Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

Forsaken Landscapes 2019 is set in a north-eastern hinterland, which becomes an unexpected backdrop for the history of film in China. The installation comprises a four-channel moving-image screens, which are dispersed at different angles across the exhibition space. The first encounter begins near the entrance, where the graphics of a film editing program is enlarged to depict the abstract shapes of a sound wave as it moves endlessly across the horizon of the screen. In the main room, the two largest screens feature a silent flow of archival cinematic footage in combination to a text, which together form a contextual background to a performance that takes place in the last screen. The artist creates an immersive montage using images taken of the same geographical terrain spanning the time from the 1930s up into the recent past, and focusing on contrasting interpretations and propaganda during moments of upheaval, cultural conflict, and reconstruction. Her intervention is to strip the images from their original storylines, allowing the audience to experience the shifts in vernacular as images of the land become appropriated for different purposes. With each scene, the landscape is evoked to speak euphorically of a fertile land, a certain utopia, or in other moments the territory appears barren or unrelenting when existential self-doubt begins to appear. The fourth screen features a benshi performer named Ichiro KATAOKA, who she collaborates with in order to extend her study into this ‘forsaken’ era. Practicing a tradition of theatrical live commentary and narration dating back to the silent era of film, he creates a bridge between the past and present, moving between the borders of these muted landscapes through his performance of translation. With this new work, the artist brings to the foreground the question of control and failure related to our ability to project and confer new meanings onto the surface of different images.

In this event, HAO Jingban will invite Japanese benshi performer, Mr. Kataoka, to “reinterpret” the meaning of these “unwelcome and abandoned” landscapes in live performances. After the performance, HAO Jingban will hold a conversation with Mr. Kataoka, share the thoughts behind the creation with the audience, and discuss history and landscape as well as film language and narrative.

《被嫌弃的风景 2019》以东北腹地为主题，这里是中国电影史的一个意想不到的背景。这件装置作品包含了以不同角度分散在展览空间内的四频影像屏幕。首先，在入口附近，屏幕中电影剪辑程序的画面被放大，声波的抽象形状在屏幕的边界不断移动。在主展厅中，两块最大的屏幕无声地播放经过剪辑组合的档案影片片段，并配以文字，它们共同构成了最后一块屏幕上所展示的表演的语境背景。

艺术家郝敬班使用了从二十世纪三十年代至今在同一地理环境中拍摄的影像，创作出沉浸式的蒙太奇作品，并关注动荡、文化冲突和重建时期不同的阐释和政治宣传。她将这些画面从各自原本的故事线中剥离，观众能够体验到由于这片土地的图像因不同目的被挪用和粉饰后所产生的叙述话语之变化。在不同的场景中，这片土地或是被欣喜地描绘成富饶土地和某种乌托邦，或是在存在性的自我怀疑开始出现时，被描绘成贫瘠或冷酷不屈的。在第四个屏幕中，郝敬班与电影辩士片冈一郎合作，将其对这一“被嫌弃”的时代的研究进一步扩展。片冈一郎从事的现场评论和讲述传统可以追溯到默片时代，他的转译表演连接了过去与当下，在这些缄默的土地边界之间来回移动。在这件新作品中，郝敬班试图将人们在不同图像表面投射、赋予意义过程中的控制与失败呈现给观众。

本次活动，艺术家郝敬班邀请日本辩士片冈先生在现场表演中“重新诠释”这些“不受欢迎和被遗弃”的景观的意义。表演结束后，郝敬班将与片冈先生进行对谈，与观众分享创作背后的思考，共同探讨历史与景观，电影语言与叙事。

Born in 1985, HAO Jingban currently lives and works in Beijing. Through a wide range of found footage, recordings, archival material, interviews and voiceovers, HAO engages with complex historical narratives and social movements by exploring the structures of experimental, documentary and essay film. Her solo exhibitions include New Directions: Hao Jingban (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2016) and Over-Romanticism (Taikang Space, Beijing, 2016). Group exhibitions and screenings include Hao Jingban: Beijing Ballroom (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA, 2018); Special Economic Zone (Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China, 2018); FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art (Cleveland, USA, 2018); Prospectif Cinéma: Performing Dramas I (Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2017); 11th Shanghai Biennale: Why Not Ask Again? (The Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China, 2016).

Studying under the mentorship of Sawato Midori, Ichiro KATAOKA has performed in eighteen countries and regions, propagating the “benshi” culture on the international stages. As a professional film benshi so far, KATAOKA has participated nearly 350 silent films involving various forms such as animation and documentary in many countries including the West, Japan and China. Other than working in the field of films, KATAOKA has also been engaged in creating comic books, dubbing, calligraphy and writing articles. As a film benshi, KATAOKA took part in filmmaker Isao Yukisada’s Spring Snow, the Taiga drama Veda as well as Tami Okuda’s DVD “Panch Returns that seems to start moving”. He also took charge of the technical guidance, time textual research and the actor for the incoming movie Katsuben directed by Masayuki Suo in 2019. In addition, he works on the excavation of those lost negatives of silent films. KATAOKA has found the earliest version of film Chushingura as well as Watashi no papa-san mama ga suki Hideko Takamine starred in. Meanwhile, he actively engages in some cultural preservation tasks.

郝敬班，生于1985年，现生活工作于北京。郝敬班的实验纪录片和散文电影作品，综合她搜集而来的影像、录音、档案文献、访谈和敍述，建构交织的社会历史片段。她的个展包括北京尤伦斯当代艺术中心的“新倾向：郝敬班”（2016）及北京泰康空间的“过浪漫主义”（2016）。她曾参与的群展及放映活动包括美国波士顿美术馆的“郝敬班：北京舞厅” （2018）、广东时代美术馆的“违章建筑三—特区”（2018）、美国克利夫兰的FRONT三年展（2018）、法国巴黎庞毕度（蓬皮杜）当代艺术中心的“Prospectif Cinéma: Performing Dramas I”(2017)、第十一届上海双年展“何不再问？”（2016）。

片冈一郎2002年在泽登翠门下学习。一共在18个国家参加演出，在国际舞台上传播电影辩士文化。到现在为止，片冈一郎作为电影辩士参与的无声电影，不分西方、日本、中国、动画、纪录片等类型，大约有350部作品。在从事电影辩士的工作之外，他也从事连环画剧、配音、书生小调、撰稿等工作。他以电影辩士的身份参与行定勋的《春之雪》、大河剧《韦陀天》、奥田民生的DVD《即将行动的Pamph Returns》。在即将于2019年12月上映的周防正行的电影《活辩！》中，片冈兼任对主要演员的实用技术指导、时代考证、演员等职务。他也着力从事对遗失的无声电影底片的挖掘工作，发掘最早的电影版《忠臣藏》、高峰秀子出演作品《我喜欢爸爸妈妈》，同时也从事一些文化保护方面的工作。