與溝通》（台北：遠流，2006年）。

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網站http://gallery.artron.net/20130613/n462388.html

Production of “interaction”: Discussing ART STUDIO “Young Talent Project”

ART STUDIO located at Eslite 3F has been open to the artist’s application for exhibition since 2011. “Read Arts” was set the subject in the 1^st exhibition that all kinds of art creators were invited to show their attempts of performances. This year, application for “Young Talent Project” is launched that art creators are invited to rethink the connection between “book” and “creation”, hoping creators and audiences to reflect what the relation of “book” is to every “individual” through the way of “interaction”.

The arts “occupy” and “involve in” bookstores

Since contemporary art was developed, the works has been not only completed at the moment in the studio, but also final presented in the venue of exhibition, in which the importance of audiences is gradually increased. Milhail Bakhtin, the Russian literary theorist thought that art works could be deemed as a “communication” with outside world and an interpretation field to show difference. Based on purposes of “Young Talent Project”, an exhibition space involved in bookstore should not be used as an independent exhibition space with its characteristic but a platform much closed to the audience as its name: the audience can disregard dignity of art gallery in an artistic “studio” where in this incomplete white box of exhibition space, and directly face artistic creation with free mind.

   

The first exhibition schedule in this project will be Wen Hsuan Liu’s”The Black Reading Room”, trying to return to “materiality” of book itself by extracting various elements from a book to combine into another kind of sculpture through shield and envelop. Regarding interaction with the audience, artist still can find a symbol belonged to the original book in black configuration with almost solid plate when the artist tailors a disassembled and recombined book cover for the audience in a certain on-site time.

The interactive nature of  “The Black Reading Room” is much similar to that of “ This is a book”in the third schedule. The artist Chang Li-Ren displayed his own space “collection of the works” with layout form of book as exhibit planning. What we will see on the show floor is not works displayed in the past but manuscript, draft or exhibited records, etc. for those works in the creation. Meanwhile, Chang Li-Ren will also directly write his ideas on exhibited wall, and thus such a document exhibition adding hand handle doodles will bring the audience to be much closer to artist’s creative process. It’s not only the artist can have a collection of the works, but also the audience can register to design your own book with the artist while visiting the store, and awaiting on-site display during exhibition period.     

Interaction for two exhibition schedules is tailored for the audiences to make their own books. What difference is that Wen Hsuan Liu focuses on “materiality” of books allowing audiences to learn different visual experiences than before through reassembly of paper media; Chang Li-Ren uses books as a “media” which we can find ourselves from our own books same as the artists “arrange” themselves in the exhibition, and thus all of us are able to find our own stories and contexts by piecing up and concluding them.

“Excerpts” in the second exhibition schedule will be special “collective works” between Niu,Chun-Chiang and the audiences. The audience who register to participate in artist’s store visiting activities should select a book from the bookstore and “shield” facial motion to be shot by Niu,Chun-Chiang, along with “an excerpt” picked out from the book. The artist will give every “excerpt”, a similar response to show on the exhibition through every audience’s image, selected book and the “excerpt” after shooting. Selection of the book in the series of “Excerpts”actually reflect this person. Even the shield of expression is removed, we still can “read” attitude of photographed persons, including their attitudes to photographer, viewer and themselves. Consciousness of those photographed persons selecting the books before the shooting may be come from self-preference of photographed persons, and the appearances they would like to be represented, which is self-identification.   

This exhibition schedule will combine images and texts with viewer’s participation to present identification of portrait itself and produce poetic dialogue through interaction of bookstore. Similarly, the current exhibited ”The Answer Is ( ).” is trying to penetrate the boundary line between traditional works and the audiences. The works in these two exhibition schedules will be completed through interaction and cooperation between the artists and audiences. The audience in such a process is no longer passive model of watching relationship but one of the parts involved in artistic creation as an aggressive and participatory communication.  

The artist Wang, Chien-Hao hopes that the audience can rethink the role of “book” played in our daily lives. The left wall in the exhibition is used to present Wang, Chien-Hao’s every interpretation and image on book, the right wall used to display questionnaires filled out by the audiences in the exhibition along with their answers for questions presented by the artist, such as “if the book is a ( )”, “the book will become a ( ) at the end of the world”, “the book will become a ( ) in the future”. The artist and the audiences will jointly complete an image interpretation on the book in the space through these questions. In this digital era, this exhibition schedule intends to allow the audiences to rethink the relation of book itself on us. Three questions in different time concepts will invite the audiences at humorous positions to think various potentialities on the book other than reading.  

Dialogic creation: the audience communication in the contemporary art

The artist Stephen Willats who specializes in dealing with communication between the arts and communities while discussing the audience communication in the contemporary art used to mention a form of aesthetic communication which is different from an intangible wall between artists and audiences in the past, independent circuit established by both parties, respectively in the relationship of watching. However, the works in the contemporary art that gradually focuses on communication actually bear more important mission to “communicate with the world”. Therefore, parallel interaction between the audiences and works actually can produce viewing effect of reflection. Willats’ works finally show a dialogue process even through audiences’ cooperation and feedback.

Recently, his personal exhibition “Conscious – Unconscious”held in Modern Art Oxford will be penetrated into communities, e.g.”How the Future Looks From Here”is the work completed together with a couple. The artist thought artistic creation is a part of society; it’s a product from person-to-person, and can be much more involved in the life closed to daily experience. 

As the same emphasis on interaction but different form from Willats’ method of field visit and re-exhibition, “Young Talent Project” would rather it lasts for a while in such a space as bookstore, and thus the nature of art space itself will be no longer stayed in static exhibition but all the people involved in art project. “Young Talent Project” in four exhibition schedules this year is trying to make a creative space between dialogue and communication, and propose an interactive mechanism to give the audiences opportunities closed to artistic creations through removal of traditional watching framework by audiences’ interaction.    

Art project of stimulating fresh thinking

 “People will understand it much more than in the past that they’re establishing relationship by themselves from different positions, lightings and special relation to understand these objects.” －Robert Morris

Eslite ART STUDIO project under acclaimed promotion has not only accumulated quite a few audiences who aggressively participate in the art, but also offered inequable exhibited opportunities for younger generation artists. The writer thought many books have been changed to e-book in this digital era full of inseparable mobile phones and tablet PC. We can retrieve material feeling for books from Wen Hsuan Liu’s ”The Black Reading Room”, and the audiences can gradually realize the relation of books on themselves from Niu,Chun-Chiang’s ”Excerpts” and Chang Li-Ren’s ”This is a book” through “Young Talent Project”.  Like the current exhibited ”The Answer Is ( ).”, the audiences start thinking where to go for books in the days passing by and fast-changing technology. The artist Wang, Chien-Hao hopes the audiences to answer this question “If a book turns into a time unit, what would you say to yourself after experiencing “a book” by the phone in exhibition after filling in questionnaires. Maybe, such a rhetorical question and feedback will be more likely to stimulate the audiences to establish imagination and anticipation on books.