Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

Working as a collective is not something new. But in comparison to individual artist, art collective more emphasizes dialogue and diversity rather than one-person voice. Also the process can be also considered as a democratic practice. In the continuation of dialogue, members can question, learn and support each other; but it can also provoke conflicts, frictions and even stop the collaboration. In a society dominated by neoliberalism and capital power, why those practitioners can insist in this kind of not productive, not efficient ways of working? This is the first question we would like to raise in the panel discussion.

Based on Kuala Lumpur, Five Arts Centre is a dynamic collective of Malaysian artists and producers, dedicated to generating alternative art forms and images in the contemporary arts landscape. It is well known for cutting edge performances in theatre, dance, music and young people’s theatre, and incorporates aspects of the visual and digital arts as well. Since it was formed in 1984, Five Arts Centre has been committed to articulating the complexity of Malaysian culture and identity through explorations and fusions of local vocabularies, forms and traditions, in relation to the global, modern and cross-cultural. As such, it has been instrumental in the growth of a Malaysian identity in the arts that draws from multiple influences and hybrid histories. Currently, there are 13 members, they are from various backgrounds, not only artists. There are a lawyer, someone from corporate finance, someone from the food and beverage industry in addition to a dancer, choreographer, theatre maker, filmmaker, and activists for women rights and heritage studies. This collective has been running for 34 years, 5 members at the beginning, now there are 13, what makes them carry on?

Grass Stage was founded in Shanghai in 2005, with writer, theatre director Zhao Chuan as its mastermind, and has since accumulated followers and influence. Grass Stage creates alternative, social related theatre in Shanghai. Their work devote to the promotion of new social theatre movement and the creation of non-profit public space. Within a framework of the most basic “poor theatre”, works by Grass Stage use a diverse set of techniques, engendering powerful spaces for intellectual exchange. Grass Stage events made use of a wide range of venues and situations for performances and discussions, are not only spaces for bringing together diverse elements of society, but also provide, in a country relatively lacking in opportunities for public participation, a fluid and varied range of public social spaces.

The two collectives are quite similar in terms of their mission and the composition of members, we look forward seeing more discussions between them according to their own contexts. Also, how do they consider the meaning of working as a collective? How does the concept of collective diffuse and re-image today?

志同道合的艺术实践者们组成一个团体进行共同创作在今日已经不是什么新鲜事了，有别于个体艺术家一人独大的话语权，艺术团体更多地强调对话以及多元性，更可被视为民主自由的一种实践。对话的过程中，团体成员可互相提问、学习、支持，但也可能引起矛盾、冲突，甚至拆伙，而这样一种不以生产性为终极目标的共同创作方式，为何在新自由主义及资本力量主导的社会中，还有部分艺术实践者以这样的方式继续坚持下去？这是在这场圆桌会议中，我们首要提出的问题。

位于马来西亚的五艺中心（Five Arts Centre）是由来自多种不同背景的艺术实践者组成的艺术团体，致力于在当代艺术景观中兴创另类的艺术形式和图像。它以戏剧、舞蹈、音乐和青年剧场的前沿表演而闻名，同时也融合了视觉艺术和新媒体艺术。于1984年，由剧场导演 Chin San Sooi 和 Krishen Jit，与编舞家暨舞者 Marion D’Cruz 三人成立，致力于通过当地语汇、形式和传统，与全球、现代和跨文化的探索和融合，从而阐明马来西亚文化和身份的交纵复杂。这种基于多种影响和混合的历史，因此对马来西亚在艺术中的身份认同的发展起到了关键作用。现行成员有十三人，除了舞蹈家、编舞家、剧场制作人、电影制作人、行动主义者之外，还有人是律师，以及来自于金融业、食品业背景的艺术实践者。一个已经持续运作三十四年的艺术团体，从最初的五个成员，几经迭换，不仅没有结束，队伍反倒变得更为壮大。

在上海成立的草台班，自2005年春初创，由赵川主持活动及创作，排演边缘但社会性极强的当代剧场作品。十多年来草台班在其特立独行的社会和艺术实践中，积累出自己独特的剧场观念和美学。草台班同仁激励普通人投身剧场和创作，强调问题意识、以及戏剧与周围生活的关联。他们多年来不拘一格地利用各种场地，进行非牟利的排演、讨论，他们的剧场成为了不同人群参与的民间聚会场所，不断塑造出流动的公共空间。

这两个团体不论在发展的方向与成员的组成都有一定相似度，他们以共同创作的方式作为实践，可以给我们带来什么的思考并激发问题意识？另方面，以团体的方式持续运作十几年、三十几年，团体的意义将被如何重新理解？团体仅限于特定成员吗？团体的概念如何被发散及再想象？欢迎创作者与对艺术创作感兴趣的朋友，前来参与讨论。

June Tan is a biologist from Imperial College, London and a member of the performing arts collective Five Arts Centre (Malaysia). Since 1997, June has stage-managed, tour-managed, and produced numerous local and international co-productions. Her producing experience builds from a parallel experience in the corporate sector (1997-2008). She is interested in understanding systems and in facilitating space for difference, for discussion, and models for art making. This is seen in her initiation for platforms for emerging practitioners, and her programming for Kotak, an independent arts space in Kuala Lumpur. June is also looking into encouraging networks between Malaysian and Southeast Asian producers and is part of a committee looking at advocacy in the arts. In addition, June has also written scripts for the stage, TV and several Malaysian feature films.

