策展論述

文/莊偉慈(策展人)

地方是個先於科學的生活事實,以我們經驗世界的方式為基礎。──克雷斯威爾(Tim Cresswell)


空總臺灣當代文化實驗場(C-LAB)自 2018 年起,帶著新型態文化計畫進駐舊空軍總司令部,在此基地上試圖建構以文化實驗為核心價值的藝術場域。在過去三年中,C-LAB 推動的「實驗建築」計畫,從不同脈絡探索場域內涵,如「負育群帶聚落」著眼於園區基地的紋脈探討,「紅磚未來式」聚焦永續都市的概念實踐。延續對園區空間變遷的反思,「勒法利計畫」(Project: The Folly)以 C-LAB 所在的台北市為起點,試著從空間本身的多義性,探討其內涵與外延的意義。

1
在英國 19 世紀園林設計中,folly 專指具有裝飾性而無實用功能的建築。1982 年,建築師楚米(Bernard TSCHIMI)在巴黎維萊特公園(The Parc de la Villette)設置多個紅色鋼構的建築體,做為可容納各種事件發生的場所。楚米利用 folly 可容納觀念與實驗性的特質,用以討論公園作為都市居民生活空間的新角色,這些構築物不僅前衛而新穎,也擾動了民眾與維萊特公園的關係。時至今日,folly 不單單是指無實際功能的裝飾性建築,它更是一個「不完全是建築、不完全是雕塑,也不為特定對象存在的構造物」。其具有開放性的內涵,使得 folly 不只是一種建築實體,也擴延成為具有實驗性,可詮釋理念的形式。

「勒法利計畫」取用 folly 具實驗與觀念性的特質,提議一種新的觀看角度,藉以理解我們當下的生活狀態,與在城市中所發生的事件。回顧園區與基地的歷史,我們不難發現其空間的意義與功能,隨著不同階段持續地轉換。也因為這種變動性,當人們欲提問並且指稱 C-LAB「是一個什麼樣的『地方』(place)」時,此一行動也正映照出其伴隨變動而產生的特殊性。

2
人文地理學家克雷斯韋爾(Tim CRESSWELL)曾指出,一個地方,不僅代表著它是一個被人類所創造的「有意義的空間」,它同時也是可被定義,且是有意義的區位(location)。[1]關於地方的解釋有許多不同的切入角度,在建築師或是都市規劃師的脈絡,他們總是試著要召喚地方感——一個被眾人所認同的地方,也意味著它們是城市歷史的一部分,並有著被認同的位置。換句話說,一個可被認識的地方、有意義的地方,代表其背後總有人的介入痕跡,不論這股介入的力量為何、地方的認識論合宜與否,總是與其創造的力量相關。

而地方感的形成,則可參照美國地理學家普瑞德(Allan PRED)的概念,他援引紀登斯(Anthony GIDDENS)的「結構化」(structuration)理論和威廉斯(Raymond WILLIAMS)提出的「感覺結構」(structure of feeling),指出我們感覺到的地方,都是個體積極參與時空之流的結構歷程、不斷變化而出現的副產品。房屋、道路、田野,以及一切其他人造物,所有相關活動,透過「佔用地方(taking place)或佔有和轉換空間及自然,而共同建構、維繫與塑造了地方,而這是基於意識形態的特殊目標及意圖的結果」。[2] 他認為,個人的主體行動和結構性的制度相互辯證,構成了結構化歷程,而地方與地方感(感覺結構)是其中關鍵層面,是人們在日常路徑和制度性計畫交錯的時空流中,緩慢堆疊形成的。

3
如何思考地方、理解地方的建構模式和定義何謂地方,也是「勒法利計畫」所欲關注的面向,特別是本次展場的位置位於美援大樓,空間原本被賦予的功能與規劃建設的痕跡,在軍事功能退位、文化機構進駐之後,讓這個建築實體的符旨被抽空而徒留符徵,並處於一個持續變動而渾沌曖昧的狀態。因此,整個展覽場域被規劃為一個臨時性的 folly,邀請藝術家以不同的取徑,探索人與空間的關係,以及場所的意涵。

