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一位舞者藉着一條幼長的布帶,在半空中倒轉身體,在煙霧迷漫的灰色背景前表演空中體操。舞者身穿灰色緊身褲及貼身淺灰色上衣。

徐世琪:
懸浮,香港在威尼斯

徐世琪:
懸浮,香港在威尼斯

2022年4月23日
2022年11月27日
位置: Campo della Tana, Castello 2126, 30122, Venice, Italy

在徐世琪參加第59屆威尼斯視藝雙年展的展覽中,她創造了一個多重宇宙透過交織的虛構感知呈現一個假想的敘事,縫合着當代個體在面對多舛世界時的不同表徵。懸浮連接着輕盈與沉重,它既是深層的身體經驗,也是脫離肉身的夢幻狂喜。懸浮作為隱喻,重覆出現在徐世琪的繪畫、流動影像、刺繡及裝置作品,展覽試圖探索「浮於空中」所代表的多重文化與政治能量。

徐世琪在「懸浮」所創造的世界匯聚多種當代表現形式,呈現人如何面對已經改變和正在改變的現實世界,她的虛構敘事為我們創造了一個複合空間,賦予我們探索禁忌觀點的自由。

「徐世琪懸浮,香港在威尼斯」由位於香港西九文化區的亞洲首間全球性當代視覺文化博物館M+及香港藝術發展局攜手呈獻及共同推廣。

Inside ‘Angela Su: Arise, Hong Kong in Venice’
Inside ‘Angela Su: Arise, Hong Kong in Venice’
8:42

第59屆威尼斯雙年展展覽虛擬導賞團。

影片謄本

Angela Su: The show itself is around the theme of levitation and I am interested in levitation as a concept or a metaphor. Levitation can mean many things: it means freedom, it can mean transcendence, the rejection of geographical boundaries or the rejection of gravity, or even humans' aspiration to take risks in order to achieve the impossible, even knowing that the chance of success is very slim.

I want to actually talk about the center piece of the exhibition before I give you a tour. Because there are a lot of the elements from the film that you will see in other sections in the exhibition. The film is a speculative fiction and is also a documentary of the life of Lauren O and her involvement with an activist group called “Laden Raven''.

Lauren O believed that she could levitate. She was involved with this activist group, which was initiated by a tightrope walker in the 1930s, and its founding members were circus performers. Hence you see a lot of circus elements in the exhibition.

“Laden Raven” became heavily involved in the 1960s in the United States during the anti-war movement. In the end all the protest movements in the United States were very heavily suppressed, and members of “Laden Raven” were arrested and locked up in a sensory deprivation cell. The film ends with me in a performance in which I was hoisted up, I was lifted up five meters from the ground and I slowly turned into a disco ball.

I like the transition between the documentary part and the performance scene, because it is like jumping from one reality to another, it is like when you jolt awake from a bad dream. So you can go from Lauren O’s reality to the personal world of Angela Su, and I really like that kind of transition. That is why I think it is important for me to perform in the film. I was trying to figure out some answers to certain questions in life. So I think it is very important to present these solutions in the performance and that is why I think I should perform in the video.

I am always interested in the 60s, with the flower power, the hippie, the counterculture movements. When I was doing research, I came across a really interesting happening. During the anti-war movement, around 50 thousand protesters marched to the pentagon and tried to levitate the building. The action is exorcising demons out from the building, the action for me is very powerful because they demystified the authority of the military. We all know it is not going to levitate but the building actually levitated in the minds of the protesters, sofor me this is very powerful. From the very beginning I wanted to include this element in the film and that is why I started to research around the theme of levitation.

When you enter the pavilion you see a giant swing which is around four point five meters high and there is an unreachable seat. It is like a trapeze and it is also a swing. You can also see a circus ring here with hovering triangular modules. And you can see the theme of levitation coming through already in the courtyard. There is also a big row of circus posters behind me.

The title of this installation is called the Playscape for the Feathered Girl. The idea is about the rejection of work in progress in the capitalistic society and it’s like the idea of play and freedom, of having joy as sort of a disruption of the monotony of work.

