Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

With the opening of Trinh T. Minh-ha: Traveling in the Dark, audience in Shanghai have the opportunity to gain more insights into the artist’s world of art, the memories and voices of individuals revealed in her works on multiple levels. And in the meantime, they are also confronted with the question she raises through the medium of video: how do we address the histories and individual memories that have been forgotten or neglected?

As the artist said in a conversation, if the “ancient” doesn’t necessarily mean the “past”, then “modern” doesn’t necessarily mean “future”. We tend to think time as linear; but if we try to see it as a spiral structure, we’d see the so-called “returning” doesn’t always point to the same place. To “return” to a certain point of time of the past doesn’t take us back the same place. This also means that it’s actually possible for us to grow in more directions without being constrained by time or memories.

In August, in partnership with La Strada Theatre Company RAM presented a workshop “Playback Theatre: Anima”, introducing the form of playback theatre into the context of art museum. Playback Theatre emerged in the USA in the 1970s during the experimental theatre movement. Drawing on body movements, instruments, music, poetry and narrative, actors and actresses will perform improvisationally the stories spontaneously shared by the audiences. It is a highly interactive theatre form that integrates listening, mutual respect, expression and dialogue. Under the theme of “root searching”, participants enjoyed a special evening and built connections with other as well as themselves in an open and sincere atmosphere. This time we present a second edition of Playback Theatre.

Themed “Time and Memories”, the workshop intends to lead participants to break restraints of time and space, pick up memory fragments scattered in the depth of our lives and reconstruct the garden of poetry that we once owned. At the beginning of the workshop, participants are asked to look into the mirror with strangers in the beautiful music to feel the existence of themselves and others, to open up your body and to perceive the space and people you meet. Then there’s a brief ice-breaking session for people to get familiar with each other. And with the guidance of the instructor, participants learn to use different small musical instrumental to release and express their feelings. Afterwards participants are divided into groups and share a certain piece of their memory. They try to interpret each other’s stories in the forms of monologue, poem or sound. Finally all participants will go into the garden of poetry together, to perceive a whole picture of the stories in our memories from a new perspective, and to unearth the truth hidden in the depth and never discovered before. We resonate, vibrate, memorize, communicate and think through the listening and sharing, to truly “go underground and find the spring”.

To avoid certain memories or periods of time may sap the power of self. In Playback Theatre, we can reach the very corner of time or memories through speech, poetry, music, installation and the gentle connections with others, and present invisible memories in action. That’s what’s valuable and may bring more strength to reality.

自艺术项目“郑明河：暗游”开幕以来，观众看到她的电影从多个层面呈现了个体的记忆和声音，同时，也接收到她以影像为媒介提出的问题：我们如何面对那些被遗忘的或是被忽视的历史和个人记忆呢？

正如艺术家在影片中说的一句话：如果"古代的"并不意味着是"过去的"，"现代的"也不意味着就是"未来的"。我们常常认为时间是线性的，而如果我们把它看作是螺旋性的结构，那“回归”就不会指回同一个地方。所谓“回到”过去的时间点，其实我们未能回到同一个地方，但这也意味着我们可以不被时间与记忆所限制，往更多的方向生长。

在8月，RAM与大路剧团合作举办了"一人一故事剧场工作坊：阿尼玛"，将“一人一故事剧场”（Playback Theatre)的形式引入了美术馆的场域之中。这种于20 世纪 70 年代末在美国实验剧场运动中兴起的演出方式，由演员即兴运用形体动作、工具装置、音乐、诗歌或叙事演绎观众即时分享的故事，以结合了聆听、尊重、表达、对话的互动即兴剧场形式传播于世界。在“寻根”的主题下，参与者收获了特别的一晚，在真诚、动人的氛围中，建立起了与他人、与自己的连接，因此我们再次举办“一人一故事剧场”工作坊。

本次工作坊以“时间与记忆”为主题，将在“黑暗”中打破时间、空间的限制，拾起生命深处的记忆碎片，重组我们曾拥有的诗歌花园。首先，参与者们尝试在音乐声中与陌生人照镜子，感受自己与他人的存在，打开肢体去感知活动空间和遇到的人；然后，通过简单的破冰互相熟悉，在导师的引领下，学会用不同的小乐器来释放和表达；接着，大家分组分享自己的某段记忆，尝试用独白、诗歌、声音演绎彼此的故事；最后，大家一同走进诗歌花园，以新的视角去感知记忆中故事的全貌，去找寻暗藏深处未曾被发现的真相。我们将在聆听与分享中，共鸣、震动、回忆、交流、思考，去真实地“深入地下，找到泉水”。

回避一些记忆或者某段时光，也许会削弱自我的力量。在“一人一故事剧场”中，以言语、诗歌、音乐、装置等形式，在和大家的连接中温柔地抵达某个时间的角落，将不可见的回忆以行动呈现，也许才是可贵的，可以为现实带来更大的力量。