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）。

Art Studio facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/eslite.ARTSTUDIO)

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.