Rockbund Art Museum

About the Exhibition

We have entered the age of digital information overload but our understandings of the others have been gradually dictated by media façades composed of fragmented images and discourses. These facades, spectacular and colorful, grab our attentions very quickly and easily; nevertheless, they, rather than bringing us closer to the others, actually further distance us from sincerely listening to what the others want to say. In order to see through the mirage of media façades, ”Tell Me a Story: Locality and Narrative” aims to bring the spectators to approach the others as close as possible, listening to the others speaking for themselves.

On the other hand, in retrospect of modern histories in nonwestern worlds, we will find that modernization processes in colonial histories in the colonies and the vicissitudes of imperialist histories are two sides of the same coin. However, in today’s world, the old models of imperialist rulings are no longer relevant; the new form of “empire” operates with the dominating power of capital flows; they dominate all kinds of forces and all aspects of life, creating a new form of biopolitical governmentality. The world, being subsumed by this governing logic, has become what Homi K. Bhabha critically conceptualizes as “concentric world” which refers to the inner forms of power and hierarchical relationship in the world. In light of the above analysis, if we would like to have different ways of understanding the material and spiritual worlds in the contemporary era, can we use “locality” as a critical problematic to start with our interrogations? Through delving into the living traces in the marked sites of “shared temporality in different localities,” or “shared localities with different temporalities,” we will become more aware of our interrelated existential dimensions between ourselves and many others.

About the Exhibition

We have entered the age of digital information overload but our understandings of the others have been gradually dictated by media façades composed of fragmented images and discourses. These facades, spectacular and colorful, grab our attentions very quickly and easily; nevertheless, they, rather than bringing us closer to the others, actually further distance us from sincerely listening to what the others want to say. In order to see through the mirage of media façades, ”Tell Me a Story: Locality and Narrative” aims to bring the spectators to approach the others as close as possible, listening to the others speaking for themselves.

On the other hand, in retrospect of modern histories in nonwestern worlds, we will find that modernization processes in colonial histories in the colonies and the vicissitudes of imperialist histories are two sides of the same coin. However, in today’s world, the old models of imperialist rulings are no longer relevant; the new form of “empire” operates with the dominating power of capital flows; they dominate all kinds of forces and all aspects of life, creating a new form of biopolitical governmentality. The world, being subsumed by this governing logic, has become what Homi K. Bhabha critically conceptualizes as “concentric world” which refers to the inner forms of power and hierarchical relationship in the world. In light of the above analysis, if we would like to have different ways of understanding the material and spiritual worlds in the contemporary era, can we use “locality” as a critical problematic to start with our interrogations? Through delving into the living traces in the marked sites of “shared temporality in different localities,” or “shared localities with different temporalities,” we will become more aware of our interrelated existential dimensions between ourselves and many others.

“Tell Me a Story: Locality and Narrative” first realized at Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai in 2016. In 2018, The exhibition relocates to Turin, Italy. In the cultural context of Europe, Asia seems to be an even more remote concept so how should we reposition the viewing relationships here in Europe? In the exhibition, we seek to depart from a framework dominated by vision, providing alternative epistemological approaches. The audience will enter all kinds of soundscapes—fireworks or gunshots, clement weather where frozen ships crack, running water and river, engines that propel the course of history, voices of the Spirit, sounds of elegies, historical echo chamber in a basketball field…all these soundscapes constitute a multi-layered cosmos of sounds where we hear harmonies as well as dissonances; clamors as well as bellows. 

The 12 narratives presented in this exhibition opened up multiple secret paths into historical past. They invite us to revisit memories of war and ethnic assimilation/resistance that are shared by people across generations and regions throughout modern or even contemporary Asia. People migrate for survival and cross borders of nation/culture/ethnicity; stories of these changing flows and transformations of culture, either based upon historical facts or fused with imaginary tales, are all intertwined together and expand on a larger common spatio-temporal horizon. The artists dig out archives, reflect upon existing narratives and finally deploy their own creative descriptions to offer us a reading experience that goes beyond “local narrative” or “ethnography.” Through the artworks, we aspire to create a conversation among the spectators and participants. Each one of us is entitled to form our own perspectives on history, present and the future. We regard every single artwork as a dynamic piece of the narrative structure. In the process of producing a narrative and meaning, the artists, the spectators, and the stories themselves engage in an interactive process—an importance experience in and of itself.

Artist

Au Sow-Yee, Chen Po-I, Lucy Davis, Field Recordings (Zixuan Guo, and Tu Rapana Neill, Li Xiaofei, Jim Speer and Clinton Watkins), Guo Xi and Zhang Jianling, Hsu Chia-Wei, Haejun Jo and Kyeong Soo Lee, MAP Office (Laurent Gutierrez, Valérie Portefaix), Su Yu-Hsien, Koki Tananka, Watan Wuma, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tomoko Yoneda

Artist

Au Sow-Yee, Chen Po-I, Lucy Davis, Field Recordings (Zixuan Guo, and Tu Rapana Neill, Li Xiaofei, Jim Speer and Clinton Watkins), Guo Xi and Zhang Jianling, Hsu Chia-Wei, Haejun Jo and Kyeong Soo Lee, MAP Office (Laurent Gutierrez, Valérie Portefaix), Su Yu-Hsien, Koki Tananka, Watan Wuma, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tomoko Yoneda