Zhao Chuan is a writer, theatre maker and curator, who creates alternative and socially engaged theatre in Shanghai. He is the founding member and mastermind of theatre collective Grass Stage since 2005. His work is devoted to the promotion of new social theatre movement and the creation of non-profit public space for intellectual exchange. He has been involved in many international art residencies and collaboration projects, awarded several international literature awards, including Taiwan’s prestigious Lianhe Wenxue (Unitas) New Fiction Writer’s Prize in 2001. His recent publications include an award winning book: On Radical Art: the 80s Scene in Shanghai (author, Shanghai Sanlian Bookshop Publishing 2014); The Body At Stake: Experiments in Chinese Contemporary Art and Theatre (co-editor, author, Transcript 2013).

Wu Jiamin is a theater practitioner. Since 2011, he has participated in Grass Stage and took part in the creations and performances of numerous productions, which are notably reflected in his two-time contribution in the sharing of Grass Stage’s Field Maneuvers. Since ‘The World Factory’ in 2014, scrutiny has been on the growing concern about the conditions in tandem with China's emergence as the world's factory, especially those of the young workers. In the past three years, Wu has worked with colleagues at Grass Stage to facilitate drama workshops amongst workers' communities in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as to conduct theater rehearsals that engender a creative method in effort to contextualize the actual situation of workers.

陈丰爱是毕业于伦敦帝国理工学院的生物学家，同时也是表演艺术团体五艺中心（马来西亚）的成员。自1997年以来，她负责演出管理及巡回演出，并制作多部国际共同制作作品。她的制作经验基于在企业部门（1997-2008）的工作经历。她的研究方向是通过对体系和空间的差异的理解，从而展开艺术生产中的讨论及模式。这一思路从她为新兴实践者开发的平台和为吉隆坡独立艺术空间Kotak项目中贯彻体现。同时，陈丰爱关注马来西亚和东南亚制作人之间的互助网络，并担任委员会的成员。此外，她还为舞台剧、电视剧和多部马来西亚故事片撰写剧本。

赵川，作家、剧场编导、艺术评论及活动策划人，是2005年开始的民间戏剧团体草台班共同创建和主持者，创作边缘但社会性极强的当代剧场作品。他与草台班同仁激励普通人投身剧场和创作，强调问题意识、以及艺术与社会生活的关联，集体创作包括社会剧场三部曲：《世界工厂》、《小社会》与《狂人故事》等；也参与许多国际驻地和联合创作项目。赵川曾获台湾《联合文学》小说新人奖（2001），已在海内外出版小说、随笔和艺术理论书籍十数种，包括获荐奖的《激进艺术小史》（作者，2014）、《The Body At Stake: Experiments in Chinese Contemporary Art and Theatre》（联合编辑、作者，2013）等。

吴加闵，剧场工作者。2011年参与草台班至今，投入多部戏的创作和演出，参加草台班两次“拉练”巡演。自2014年《世界工厂》，逐渐关注中国成为世界工厂所伴随的工人处境，尤其关注当下年轻工人的现状。近三年来与草台班同仁在深广两地工人社区做戏剧工作坊，排演多部戏剧，探索一种结合工人实际的创作方法。

As art activities proliferate, performance and performing arts are evermore presented to the public, notably seen in art museums across recent years. The series of lectures of “Spectrum of Performance(ing) Arts” is not designed to invent some new vocabulary or definition, or to inquire “What is Performance (Performing)?”, but to examine how art in an unbound state flows and mutates into a spectrum with colorful connotations and more possibilities. It looks forward to the confluence and interaction of different realms of art, discussions from the artist, curator, researcher and scholar perspectives on issues such as the role of the platform, methods of artistic creation, ways of watching performances, the concept of curating, and the development of performance art and performing art under the globalization framework, as well as more dialogues in unexpected aspects between the speakers and audience.

This series of lectures is jointly initiated by RAM and Zhang Bing, an independent curator, and supported by Shanghai Artemis Art Center.

This lecture is co-organized by iPANDA and NMG.

随着艺术活动日渐蓬勃发展，行为与表演艺术更多地在大众面前呈现，特别近年来在美术馆里成为被关注的焦点。“表演光谱”系列讲座的策划不在于发明新的词汇或定义，或诘问“什么是表演？”，而是进一步探索、梳理艺术如何在不被“固着”的状态之下，流动、变异并形成一道肌理丰富的光谱，更多的可能性因此发生；并且希冀在不同艺术领域再度合流、交互作用的时刻，从艺术家、策划人、研究者、学者不同的角度去探讨：平台的角色、艺术创作方法、如何观看表演、策划概念、全球化框架下行为表演艺术的发展等等议题，也期待在讲者与观众的交流之间，开启更多不可预期的讨论面向。

本系列讲座由上海外滩美术馆与独立策展人张冰共同发起，并由上海至美艺术发展中心支持。

Shanghai Artemis Art Center (SAAC), funded by Anxin Trust Co., Ltd. and approved for registration by Shanghai Bureau of Civil Administration, was established officially on June 6, 2016 as a non-profit art institution.

SAAC aims at promoting the production and development of modern arts, through hosting, supporting and assisting non-profit artistic activities of various forms, including but not limited to art exhibitions, publications, public projects, artistic research, academic discussion, art curating, criticism and writing.

上海至美艺术发展中心是由安信信托股份有限公司捐资设立，并获得上海民政局批准注册成立的非盈利性艺术机构，于2016年6月6日正式宣布成立。

上海至美艺术发展中心旨在推动当代艺术的发生和发展，举办、支持和扶持多种形态的非营利性艺术活动，这包括但不限于艺术展览、出版物、公共项目、艺术研究、学术研讨、艺术策展、批评与写作等。