新展预告 | 几近天堂：错识/亚太地区的闲暇和劳作

几近天堂

错识/亚太地区的闲暇和劳作

展览时间：2021年10月30日 — 2021年12月12日

展览地点：上海多伦现代美术馆（上海市虹口区多伦路27号）

指导单位：虹口区文化和旅游局

主办单位：上海多伦现代美术馆

承办单位：莫曼特文化传播

支持单位：新西兰驻上海总领事馆

赞助单位：以敖以游、澜影艺术、百祺酒庄（Babich）

技术服务：上海铭逸国际货运代理有限公司、全摄影画廊OFOTO

策展人：魏皓啟（Hutch Wilco,新西兰）、张婷

艺术家：凯西•卡特（Cathy Carter，新西兰）、克里斯托弗•乌鲁图普（Christopher Ulutupu，新西兰/萨摩亚/纽埃）、艾萨•霍克森（Eisa Jocson，菲律宾）、盖文•希普金斯（Gavin Hipkins，新西兰）、佳思敏•多戈-布里斯比（Jasmine Togo-Brisby，澳大利亚/新西兰/瓦努阿图）、约翰•威尔（John Vea，汤加/新西兰）、劳拉•林赛-帕克（Lara Lindsay-Parker，新西兰）、厉槟源（中国）、李消非（中国）、刘广云（中国）、倪卫华（中国）、倪有鱼（中国）、潘子申（中国）、蒲英玮（中国）、赵赵（中国）、周雨歌（中国）

继2020年11月20日在上海多伦现代美术馆成功开幕的“远南之递：来自大洋洲的当代影像艺术”（Southern Transmissions-Contemporary Video Art from Oceania）展之后，时隔一年，由策展人魏皓啟（Hutch Wilco）和张婷联合策划的“几近天堂：错识/亚太地区的闲暇和劳作”（Almost Paradise: Mis/Perceptions of Leisure and Labour in the Asia-Pacific）展将于2021年10月30日下午3点30分再次拉开帷幕。展览由上海多伦现代美术馆主办，莫曼特文化传播承办，在上海市虹口区文化和旅游局的指导和新西兰驻上海总领事馆的支持下，邀请十六位来自新西兰、萨摩亚、纽埃、汤加、菲律宾等太平洋和东南亚岛国以及中国当代艺术家的22件摄影、影像和装置作品参展。

如果说“远南之递”展是首次尝试通过以南太地区创作所搭建的微型民族影像档案，向中国公众展现来自太平洋原住民的岛国传统和当代艺术，并推动全球语境下民族志的有机发展是初始版，那么进阶版本的“几近天堂”展则着力于凸显亚太地区“闲暇”和“劳作”的两个端口属性，发起一次联结南太平洋和中国艺术之间的深度对话。

 《冰山2号》,凯西•卡特（新西兰）,摄影,2018年

《母语》,佳思敏·多戈-布里斯比（新西兰/澳大利亚/瓦努阿图）,影像，2020年

《这周就要结束！》，约翰•威尔（新西兰/汤加），影像，2014年

《一块巧克力》，李消非，影像，2014年

 《逍遥游（未曾谋面）》，倪有鱼，老照片拼贴，2019-2021年

长期以来，亚太地区总是一个存在于想象世界的“悠闲”之地。在历史的痕迹中，田园诗一般的太平洋季风陆地和群岛激励着欧洲移民不断前往遥远的海岸线，在香料运输之路当中建立起殖民贸易的前哨。香料之路不仅运回新奇的异国调味品，也带回关于珍禽异兽以及那片水域上“高贵的纯洁野人”（身材健硕而性格直率的南太男性岛民）和“神秘的褐色少女”（皮肤黝黑性感而性格含蓄的南太女性岛民）的奇妙传说。移民对于南太地区艺术发展的影响从早期远航太平洋的官方艺术家带去的印象主义风格（联想十九世纪末到达塔希提的高更）到南太地区天文研究的兴起，从全球化政治到地方性经济，追逐太平洋“乐园”的想象和余温一直延续到今天。如今，人类的跨境迁徙早已成为司空见惯的社会现象，背负度假胜地和低廉成本的既定印象，亚太地区的本土居民流散四方，在这个星球的每一个角落里勤恳生活和奋力劳作。对于某些国家而言，比如菲律宾的合同工已经成为该国最大的出口贸易类型；新西兰和澳大利亚每年依赖周边岛国的季节性农业工人维持其稳定的生产能力；中国则成为国际留学资源的最大输出国。显然，“亚洲——世界工厂”和“太平洋——世界乐园”的固有话术仍在影响着亚太地区的社会文化和发展谋略。

