Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) is pleased to present Diane Severin Nguyen’s first institutional solo exhibition in Asia, In Her Time. Known for her kaleidoscopic approach to photography, film, and installation, the artist presents two new immersive installations in this exhibition. Located on the second floor of the museum, the film In Her Time is the newly commissioned work for the exhibition and the artist’s first feature-length film. Occupying the entire third floor is a wall-to-wall installation titled Are you young? It doesn’t matter., which uses programmed lights, remixed sounds from the film, and mirrored reflection to create a sophisticated “time tunnel.” Instead of a catalog, the exhibition narrative will be expanded through a fan-fiction novella by Olivia Kan-Sperling, set to be published in early 2024.

Nguyen’s artistic intervention first began at Hengdian World Studios, the largest film studio in Asia. Known for its vast architectural sets, which span a historical timeline of 5,000 years, Hengdian is a popular destination for filmmakers and tourists who wish to visualize a cohesive national history. The city itself is comprised of a large population of migrant workers who relocate to Hengdian to work as background actors, often with greater aspirations for screen time and stardom.

Riffing on neorealist conventions with subjects performing as themselves, In Her Time follows the journey of a struggling actress named Iris (Li Meixian) as she prepares for her first leading role in a historical war film set during the Nanjing Massacre of 1937. We catch glimpses of Iris from the isolation of her apartment to the generic outskirts of Hengdian City, where she rehearses lines unseen. A car takes her between soundstages and various sets – bamboo forests, a jail, and a village under siege. Confession, rehearsal, and performance are interwoven to paint a conflicted portrait of an artist who must re-enact painful events in order to express her ideal vision of the future.

Diane Severin Nguyen’s In Her Time advances her artistic practice of exploring the relationship between performative media and historical trauma. Set against the authoritarian backdrop of both nationhood and filmmaking itself, the artist questions how our capacity to fantasize about progress may be dependent on our power to resurrect the past. Integrating the nostalgic and revisionist impulses of historical reenactment, Nguyen’s film converges different temporal and spatial realities to relay the drama of finding an authentic self within a pre-determined script.

As Iris’ repetitious lines gradually slip away, they become embodied mantras caught in the circularity of historical production. In a cascading sequence of final scenes, the distinction between Iris’ desires and those of her character dissipates, as does that between victim and perpetrator, leaving the audience to question her revolutionary motives: “If I hadn’t created my own world, I would have died in someone else’s.”

上海外滩美术馆（RAM）欣悦呈现越南裔美籍艺术家黛安·塞弗林·阮（Diane Severin Nguyen）亚洲首场机构个展“在她的时间里”（In Her Time）。她以涵盖摄影、电影与装置的丰富艺术实践著称，此次展出的两组作品皆为沉浸式装置。位于美术馆二楼的展览同名影片《在她的时间里》是该展览的全新委约作品，亦是艺术家的首部长片。而占用三楼整层的新作《你年轻吗？不要紧。》（Are you young? It doesn’t matter.）则以灯光与音效营造出复杂精细的“时光隧道”，由电影原声的许多切片混剪了环境的音轨。此外，上海外滩美术馆将委约亚裔美籍新锐作家甘英（Olivia Kan-Sperling）执笔一部小说，作为展览的出版物于2024年初发行，成为展览叙事的延展。

《在她的时间里》拍摄于著名的横店影视城。电影讲述一位名叫艾里斯 (李美贤饰)的女演员刚刚获得出演一部历史战争片主角的机会。这是她第一次担任主演。于是，原本处境艰难的艾里斯踏上了一场蜕变之旅。从与世隔绝的公寓到横店的市郊，我们都能捕捉到艾里斯独自练习台词的身影。她搭车在摄影棚和竹林、监狱、被围困的村庄等场景之间穿梭。自述、排练和表演交织在一起，展现了这位演员的复杂形象。她必须通过“重演”痛苦去表达对未来的憧憬。随着影片的推进，艾里斯的台词逐渐消失，变成了陷入历史生产循环的一道道咒语。

黛安·塞弗林·阮的《在她的时间里》推进了她探索表现性媒介与个人创伤之间关系的艺术实践。通过构建碎片化的再现场景，艺术家如此发问：再现行为本身，可否为我们提供又一个机会来面对创伤那跨越广阔时间的持续性力量？潜藏在重新创造痛苦事件欲望之中的幻想，可否作为一种革命性的抵抗形式来抵御主导性叙事，以及那些被这些叙事所支配的过去的记忆？通过模糊排练与表演、片场与展场之间的区分，《在她的时间里》体现了不同时间与空间现实的汇聚。随着影片最后几幕场景的层层推进，艾里斯自己的欲望与她所饰演的角色的欲望之间的区分也消失了，而受害者与施害者之间亦不再有界限。此时，观众或许会开始质疑她真正的目的：“如果我没有创造自己的世界，我就会死在别人的世界里。”