After the courtyard you enter into the interior of the pavilion. In the first room you will see an installation of fifteen videos. They are arranged in three boxes, horizontal long boxes, five videos in a group. These videos are found footages, very old footages of trapeze performers, of tightrope walkers and also dancers. The title of this installation is Tiptoeing the Kármán Line. The Kármán line is actually an imaginary line in between earth's atmosphere and outer space. This line never existed, I mean, it is just imaginary. So walking on this line means that you have to constantly guess where the line is. It is also like a balancing act: the tightrope walker has to decide what is dangerous and what is safe; and it is also about taking risks. So the first room is about the mental risk one has to go through in order to levitate.

From there you go through a red PVC curtain into the second room. The second room is mainly drawings and embroideries. There is also a video of a very short performance. This room is mainly about the monstrosity of metamorphosis and also the physical risk of transformation. When you enter the room you see a giant embroidered raven on your right side and, on the left side, is a double layered drawing of a piece called Rorschach Test No.3.

So my 2D works are mainly medical drawings or scientific drawings. The way we presented these works is to wrap a curtain around the room. My works or my drawings or embroideries are very clinical and clean, they are like medical drawings, very old medical drawings such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings or Andreas Vesalius' drawings. So I need a very clean space to present these works. The red fabric sort of evoked the idea of a classical period and the idea of the fabric also reminds one of a circus tent. So this is how this room is set up.

Then, through another PVC curtain, you go into the third room where you see the video that I just mentioned. The way we fabricated the room is that we lined the walls up with acoustic foam, they are big pyramidal foam that is thirty cm in height. The installation of this room is actually an extension of the performance piece you see at the end of the video. In the end, a set was built that references an anechoic chamber. That is why we used acoustic foam, to rebuild the anechoic chamber and the physical space in Venice. There are also two concrete benches which are very heavy and are actually anchored on the floor. So you can see in the exhibition, there is a juxtaposition between lightness and heaviness. You have a lot of the works, the drawings, the embroideries and the fifteen videos suspended from the ceiling, and you also have very heavy structures, like these you see here, casted cement, concrete, that are heavy on the floor.

When you exit, you come into the fourth room in which you will see a huge disco ball, it is like one meter in diameter and like having another element that echoes what you see in the film. It’s an iconic symbol of entertainment and dance and freedom, but you can imagine the dancers gravitate or levitate or dance towards this disco ball. So it is like a symbol of collectivity or the collective energy of millions of people.

And on that note you exit and enter into the courtyard again where people can sit and relax and enjoy the sunshine.

展覽現場

展覽入口照片。正面拍攝一道約三米高的米灰色圍牆,油漆剝落,噴有塗鴉。暗藍色的雕花木門旁邊有展覽標題版。黑色底色上的展覽標題為螢光綠色,字體彎彎曲曲,背後隱約可見畫有一雙手的骷髏骨。木門打開,通往建築的露天庭院。

「徐世琪:懸浮,香港在威尼斯」,2022年,攝影:t-space studio

展覽室內空間照片。磚牆上的白色油漆剝落。外露的天花木結構垂吊三個橫向長條型的黑色箱子至大約成年人肩膊高度。箱子不規則排列,每個播放五段不同的錄像。後方通往另一個房間的拱門下掛有紅色的膠門簾。

「徐世琪:懸浮,香港在威尼斯」展覽現場,2022年,攝影:t-space studio

展覽露天庭院照片。庭院前闊後窄,右邊是三層高的泥黃色建築,左邊是約三米高的磚砌圍牆,牆上掛有二十多張馬戲團海報。庭院裏放有一個灰黑色相間的馬碲形馬戲團舞台,以及一個約4.5米高的黑色巨型鞦韆,鞦韆的座位超過兩米高。

「徐世琪:懸浮,香港在威尼斯」展覽現場,2022年,攝影:t-space studio

展覽室內空間照片。建築的天花木結構外露,酒紅色的間隔牆前展示六幅白底黑線條的醫學繪圖刺繡,如眼球、乳房、展開雙翼的烏鴉等。四周光線偏暗,射燈照亮刺繡,並將烏鴉的影像投射到灰色地板之上。

