project retrospective | An Opera for Animals@Para Site | 22/F, Wing Wah Industrial Building, 677 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

keikowang97
2024年7月4日
讀畢需時 6 分鐘

DATE | Mar 23, 2019 – Jun 2, 2019

LOCATION | Para Site| 22/F & 6/F

Wing Wah Industrial Building, 677 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

artists |

Kenojuak Ashevak, Shuvinai Ashoona, Firelei Baez, Julie Buffalohead, Lee Bul, Chen Qiulin, Ali Cherri, Clara Cheung, Narcisa Chindoy, Lok Chitrakar, Chto Delat, Cui Jie, Juan Davila, Heri Dono, Ticio Escobar, Jes Fan, Sofia Ferrer, Fifita Family, Chitra Ganesh, Beatriz González, Ho Tzu Nyen, Vivian Ho, Saodat Ismailova, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Alexander Kluge, Lawrence Lek, Candice Lin, Euan Macdonald, David Medalla, Barayuwa Munuŋgurr, Ciprian Mureşan, Adam Nankervis, Kelly Nipper, Gabriel Pareyon, Gary Ross Pastrana, Tim Pitsiulak, Gala Porras Kim, Christoph Schlingensief, Simon Soon, Angela Su, Tao Hui, Wang Wei, Ming Wong, Haegue Yang, Yang Shen, Yee I-Lann, Samson Young, Robert Zhao Renhui, Constanze Zikos

參與項目回顧 | @para site | Hong Kong

參展藝術家：Kenojuak Ashevak、Shuvinai Ashoona、Firelei Baez、Julie Buffalohead、李昢、陳秋林、Ali Cherri、張嘉莉、Narcisa Chindoy、Lok Chitrakar、Chto Delat、崔潔、Juan Davila、Heri Dono、Ticio Escobar、范加、Sofia Ferrer、Fifita家族、Chitra Ganesh、Beatriz González、何子彥、何博欣、Saodat Ismailova、Ilya and Emilia Kabakov、Alexander Kluge、陸明龍、林從欣、Euan Macdonald、David Medalla、Barayuwa Munuŋgurr、Ciprian Mureşan、Adam Nankervis、Kelly Nipper、Gabriel Pareyon、Gary Ross Pastrana、Tim Pitsiulak、Gala Porras Kim、Christoph Schlingensief、孫先勇、徐世琪、陶輝、王衛、黃漢明、梁慧圭、楊深、Yee I-Lann、楊嘉輝、趙仁輝、Constanze Zikos

“Opera” has been used as the name to describe various traditions of performance, social arrangement, entertainment, and spiritual work from around the world. Many of these are ancient and radically different from each other but are nevertheless classified as regional variants of the (relatively young) Western model. But more than being yet another example of lingering colonial taxonomy, this brings into discussion the status of opera as the highest art form, reflecting the European colonial project. There is an almost perfect chronological overlap between the golden age of Western opera and Europe’s occupation of most of the world, at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. There are, as well, the obvious cases of operas built on exotic desire like Turandot and Madama Butterfly or the case of Aida, commissioned for the inauguration of the Suez Canal. But there is more to this than just chronological coincidence.

The scale of ambition needed to imagine the absolute art form that opera was, aiming to organise every aspect and implication of the viewer’s experience, is intimately connected to that moment of absolute hubris when Europe imagined that it could dominate and reorganise the entire world. But European opera was not only a form of bourgeois entertainment, even one that was celebrating the glory of imperial conquest. These total spectacles, held in some of the grandest buildings erected in this time period—in the symbolic urban position previously occupied by cathedrals—with society neatly organised by class facing the elaborate scene on the stage, were in many ways quasi-religious experiences, where European glory was not just a subject of the performance but a collectively lived ecstatic apotheosis.

This was happening as Europe was priding itself on its modern rationality, seeing itself in opposition to the “animist” world of the peoples it was occupying at the same time. The modern view, deeply connected to the colonial project, also changed the physical, emotional, and symbolic relationship between humans and animals, elevating the status of humans, in a view radically different from many indigenous systems of knowledge and value. But European opera contained the clues exposing this charade, for it was far from its official claim of a secular spectacle, amusing a modern society. The phantoms, monsters, and sacred animals of European Empires have always haunted these opera houses, where they were sacrificed, channeled, and embodied within the great shrines of modernity.

An Opera for Animals is nevertheless interested in how these complexities are still alive, even after the demise of the colonial era and of Western opera as a fully living art form. As a parallel discussion, it includes less discussed connections between European classical music and other music systems. More extensively, the exhibition looks at different acts of staging that have been crucial to our imagination of modernity. The conflicts of staging, controlling, hiding, and repressing that occur within the operatic space are at the very core of our contemporary reality, defined by constructed and “alternative” truths, digital parallel worlds, self-staging of personal identities, and the increasingly palpable promise of a new technological turn in the field of intelligence. As such, the exhibition understands opera and related issues such as “staging” and “operatic environment” broadly, as terms describing the synthetic landscapes imagined and generated in our world today. Equally, the animal spirit connects the still very present ancient beliefs with a highly futuristic fear of new forms of irrationality and intelligence colonising our future. The world of technology continues to draw influence from the unique characteristics of certain animal species, enforcing this connection.