《女超人KTV》（Superwoman KTV）,艾萨·霍克森（菲律宾）,影像装置，2019年

《填空--50000颗珍珠》,刘广云（中国）,影像，2015年

在“几近天堂：错识/亚太地区的闲暇和劳作”展览中，来自太平洋和东南亚的原住民艺术家持续用影像语言向中国的观众描绘着远南岛屿的历史和现实，而中国的艺术家们则通过多元的媒介手段回应飞速发展中的亚洲进程。充满季风气息的视觉融合空间想象，个体体验融入群体记忆并形成本民族的今天。对于区域多边的艺术家们来说，透过艺术创作去共建当代的亚太社会叙事、传承丰厚的太平洋民族文化遗产、助推地缘美学价值的持续发展都是长久的愿景，而传统和当代的交织回响也有赖根植于本土文化的他们深耕细作，不懈地推动着地区艺术的迭代共进。（文中图片来源于展览组织方以及相关艺术家和艺术机构）

《水坝剧场：我想要现代》，蒲英玮（中国），影像，2020-2021年

It was said “Southern Transmissions" was the first attempt to use contemporary video art created in the South Pacific region to show the Chinese public the island traditions and contemporary art from a Pacific perspective, and to promote ethnography in a global context. Where “Southern Transmissions” was developed as a non-thematic presentation of recent practices, “Almost Paradise” is conceived as a conceptual sequel highlighting the perceived binary attributes of the Asia-Pacific as both an idyll and simultaneously “the world’s factory.” Taking this stereotype as a starting point, “Almost Paradise” seeks to upend and unsettle such perceptions.

The Asia Pacific has long been a place defined by Western imagination. Not long after Europeans established trade routes, painters, and later, photographers were dispatched to create idyllic images of the region to encourage migration and settlement. Companies such as the British East India Company, sold a unified, bucolic vision of pleasant climes, lands waiting to be cultivated, dusky maidens, noble savages, and endless opportunity. The reality was, of course, more complicated, yet these early notions and portrayals of the Asia Pacific, as a place of both idle leisure and cheap labor, continues to permeate throughout popular culture to this day.

The binary perception of Asia as a place of vast material and human resources, and the Pacific as a gentleman’s playground, was always complicated by the realities of life for the local inhabitants. For example, Jasmine Togo-Brisby’s poignant video concerns the decades-long practice of “blackbirding,” a romanticized colloquialism for the Pacific slave trade, and its legacy for those who trace their roots to New Zealand and Australia through the slave-diaspora.

John Vea’s work alludes to the harsh realities for seasonal workers from the Pacific: welcomed for their strength, they work long hours for pay that barely covers the cost of food. Ni Weihua’s photographs also draw attention to the hardship and precarity of migrant labor, while Eisa Jocson’s work acknowledges hidden forms of labor: the large numbers of migratory workers in the entertainment industries.

Zhou Yuge similarly portrays complicated forms of labor and leisure in her work, presenting highly constructed images of athletes performing repetitive actions, appearing both mechanical and beautifully abstract. Meanwhile, Zhao Zhao’s work considers the impact of a simple material—cotton—and the significant role it has played in human history and its contribution to the rise of nations.

Other works in the exhibition consider the historical connections between colonialism and image making, and its continuity with the tourism industry today. Gavin Hipkins, and Ni Youyu each explore the role of the image as placemaker, while Cathy Carter and Lara Lindsay-Parker problematize the very notion of nature itself in relation to a subjective paradise.

Each of the artists in Almost Paradise illuminate the contradictions and pretensions inherent in the narratives that have sought to define our region, and in doing so, they enlarge and diffuse the locational episteme beyond the simple binary.

In the exhibition "Almost Paradise: Mis/perceptions of Leisure and Labor in the Asia-Pacific,” artists from the Pacific and Southeast Asia continue to use moving image to depict the history and reality of the region to Chinese audiences, while Chinese artists supplement the exhibition with narratives that express local experiences and concerns. The combination of this multiplicity of voices challenges and utterly problematizes Westerncentric mythologies, as well as contemporary media reports, of life in the region. “Almost Paradise” presents a rich set of complementary and, often times, cacophonous visions of a complex region with overlapping histories, cultural heritage, strategic ambitions, aesthetics, politics, traditions, and stories. (Images in this text are credited to the organizer and relavant artist and art instition)

Tips

美术馆开放时间

Opening hours

周二至周日

Tuesday to Sunday

10:00-18:00（17:30 停止入场）

周一闭馆

Closed on Mondays

美术馆没有停车区域

No parking space available

Address

上海市虹口区多伦路27号

No.27 Duolun Road,Hongkou District,Shanghai