Performance: Untitled (working)

Foreword for Untitled (working)

published on 13 August 2021 by Jennifer YUE Yuen Yu

​

Reviewing the past curation, Landescape1823 has moved from organizing events to exhibitions and to projects. We always promote the site-specificity and avoid installing anything definitive. The artist-oriented aim of curation gradually leads to problem solving outcomes behind the underlined arts funding agendas. The social inclusion is inevitable to Landecape1823 when embedding the artist in the social field. Hence, Landescape1823 is finding a breakthrough by switching to Projectivity, to include a totality of the situation rather than addressing the environment with a theoretical/critical framework. Humbled to be invited by 135YCS, we hope to generate a method that can create imaginative connection within the space of the exhibition “Yu Chau Street Temporary Playground” (YCSTP)  through a performance. 

We describe our site-specific works in abandoned places as happenings. In 2021, Landescape1823 had a debut collective performance in the exhibition “A Clockwork Lai Chi”, and unexpectedly provided a platform for 11 artists' individual or collective performances to happen. Many artists including myself experienced the first performance, and were attracted by the potential of performance. In abandoned places, we were inspired by “in-situ” whereas in performance, we collectively produced “situations”. We took the initiative to take action, interfacing with reality, taking steps - however small - to show the entity masked by aesthetic façade. 

The position of flâneur has switched to the audiences, as the audience transforms from a static spectator to an active participant. The disruptions by performers cancel out the proscenium division between performers and audiences, when the audience becomes an occupier instead of a visitor in the performance. Provided temporary community and the environment by the site-specificity in 135YCS, the audience are perceived as plural, a combination of participants and viewers. 

Different from the delegated performances usually adopted by contemporary performances and theatre. This performance is an experimental collaboration based on collective authorship, where artists are the executor, who have direct control which opens up a context for the possibility of exchange and dialogue. In YCSTP,  Landescape1823 has invited a professional-amateur dancer, Piang, to use her dancing skill as ready-made object, an artist, Michelle Tam Man Ching, to create sound through a synthesizer, and Jennifer Yue, who is the founder of Landescape1823. The connections between the individual and collective have been interchanging along the formal laxity and improvisation.

Reluctant to describe myself as a curator, a collaborator is preferred, who works alongside the artist as an artist. Artists are always invited and they will make or not make in the past exhibitions. The proximity with other artists is a conundrum in a collective. I hope to maximize the strength of a media through putting the right ones together. 

When the world is so organized, I hope Landescape1823 can act as a mediator/buffer to redistribute the same world by bridging the various islands with

cross-communication. 

​

回顧過去的策展，Landescape1823 在2020至2022年間已經從組織活動轉向展覽和項目。我們始終提倡地源性 （site-specificity），並避免安裝任何確定性（definitive）的裝置。以藝術家為導向（artist-oriented）的策展目標漸漸因贊助議程傾向以解決問題為重心。 當Landecape1823 將藝術家放入社會領域時，社會包容（social inclusion）是不可避免的。因此，Landescape1823 通過切換到計劃模式（projectivity ）來尋找突破、包括整體情況，而不是用理論/批判性框架的前設再以藝術來解決問題。今次很榮幸受135YCS @135.ycs 的邀請，讓我們在展覽「汝洲街臨時遊樂場」（汝）的空間內實驗一場表演。

我們從前在廢棄地方做的作品描述為一場的發生（happening）。Landescape1823在2021年展覽「發條荔枝」展覽中首次發表集體表演（collective performance），為11位藝術家的個人或集體表演提供了平台。包括我在內很多藝術家都經歷了第一次演出，因而被表演的潛力所吸引。在廢棄的地方，我們受到「原地」（in-situ）的啟發;而在表演中，我們集體製造了「情景」（situation）。我們主動採取行動，與現實接軌，試圖展示被美學掩蓋的實體。

與過往的策展不同，觀眾在表演中從靜態的旁觀者轉變為積極的參與者，遊蕩者（flâneur）的角色從藝術家轉移到觀眾身上。表演者的干擾消除了表演者和觀眾之間的舞台劃分（proscenium），觀眾成為表演中的佔據者（occupier）。加上135YCS的場地特定性，提供了臨時社區（temporary community ）和環境（environment） ，觀眾包括參與者和觀眾。

不同於當代演出和戲劇通常採用的委託演出（delegated performance）。此次表演是集體作者（collective authorship）的實驗性合作（experimental collaboration）：藝術家是執行者，他們有直接的控制權，為交流和對話的可能性開闢了空間。Landescape1823邀請了專業的業餘舞者 @yukilokk 將她的舞蹈技巧作為現成物；藝術家 @ching_ching988 通過合成器創造聲音；以及藝術家 @jenniferyueyuenyu 成就了此次接演。個人和集體之間的聯繫一直在形式放鬆（formal laxit）和即興發揮（improvisation）互相交纏。

我一向不願成為一個「策展人」，而是作為藝術家與藝術家一起工作的「合作者」（collaborator）。藝術家在過去的展覽中總是被邀請，他們可以隨便創作或不創作。但在一個集體創作中，我與其他藝術家的距離 （proximity）總是一個難題。在這次表演中，我希望把合適的媒體放在一起，令媒體能透過藝術家展出最大的力量。

當世界如此井井有條， 我希望未來Landescape1823 能充當調解者（mediator）/緩衝區（ buffer） 的平台，通過連接各個島嶼來重新分配這個世界。

-Landescape1823 

​