This exhibition explores the way in which the future is now projected less as the rational thinking commonly remembered from the post-war era – advanced machinery, design, and social forms – but once more as a place of amorphous fear, of animals that might take over in artificial landscapes. The future it seems, will again be an opera for animals.

An Opera for Animals is curated by Cosmin Costinas and Claire Shea.

An Opera for Animals at Para Site, Hong Kong (Mar 23-Jun 9, 2019) is a prelude to a partnership with Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. Between Jun 22 – Aug 25, 2019 at Rockbund Art Museum, and Sep – Dec 2020 at Para Site, the two institutions will develop and present together two related exhibitions.

百物曲

Mar 23, 2019 – Jun 2, 2019

地點 | Para Site藝術空間

香港鰂魚涌英皇道677號榮華工業大廈6樓、22樓

「歌劇」一詞常用於描述發生在世界各地的表演、社會活動、娛樂、信仰等傳統。這些傳統大多歷史悠久且迥然不同，然而它們仍被籠統地稱為「歌劇」，稱為這一（相對年輕的）西方模板的地方形式。這種殖民歷史所遺留的簡單分類法促使我們重新反思歌劇作爲最高藝術形式的地位，以及與之密切相關的歐洲殖民歷史。從時間上來看，西方歌劇的黃金時代與歐洲的版圖擴張都發生在十九世紀末與二十世紀初，兩者幾乎完美重合——然而這並不僅是時間上的巧合，從《杜蘭多》到《蝴蝶夫人》，再到爲蘇伊士運河落成而特別創作的《阿依達》，在歌劇中，以異域渴望為核心的敘事在歌劇中時常可見。

作爲一種藝術形式，歌劇試圖透過對每個細節、橋段的控制來主導觀眾的體驗，這種野心與當時歐洲認爲自己可以掌控並重組世界的自負密切相關。但是，即使是那些歌頌帝國征程之榮光的歌劇作品，也不僅是一種布爾喬亞的娛樂。當時的劇院的華麗建築常建於曾經矗立著教堂的城市地標之上，社會成員按照階級的劃分被分佈在建築四周，面對着舞臺精美的場景，一如某種準宗教式的體驗。在這裏，歐洲的榮光不僅僅是表演的對象，也是一種集體的崇拜與狂歡。

彼時的歐洲正沉浸在對自身現代理性的驕傲之中，而被他們佔領的「泛靈論」世界則被視為這種理性的反面。這些與殖民計劃息息相關的現代觀念也從物理、情緒與象徵層面改變着人類與動物間的關係。這種觀念將人的地位不斷抬高，繼而與許多本土知識與價值系統形成根本的差異。然而，歐洲歌劇也包含着揭露這種假象的線索，因爲它遠非官方所宣稱的那種用於娛樂現代社會的世俗奇觀。歐洲帝國的幽靈、怪獸與神聖動物一直揮散不去地縈繞著歌劇院，它們在那裏被獻祭、被召喚，並被呈現於現代性的聖祠之中。

展覽《百物曲》感興趣的是，隨著殖民時代的消亡和西方歌劇全盛時期的結束，上述的複雜性何以仍然生生不息。作爲平行討論，展覽也涵蓋了一個此前鮮有討論的問題，即歐洲古典音樂與其他音樂體系之間的關聯。同時，是次展覽也在更加寬泛的語境中，考察那些對我們的現代性想象至關重要的、不同的演出行爲。歌劇空間中有關演出、控制、隱藏與抑制的衝突正是我們所面對的當代現實的核心，例如那些人造的「替代」真相、數字平行世界、個人身份的自我表演，以及在智能領域愈發顯著的新科技轉向。因此，是次展覽以一種更加寬泛的方式來理解歌劇以及與它相關的「演出」與「舞台」等問題，並藉助這些術語來描述現今世界所想象並生成的合成風景。同樣地，動物之靈也連接着當下依舊可見的古老信仰與一種充滿未來感的恐懼，即新形式的非理性與智能對未來的殖民。與此同時，技術世界繼續從不同物種的特性中汲取靈感，進一步強化著這種關聯。

今天預見未來的方式已從戰後常見的理性思考——先進的機器、設計與社會制度——再次轉變爲某種無法預料的恐懼，以及可能被動物之地以及接替人造景觀的動物之境。未來，或許會再次成爲「百物曲」。《百物曲》由康喆明及謝清策劃。

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