From Sep 29 to Oct 4, 2018, the annual special project RAM HIGHLIGHT 2018: “Is It My Body?” will be launched at the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) Shanghai. Following from the successes of the first edition in 2016, “Zhang Ding: Devouring Time”, and the 2017 edition, “Displace”, RAM Shanghai will continue to challenge the boundaries of conventional exhibitions and invite the public to participate and interact with the works. Visitors will be able to enter a multi-dimensional art space blending exhibition, concert, performances, workshops, lectures, and other experiences together. “Is It My Body?” is curated by senior curator Hsieh Feng-Rong, who invites four artists or collectives from diverse fields that encompass drawing, painting, performance, video and real-time motion-capture technology. The focus is on how visuality dominates our living habits and modes of thought, therefore transforming the means by which humans perceive their own bodies and this transforms relationships between people.
For Hsieh Feng-Rong, “We are situated in an age where consumer culture is highly developed, our lives are filled with all manners of social spectacles constructed by various symbols. The popularization of smartphones, in particular, has accelerated and stimulated modes of thought to become centered on visuality; the cognition and imagination of the body has been weakened as a consequence. This project, through the artists’ practices, does not seek to fundamentally change people's existing views of the body. It hopes to raise people's awareness of the above-mentioned phenomenon. Furthermore, this project, with artistic practices as ways of cultural researches, attempts to open up new understandings of the body and how new concepts of the self might emerge along with these new horizons.” Are people ever more reliant on visuality in capturing information and thereby neglecting other faculties? However, the interaction between body and its environment always brings into play the manifold senses, which synthesizes together with the subjective body in order to generate perceptual experiences. “Is It My Body?” attempts to shift towards the body’s other perceptual systems, reflecting on questions regarding however different levels of the body and probing an array of issues relating to the body and subjectivity. This includes among others: identity politics, the standardization of bodies under cultural economic influences, dysfunctional bodies, the consumerization of the body, the relationship of body and space, neurology, subculture and the tension between being controlled or controlling the body.
There are four works featured in the exhibition. Eisa Jocson transforms into Snow White and interprets Princess Studies with her partners. In 2005, the Hong Kong Disneyland opened with large numbers of performers from the Philippines employed to repeat formatted performances of “happiness” as their daily labor. However, they are often excluded from the main roles and instead assigned to supporting roles. The artist’s performance subverts this accepted convention, interpreting Snow White with her non-white body and deconstructing this classic body icon. Nunu Kong has organized three experimental performance workshops, which she will personally lead and demonstrate to participants movements related to the issue of the “body”. For instance, in Multi-Dysfunction, the constraints and limits of the participant’s body is used to emphasize intuition; or with the work Extraction, where a special high-intensity cardiovascular training is arranged in order to extract perspiration from exercise in an exploration of whether the “consumption” of energy is lost or regained. Condition and Coordination meanwhile delves into the relationship between people and space, creating an “bodily narrative” of the individual. Electromagnetic Brainology! Brain Control Messenger! by Lu Yang draws on neurology, turning the relationship between body and the spiritual world into works integrating animation, otaku culture, game aesthetics—which the artist derives from divergent interpretations of the “body” from various cultures and religions. This time, the research team from Osaka University (“Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation") quoted in the work is also invited to be present as a workshop in this exhibition. The public will have the chance to experience the odd sensation of controlling one’s bodily movement with a remote control. Venuri Perera and Geumhyung Jeong are adept at performing by using elusive and subtle relationships. The work Venuri n Geumhyung establishes a simple set of game rules, each time they carry out this rule, they continually interchange between moments where they either trust or doubt one another, and roles where the level of power also shifts constantly.
2018年9月29日至10月04日，年度特别项目RAM HIGHLIGHT 2018: “谁的身体？”将于上海外滩美术馆隆重呈现。继2016年首届“张鼎：风卷残云” 和2017年“错置”的成功举办，上海外滩美术馆继续挑战传统展览的界限，邀请公众参与作品互动，走入糅合展览、演唱会、表演、工作坊、讲座等多元形式的艺聚空间。“谁的身体？”由上海外滩美术馆资深策展人谢丰嵘策划，邀请来自不同领域的四位／组艺术家，作品包括绘画、行为、录像、实时动作捕捉科技等等，聚焦讨论由视觉主宰的生活习惯与思考是如何改变人们认知身体的方式及人与人之间的关系。
“身处于消费文化高度发展的时代，我们的生活充斥着各种符号建构而成的社会景观，特别在智能手机普及后，更是加速催化了视觉中心主宰的思维模式，相对地弱化了对身体的认知与想象。透过这个项目与艺术家的创作，不在于要翻转性地改变人们对于身体的认知，而是提醒观众此一现象的存在；并以艺术实践作为文化研究的方法，针对身体从多方面来探讨或发掘新的认知路径。”上海外滩美术馆资深策展人谢丰嵘说道。人们是否越来越依赖视觉捕捉信息，而逐渐忽略了其他感官？但是身体与环境之间的互动向来就是调动多重感官，协调共感之后，进而让寄托在身体上的主体产生认知与经验。 “谁的身体？”试图调动身体的其他感知系统，反思不同层面的身体议题，追问诸多关于身体与主体的议题：比如身份认同政治、文化经济下的标准化身体、机能不全的身体、身体的消耗、身体与空间、脑科学与身体的关系、次文化群体的身体、控制与被控制的身体等。
本次展览共有四组作品：艾萨·霍克森将化身迪士尼白雪公主，与搭档共同演绎作品《公主研究》。2005年，香港迪士尼乐园开业，来自菲律宾的大批舞蹈家被雇佣作为职业艺人，以重复“幸福”的标准化表演作为他们的日常工作。然而他们被排除在主要角色之外，被分配到无名的配角。艺术家的表演将颠覆既有准则，以非白人的身体演绎白雪公主，解构此一经典的身份符号。吴艳丹策划了三场实验性表演工作坊，亲自引导、示范参与者与“身体”主题相关的运动。例如参与者通过身体局部受限，来强化第六感感知能力的作品《多项失灵》；或是作品《萃取》需完成特定设置的高强度心肺训练，收集索取训练所产生的汗水，探讨“消耗”究竟是失去抑或重新获得能量；《条件与协调》则是探索人与空间的关系，创造个体“身体叙事”。陆扬的作品《脑制御士》通过脑科学中汲取知识，将身体与精神世界联系，看似动漫、御宅文化、游戏感的作品背后蕴藏的是艺术家从不同文化甚至宗教对“身体”的相异解读。而此次也将邀请作品中所引用的《大脑前庭电气刺激试验》大阪大学研究团队，在本次展览中以工作坊的形式呈现，公众有机会体验使用遥控器控制自己行走方向的奇妙感受。韦努里·佩雷拉和郑金亨擅长表演难以言说的微妙关系，其中作品《韦努里与金亨》制定了简单的游戏规则，当她们重复这个规则时，时而信任，时而怀疑。角色在不断切换，权力也在不断转移。
