No Song To Sing (2021) by Chan Hau Chan and Chui Chi Yin
陳巧真與徐智彥的《無調人間》（2021）
Guest Curator for the section "Performative Doc" (screening & exhibition)
客席策展人，《表演與紀錄》（放映與展覽）
【展覽】
30.09 - 31.10.2021
"Performative Doc" unfolds through both screenings and an exhibition, opening up a new platform to examine the relationship between these two modes of presentation. This parallel format fosters a constructive dialogue between different art practices and offers audiences a diverse viewing experience. The exhibition can be regarded as an expanded space for the screening programme, providing an immersive sensory experience and extended discussion. "Performative Doc" extends from screenings to the art exhibition "Expanded Space." The interplay between a traditional cinema screening space and an art exhibition space allows moving-image concepts to be situated within two distinctly different yet mutually illuminating spatial contexts, offering audiences a richer and more varied visual experience.
The exhibition title "Expanded Space" draws on the concept of "Expanded Cinema"—the idea that moving images need not be confined to cinema screenings but can extend into art spaces, generating an alternative viewing experience. Expanded Cinema can be realised through various means, such as video and sound installations, multiple projections, and other new systems of presentation within the gallery context. For this edition of "Expanded Space," we have collaborated with several promising local young artists and creators whose moving-image works respond to the theme of "Performative Doc." The participating artists are Chan Hau Chun, Chui Chih Yin, Hui Ka Chun, Shing Lee, Veronica Bassetto, itit Cheung, and Artscompana Limited.
Hui Ka Chun's Eye to Eye (2021) directly responds to the theme of this year's Jumping Frames Dance Video Festival—"Eye to Eye." Through a video installation, viewers can gaze into the artist's eyes, perceiving emotion through sight. At a time when the pandemic has made human connection all the more vital, Eye to Eye enables an intimate exchange between artist and audience.
This approach of using the moving image as a medium for human exchange is also evident in Veronica Bassetto's six-channel video installation Tear Inside (2021). The work transforms each television screen into a confining space containing a human figure. Six "performers" hold their breath in stillness as the camera captures the subtle shifts between reality and artifice, focusing on the emotional currents flowing across each face.
Chan Hau Chun and Chui Chih Yin's No Song To Sing (2021) transforms a film into a video installation within the gallery space, breaking free from linear narrative. Viewers can freely choose to watch five different camera angles of the same scene, rather than the single final take predetermined by the filmmaker. It is akin to a rehearsal repeated over and over—time cannot be relived, but the image can be liberated from its linear path. Atonal World is also screened as part of the "Performative Doc" shorts programme, allowing audiences to navigate between two entirely different modes of viewing and experience.
Beyond the visual, My Unlimited Stage (2021) is an experiment in transitioning from image to sound. Drawing on audio description—which relies on the voice to narrate the visual—the work extracts only the audio, inviting audiences to "listen to the image" in a darkened space and to perceive the filmed subjects through an entirely different sensory experience.
The exhibition also features two works that integrate live performance with moving image. Shing Lee's The Bronze Statue Man (2021) takes community spaces as its point of departure, unearthing overlooked landscapes and re-enacting the figure of a living statue. The work brings the experience of the street into the gallery through video and performance, exploring diverse bodily experiences while hovering in the liminal space between reality and fiction.
itit Cheung's Access to the Soma (2021) uses a film camera as its medium, employing self-portraiture to document the artist's movement and rhythm within space, captured through both moving and still images. While in motion, the artist holds their breath to measure time, transferring bodily subjectivity through the camera into the image. Both artists will perform live in the gallery at selected times.
"Performative Doc" extends beyond the realms of performing arts and documentary filmmaking. It opens up a fluid space in which, amid a fractured world, different artistic disciplines can reconnect and recombine. It allows performativity to disrupt our flattened, singular order, expanding the vast and boundless possibilities of life.
「表演與紀錄」以放映與展覽的並⾏⽅式，開闢出新的平台來審視兩種展現模式的關係與連結，並為不同的藝術形式構築有效的對話，為觀眾提供多元化的觀看經驗。展覽可視作放映單元的擴延空間， 並提供沉浸式的感官與延展的討論。「表演與紀錄」從放映引伸至藝術展覽「擴展的空間」。傳統的放映空間與藝術空間的互動能將影像概念置放於兩種截然不同、又互為對照的空間語境中實踐，並提供更多元的視覺經驗予觀眾。
展覽名稱 ”Expanded Space” （擴展的空間）乃借用 ”Expanded Cinema”（擴延電影）的概念—影像不限於電影院的放映，而是能延伸至藝術空間，產生另一種觀影經驗。擴延電影能以各類方式來實踐，如錄像裝置及多重投影等，讓影像能在展覽空間內鋪展。是次《擴展的空間》展覽結合多位本地年輕藝術家與創作者的影像作品，回應「表演與紀錄」的主題。參與藝術家：陳巧真、徐智彥、許嘉俊、李偉盛、⽩瑋琪、張國樑及藝造⼈才。
許嘉俊的《你眼望我眼》（2021）正好回應本屆跳格舞蹈影像節的主題－－「目及目」，通過影像裝置，我們能注視創作者的雙目，以眼透視情感。在疫情蔓延的當下，連結彼此變得異常重要，《你眼望我眼》讓創作者可與觀眾作緊密交流。
這種以影像展現人的動態來作交流媒介的方式，亦見於白瑋琪的六頻錄像裝置《撕裂》（2021）。作品將每台電視機轉化為盛載人像的壓迫空間，六位「表演者」屏息靜氣，鏡頭記錄了虛實之間的微妙變化，並對焦每張臉的情感流動。
陳巧真與徐智彥的《無調人間》（2021）則是由電影轉化成藝術空間內的影像裝置，突破線性的敘事方式，讓觀眾能隨意選擇觀看影片中同一場景的五個鏡頭，而非拍攝者早已選取的最終鏡頭。這尤如反覆重演的練習－－時間不能重來，但影像可從線性的路徑中解放。是次「表演與紀錄」的短片節目亦放映《無調人間》，讓觀眾能穿梭於兩種截然不同的觀看與體驗。
除了影像外，《我的無限舞台2.0》（2021）則是一次從影像過渡至聲音的實驗。原來的口述影像倚靠聲音來轉述影像，作品只抽取了聲音，讓觀眾可於漆黑的空間裡「聆聽影像」，以另一種感官經驗來認知被拍攝者。
展覽內亦有兩組結合表演與影像的作品。李偉盛的《銅像人》（2021）從社區空間出發，挖掘被忽略的風景，並以重演方式來扮演銅像人。作品將街頭的經驗通過影像與表演被帶進藝廊，探索多元的身體經驗，同樣迴旋於虛實之間的地帶。
張喆的《Access to the Soma》則以菲林相機作媒介，以自拍方式記錄藝術家於空間來的移動與律動，並同以動態與靜態的影像來記錄。藝術家於移動時屏氣來數算時間，並將其身體的主體性通過相機移往影像。二人會於部分時間在藝廊作實體演出。
表演與紀錄不止於表演藝術及影像紀錄，更是開放一個流動的空間，在分崩離析的現世讓不同藝術領域重新連結與組合，亦讓表演性撩動我們扁平單一的秩序，擴展生命中寬廣無盡的可能性。