「徐世琪:懸浮,香港在威尼斯」展覽現場,2022年,攝影:t-space studio

徐世琪,《Laden Raven》,2022年,髮繡布本,290 x 140厘米,M+委約作品,香港,圖片由藝術家提供,攝影:鄭樂天

徐世琪,《Sewing Together My Split Mind: Straight Stitch》,2020年,髮繡布本,56 x 51 x 4.5厘米,圖片由藝術家與刺點畫廊提供

展覽室內空間照片。酒紅色及紫紅色的間隔牆前展示兩幅黑線條的醫學繪圖刺繡。靠牆的混凝土方塊的頂部有投影,投影的錄像由上而下拍攝一雙手,一隻手手指張開,另一隻手正執起一把鐵剪刀。

「徐世琪:懸浮,香港在威尼斯」展覽現場,2022年,攝影:t-space studio

徐世琪,《Rorschach Test No.3》,2016年,水墨描圖紙本,171.5 x 125 x 2.5厘米,圖片由藝術家及刺點畫廊提供

展覽室內空間照片。建築的天花木結構外露,兩側的牆安裝了四角錐體形的深色隔音棉。一張混凝土長凳斜斜地放在房間中央,面向房間盡頭的投影牆,展示一個人頭朝地、正進行吊索表演的錄像。黑白的投影是房間內唯一的光源。

「徐世琪:懸浮,香港在威尼斯」展覽現場,2022年,攝影:t-space studio

徐世琪,《The Magnificent Levitation Act of Lauren O》的表演照,2022年,錄像作品,M+委約作品,香港,圖片由藝術家提供,攝影:Ka Lam

展覽室內空間照片。黑色的房間內,天花垂吊一個直徑約長一米的鏡球至約成年人肩膊的高度。鏡球將如碎花的光線反射到天花、牆壁和地板之上。房間位於建築的地下,從玻璃窗可望到外面露天庭院的馬戲團舞裝置和海報。

「徐世琪:懸浮,香港在威尼斯」展覽現場,2022年,攝影:t-space studio

藝術家介紹

徐世琪的作品透過形態的蛻變、轉變與混合,探索對於身體的感知與意象。她以研究為基礎的創作時常以繪畫、錄像、髮繡布本、表演及裝置等形式呈現,檢視人類存在與技術發展之間的相互關係。這些作品中的核心,是虛構與事實、現實與幻想交織的錄像散文和文本。徐世琪的創作以醫學史為焦點,質疑主流的生物醫學論述,並思考科技對於過去、現在及未來的影響。

策展人介紹

周安曼為駐居香港的策展人與作家。她曾參與台北雙年展(2008年及2010年)的策展工作,並擔任上海雙年展(2014年)的聯合策展人。於2015至2019年間,她曾擔任香港Para Site藝術空間的首位教育與公共項目策展人,策劃「當家當當家:鮑藹倫回顧展」(2018年)、「Chris Evans、白雙全:雙個展」(2017年),並擔任「工餘」(2016年)的共同策展人。她近期與多個機構合作研究項目,包括臺北市立美術館及香港亞洲藝術文獻庫。她也從事眾多藝術家書籍、雜誌及展覽圖錄的編輯工作,並發表文章。她現為第58屆卡內基國際展的策展委員會成員。

探索更多

香港藝術發展局(藝發局)於1995年成立,是政府指定全方位發展香港藝術的法定機構。藝發局的角色包括贊助、政策及策劃、倡議、推廣及發展、策劃特別項目等。藝發局的使命為策劃、推廣及支持十個主要藝術形式包括文學、表演藝術、視覺藝術、電影及媒體藝術之發展,促進和改善藝術的參與和教育、鼓勵藝術評論、提升藝術行政之水平及加強政策研究工作,務求藉藝術發展提高社會的生活質素。

M+雜誌

頁頂圖片:徐世琪錄像作品《The Magnificent Levitation Act of Lauren O》的表演照,2022,M+委約創作,圖片由藝術家提供,攝影:Ka Lam

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