首先,展覽嘗試反轉 C-LAB 展場(美援大樓)和園區空間的觀看方式。由於展場所在地和展場空間,與一般美術場館迥異,因此有部分作品聚焦與現場對話。此現場同時指涉展覽空間的異質性,以及所在地本身含括的歷史、建築、交通與經濟脈絡。在這些作品中,包括陳萬仁、戴翰泓、邱承宏和廖建忠,皆利用展場環境與現地條件,創造出重新理解美援大樓和 C-LAB 園區的視角。

第二,展覽試圖探索關於「地方」的意涵,特別是藉由作品重新理解城市既有系統,以及其相關空間的紋理構成。吳燦政、凌天、陳曉朋、莊普、蕭有志與泰國藝術家阿農・南堯(Arnont NONOGYAO),分別以不同類型的創作,探索個體與城市的關係、公共空間的紋理、再現寓居(dwelling)的痕跡,以及建築計畫/構築物如何能作為活化群體關係的介面。

「勒法利計畫」試圖藉由建築和藝術計畫介入,借用關係的反轉、視點的跳躍和改變,以取得描繪當下生活的新觀點。展覽探索空間本身的質性,並從構築物用以隱喻、改變人與其空間的關係,試圖從中從講究效用的功利主義與都市設計概念尋找破口。當我們摒除實用主義,以藝術或創造性的手法介入空間之後,我們是否能在後疫情時代的當下,重新理解此時此地的現實狀態?

[1] Tim Cresswell,徐苔玲、王志弘譯,《地方:記憶、想像與認同》,台北市:群學,2006。
[2] Allan Pred, “Structuration and Place: On the Becoming of Sense of Place and Structure of Feeling”,
Journal for the Theory of Social-Behavior, Vol,13, No.1, March, pp45-68.

Curatorial Statement

Text/CHUANG Wei-Tzu (Curator)

“Place is a fact of life that precedes science and rests upon the way we experience the world.” —Tim CRESSWELL

Since 2018, the C-LAB has not only run the space of the former Air Force Command Headquarters with cultural projects in unprecedented forms, but also endeavored to transform this site into an artistic incubator that treats innovative cultural experimentation as its core values. Over the past three years, the C-LAB launched several “experimental architecture” projects that ventured into the essence of this site from different contextual perspectives. For example, “Collective Negative Space Village” concentrated on the relational evolution of this site, whilst “The Brick-O” applied the concept of sustainable city to practical situations. Unfolding from Taipei City in which the C-LAB is located, “Project: The Folly” follows the previous reflection on the change of this site, insofar as to investigate its connotations and implications by reference to its inherent ambiguity.

1
In Victorian Britain, “folly” was a garden design jargon for decorative architecture with no practical use. In 1982, architect Bernard TSCHIMI installed multiple steel structures painted in red as the venues for various events in the Parc de la Villette, Paris. He harnessed the special quality of “folly,” viz., capable of accommodating concepts and experimentation, to discuss the new role of a park as a living space for urban dwellers. Apart from exuding an avant-garde aura of novelty, these structures also challenged the original relations between people and the park. Today, a folly is no longer simply an ornamental building that doesn’t serve much of a practical purpose, but a “structure that cannot be certainly classified as architecture or sculpture and doesn’t treat any specific target as its raison d’être.” It has open and flexible connotations, which transmutes itself from a physical structure into a form for experimentation and interpretation.

Inspired by the experimental and conceptual qualities of “folly,” “Project: The Folly” proposes a new viewing angle to grasp our present living conditions and urban events. Reviewing the past of this historic site, we can easily notice that the meaning and function of its space continue to vary in different periods. It is such fluctuation that renders this site one of a kind when people ask the question as to “what kind of ‘place’ the C-LAB is” and meanwhile try to offer an answer.

2
Anthropogeographer Tim CRESSWELL pointed out that a place is not just a space to which people have attached significance, but also a definable, meaningful location.[1] The concept of “place” has been interpreted from a riotous profusion of perspectives. Architects or urban planners tend to evoke the sense of place—a place that the multitude identify with, which implies that the place is a recognized part of the city’s history. To put it another way, there are always traces of human intervention in a recognizable, meaningful place. No matter what the intervening force may be and how proper the epistemology is, it is always bound up with the place’s power of creativity.

When it comes to the formation of the sense of place, we can refer to the concept formulated by American geographer Allan PRED. He integrated Anthony GIDDENS’ theory of structuration with Raymond WILLIAMS’ structure of feeling, arguing that all the places we perceived are little more than the by-products of individuals’ active engagement in the ever-changing structure of space-time. Houses, streets, fields, and all other artificial objects, along with every associated activity, “collectively construct, maintain, and shape places by means of taking place or occupying and transforming spaces and nature, and this is a consequence resulting from specific ideological objectives and intentions.”[2] Pred believes that individuals’ subjective actions and structural institutions stand in a dialectical relationship to each other, from which the process of structuration unfolds, and the crux of the matter lies in the place and the sense of place (structure of feeling) gradually accumulated in the flow of space-time interlaced by people’s quotidian routines and institutional projects.

3
Another key issue to be tackled in
Project: The Folly is how to contemplate, comprehend, and define places and place-building, particularly when the Art Space V (i.e., the U.S. Aid Building) at the C-LAB serves as the exhibition venue. Since the C-LAB, a cultural institution, took over this former military space, this building has been detached from its original function, design, and connotation, becoming an empty existence in a state of instability and ambiguity. Accordingly, we transform the entire exhibition venue into a provisional folly that beckons, inviting the artists to explore the human-space relation and the meaning of this place through different approaches.

First of all, “Project: The Folly” experiments with a reversed viewing angle on the exhibition venue (i.e., the U.S. Aid Building) in the spatial layout of the C-LAB. Given that the location and space of the exhibition venue are radically different from those of ordinary art museums, some of the exhibits in this project set great store by meaningful dialogues with the site. This site harbors not only the heterogeneity of the exhibition space per se, but also the contextual evolution of this location’s history, architecture, transportation, and economy. Among all the participating artists, CHEN Wan-Jen, TAI Han-Hong, CHIU Chen-Hung, and LIAO Chien-Chung utilize the exhibition venue’s environment and the in-situ conditions to develop new perspectives that allow us to rediscover the U.S. Aid Building and the C-LAB.

Secondly, by virtue of all the exhibits, this project attempts to explore the meaning of “place,” especially to reacquaint us with the existing urban system and the rich texture of related spaces. With their respective works equally fascinating in result though different in approach, WU Tsan-Cheng, LING Tien, CHEN Shiau-Peng, TSONG Pu, HSIAO Yu-Chih, and Thai artist Arnont NONGYAO probe into the relations between individuals and the city as well as the texture of public spaces. They represent the traces of dwelling, and address the question as to how architectural plans/structures can act as the catalysts for revitalizing interpersonal relations of a group.

To sum up, “Project: The Folly” gains fresh perspectives on our contemporary life through the intervention of architectural/artistic projects, relational reversal, and non-consecutive change in viewpoint. In addition to exploring the nature of spaces, this project invokes the metaphor of structures to alter the human-space relation, with the aim of blazing a trail beyond benefit-oriented utilitarianism and urban-planning concepts. Can we comprehend the real-world situation here and now from a brand new perspective if we forsake pragmatism for artistic or creative intervention in the post-pandemic era?


[1] Tim Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004), p. 7.
[2] Allan Pred, “Structuration and Place: On the Becoming of Sense of Place and Structure of Feeling”,
Journal for the Theory of Social-Behavior, Vol,13, No.1, March, pp45-68.

策展人簡介──莊偉慈

臺灣當代文化實驗場策展人,前《藝術家》雜誌總編輯。長期關注台灣當代藝術發展現象,對於日常生活、性別議題於藝術中的實踐尤感興趣。近期策展為「Re:Play: 操/演現場」的「展演現場」(2020)。


About the Curator─CHUANG Wei-Tzu

CHUANG Wei-Tzu is the curator of Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB), and the former Editor in Chief of Artist Magazine. She has been highly interested in the diversity of contemporary art in TAIWAN, especially about everyday life and gender issue. Her recent curatorial project is “Display on Live” in C-LAB annual exhibition Re: Play (2020).

指導單位 Supervisor|文化部 Minister of Culture 主辦單位 Presenter|臺灣當代文化實驗場 Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab