《志趣相投》，裝置局部，熱昇華印刷尼龍布，木頭，銅，尺寸因場地而異，2018。
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《2 Weeks 異度空間 #4》
約翰‧蒙特斯—志趣相投
展覽期間：10.18 – 11.3, 2018.
開幕活動：10.18, 2018, 7-10pm
藝術家 Mria Prosphora, Soa 與荒芳將於10.18與28兩日演出，時間為 8pm。
參與藝術家：John Monteith, Mria Prosphora, Soa與荒芳, J Triangular, 余政達, 黃漢明, 范坡坡, Vika Kirchenbauer, Jean-Paul Kelly, Drew Lint, Byron Duvel 與 Phile Magazine.
台北當代藝術中心（TCAC）2018 推出全新系列《2 Weeks 異度空間》過程型展覽，以空間做為最主要的媒介，重新想像不確定性（uncertainty）、場景（the scene）與時間軸（timeline）於藝術實踐中的意義與可能性。並且透過各種觀看管道與方法，從不同角度呈現空間場景、敘事性與表演性如何隨著時間軸展現。
加拿大藝術家約翰‧蒙特斯在展覽《志趣相投》中同時扮演藝術家和策展人的角色，於TCAC的空間中製作全新的沉浸式裝置，其中包含一系列獨家設計的圖案旗幟。旗幟上的圖案基於蒙特斯最近的繪畫作品集，回應組成城市環境的各種社會交換關係網絡。各種城市景觀如摩天大樓和天際線、塔樓和建築物、區域、道路、公園、高速公路和道路以一系列疊加、重複、重新構造的幾何形狀重塑。重新詮釋的圖符暗喻暗示這些交換系統如何透過形式共鳴，同時藉由空間的替現政治得以展示。[1]
作為一個裝置，這些旗幟也將空間轉化為一個活躍的、非霸權的、慶祝差異的酷兒空間，《志趣相投》藉由抽象概念與肉身之間的關係，探索性別流動性、身份、親密、虛構、慾望、種族、自我表現。展覽作為大稻埕國際藝術節的一部分，並且與台北同志大遊行同時舉辦。蒙特斯預計邀請本地和國際酷兒行為表演藝術家以及影像與短片製作人，在這個象徵集會、參與與社群建立的開放空間展示他們的作品。
[1] Jayne Wilkinson, On John Monteith’s Resonances.
關於藝術家
約翰‧蒙特斯 (b. 加拿大)，畢業於紐約帕森設計學院美術研究所（2008）與安大略藝術設計學院 藝術系（1997）。作品與合作計畫曾展出於：第七屆北京雙年展、倫敦泰特現代藝術館、柏林辛克爾展覽館、 紐約X Initiative、DUMBO 藝術中心、胡志明市Sàn Art 及巴塞爾SALTS。藝術家曾駐村於：德 國科隆的社群藝術團隊（2011）、瑞士Kunsthalle Roveredo（2014）。2018 年秋季也將成為北京 I Project 空間的駐村藝術家。 有關於藝術家之藝術評論與文章被刊載於《美國藝術》（平面與線上刊物）、《Charley》、10 月號第135 期《C 雜誌》、《哈芬登郵報》、《K-48》、《Petit Mort: 奇怪公眾的回憶》、《紐約客》及www.disorientations.com 等。 蒙特斯曾獲得由加拿大藝術協會、安大略省藝術協會及多倫多藝術協會資助，目前由加拿大 Division Gallery 和瑞士Galerie Wenge 代理。生活工作於加拿大多倫多，同時也擔任多倫多大學建築學院講師。
台北當代藝術中心組織營運獲國家文化藝術基金會、台北市文化局、財團法人RC文化藝術基金會支持。
本展覽獲得 
共同支持。
行為演出
〈無題〉是由Mria Prosphora製作、編排和表演的聲音和舞蹈作品，使用極具張力與顛覆性的舞踏傳統來探索原始的情感、身體的主觀物質性、內心即興、脆弱和恐懼。
為回應蒙特斯的裝置《志趣相投》，〈無題〉描繪了“呼吸”、“靈感”、“啟發”和“照明”之間的連結，這些詞彙在 Prosphora 的母語俄文中共享相同的詞根。Prosphora 創造一種直覺性的表演，通過肢體間的運動回應她呼吸的頻率，將非語言的描述具象化，同時在律動中回顧記憶，酷兒精神性與時間連續性。
〈牆前〉是由Soa和荒芳創作的表演。使用日本與臺灣 BDSM 次文化中情慾交流的方式探索藝術作品物質性與拜物主體肉身性之間的界線。
同時在展覽開幕之夜，出生於哥倫比亞目前生活在台灣詩人、電影製作人、策展人兼攝影師J Triangular將推出她的最新版的 RUB，這是與紐約 Cayla Lockwood 合作的小誌。
關於表演者
Mria Prosphora
目前生活在台灣台北的行為/聲音藝術家。她的創作跨越當代藝術的分類領，結合實驗聲音，詩歌，裝置和表演，主要專注於舞踏與噪音演出。專注於私人/公共空間中的肉體和個人生理認同的問題，同時感興趣於文化體制，極權主義意識形態和機械系統如何壓抑身體，將生命化約至肉身本身。Mria 用自己的身體來挑戰身體的概念與其定義的界線。常在演出中運用聲音作品來解構這些觀念，以表達隱而未現的暴力與生命本身的內在力量。
Soa https://www.facebook.com/soa.rope/
BDSM實踐者與表演者，熱愛繩與繩縛，關注性別議題。學習日式繩縛與其他領域繩結的應用，並致力於探索更多繩子可能的語彙。除了傳統的繩縛表演之外也以繩子進行其他類型的創作。現在台北不定期開辦繩縛教學。
荒芳
荒芳，BDSM菜鳥實踐者、人體模特和現代舞表演者，藉由探索身體張力與戲劇效果，試圖撼動他人和自我療癒，偷花蓮的日常當養分，滋養對靈魂的質問，用肢體表現與戀愛，去反思與碰撞所關注的女性主義相關議題與性別平權問題。在繩縛中找突破內在框架的安全感，一個成不了仙所以企圖成了妖的妖精系女子。
影像作品放映
Vika Kirchenbauer，〈歡迎致辭〉，2017；〈請立即放鬆〉，2014。
范坡坡，〈新前門大街〉，2009。
Jean-Paul Kelly，〈無辜者〉，2014。
J Triangular，〈愛是唯一真正的抵抗〉，2018。
Byron Duvel ，[BAE]，2017。
黃漢明，〈唐人街之後〉，2012。
Phile Magazine，〈前進阿拉伯〉，2018。余政達，〈倘若（島嶼的）身體是一個優秀的（邊緣）粽子〉，2017。
Drew Lint，〈粗暴貿易〉，2013。
J Triangular www.jtriangular.com
Triangular的創作講述抵抗，性別權力的動態關係與記憶景觀。她的作品呈現尚未解決的社會暴力，歷史以及在製造恐懼和被法制化的合法歧視的文化中造成的身份認同的斷裂。 Triangular和她的哥哥 Diego Barrera 一起經營實驗電影組合：Celestial Twins。
〈愛是唯一真正的抵抗〉，2018。
一個音樂的夢，一個VHS的影像情書，一個實驗性的旅行日記，穿插著台灣廣播中播放的情歌。是一幅身體，水，光和記憶的群像呈現在台灣的超現實場景中，探討酷兒間的親密關係中豐富有機的色彩與種種感官可能性。
Vika Kirchenbauer www.vk0ms.com
Vika Kirchenbauer 是生活於柏林的藝術家、作家和音樂製作人。她的作品透過表面上相互矛盾的手法，例如浮誇的直白、過度分享與扭曲的參與式文化，探討「他者」替現中的不透明性。
她的作品曾在Neuer Berliner Kunstverein，ICA倫敦藝術家電影雙年展，安娜堡電影節，多倫多影像節，奧伯豪森國際短片電影節和歐洲媒體藝術節上展出。
她曾在紐約大學，洛杉磯Otis學院，倫敦金匠大學和柏林藝術大學授課。
〈歡迎致辭〉，2017。
「再現政治在文化領域是一個複雜的問題：諸如”差異“和”多樣性“等得之不易的進步觀念很容易轉變為一種象徵性的貨幣形式，很容易在文化工作者，資助機構和目標觀眾之間交換。這個現實狀況很少被重視，特別在形式又更為粗糙的時候：例如，這個展覽，是“Schwules博物館的收藏和歷史”中“首次”展示的後殖民主義觀點。這是第一次由機構內部推動的展覽，基於需要參與後殖民理論的迫切？還是官方當前趨勢的論述中會提供必要資金來實現？我想兩者都是真的。」
文字來自阿史坎 ‧西帕凡德（《Odarodle – 一個關於自然人的想像故事，1535-2017》展覽的策展人，於 Schwules博物館，該作品於展覽中被委託製作）
〈請立即放鬆〉，2014。
〈請立即放鬆〉點出當前行為藝術，藝術展示經濟以及作為劇場工作者的人生無擺脫的參與性夢魘。體驗經濟 – 將回憶作為利潤來源- 和藝術的事件化之間的驚人相似性被解構和重新組合在藝術作品中，唯有透過將社會性的觀眾參與作為一種情感勞動形式才能實現。將暗室作為一個強調張力場景並且使用性和經濟意義上的違規，藝術家將觀眾視為消費者、合作者、客戶和非物質性的勞動者。
Jean-Paul Kelly www.jeanpaulkelly.com
Jean-Paul Kelly 藉由檢視紀錄片材料的製作、接收和流通中的複雜關聯性，透過影像與展覽的製作對再現的限制提出質疑。即將舉行的和最近的個展包括VOX，蒙特羅（2019年）;Plug In ICA，Winnipeg（2019年）; Delfina Foundation，倫敦（2016年）;Wexner Center for the Arts，哥倫布（2014年）; Scrap Metal Gallery，多倫多（2013年）。 Kelly 參與的群展包括Musée d’Art Contemporain des Laurentides，Saint-Jérôme（2016年）; CGP London：Dilston Grove（2016年）; Oakville Galleries（2015年）; Mercer Union，多倫多（2014年）; The Power Plant，多倫多（2013年）。
〈無辜者〉，2014。
〈無辜者〉由一連串的圖像流，一個杜魯門卡波特慾望的訪問，以及一系列後者對前者指示對的形狀組成。
「Jean-Paul Kelly 優雅與謎樣的〈無辜者〉的部分影像是圍繞著 Maysles 兄弟1966年紀錄片”來自杜魯門的愛情“的片段重新演繹，Kelly 巧妙地將卡波特的慾望作為演說的人。在一種合乎規範的偏好中，這部電影成功地與這位傳奇作家關於形式和風格的大膽宣言平行開展。」
– Andréa Picard，多倫多國際電影節（TIFF）
「在這個開場系列中，Kelly 已將刺點語言化，系統地從每張照片中移除“幻想“帶來””圖像真實本質的事物…… 就像〈Camera Lucida〉一樣，〈無辜者〉以主觀的聲音敘述 – 可以假設這些照片是 Kelly 創傷和刺痛的那些。巴特帶著點爭議地寫道，“為了仔細地觀看照片，最好是把目光移開或閉上眼睛”。他認為，這一特點使攝影與電影區別開來。我認為，〈無辜者〉的終幕影像是對巴特的反擊，他們迫使觀眾反覆地體驗刺點中的迷惘、“缺乏教養”和“閃電般”的不寒而慄。」
– Darren Hughes，《電影感官》：“圖像問題”
Byron Duvel
前身為獨立搖滾樂團Formosa Romance福爾摩沙羅曼史和電音唱跳團體鑽石虎The Diamond Tigerz的主唱跟創作主腦，名字“Byron Duvel”則是為了solo project [Bae.] 所發展出來的虛構角色。
[BAE]，2017。
[Bae.]是一個關於愛情和逃亡的故事。藝術家使用音樂，視覺圖像，文學以及虛構角色Byron Duvel和柏林城市之間的聯繫，用親密的方式來向觀眾表達整個創作的主要概念。這部短片的第一部分全都是iPhone 6跟使用一些影像濾鏡的手機應用程式所錄製的，以最貼近生活的工具，來表達出經過一段強烈的關係之後，當一切都處於混亂的狀態時，心靈是如何將過去與現在分開，到最後能夠重新邁步走上尋找新東西的過程以及最真實的感受。
黃漢明 www.mingwong.org
目前生活與工作於柏林。他的創作透過多層次的電影語言、社會結構、身份和內省，使用影像、裝置和行為表演重述世界電影和流行文化。經常使用外國語言“錯選”自己的多個角色，將性別、再現、文化和身份認同等概念相互連接。他代表新加坡參加了2009年第53屆威尼斯雙年展，作品《一世模仿》獲得特別提名。他曾在全球許多重要機構舉辦過個展，包括尤倫斯當代藝術中心，北京；資生堂畫廊，東京；和REDCAT，洛杉磯。他也參加許多國際雙年展，包括Performa，紐約；亞太當代藝術三年展，布里斯班；悉尼雙年展，里昂雙年展和利物浦雙年展。
〈唐人街之後〉，2012。
黃漢明在2012年初的洛杉磯創作了作品〈再造唐人街〉，之後又創作了〈唐人街之後〉。此作品的靈感來源於波蘭斯基1974年向四十年代黑色偵探電影致敬的台詞：“忘了吧，傑克，這是唐人街啊。”黃漢明發現自己無法忘記這句話，並展開了以“唐人街”為標志的研究旅程。
藝術家在作品中扮演兩個角色，一個偵探和一個蛇蠍美人。無論是偽裝，戴著面具或假髮和太陽鏡，都使用經典黑色電影主角的裝扮。場景在洛杉磯，舊金山和香港之間不斷切換，不過這兩個形象都正在穿越看起來像“唐人街”的地方。為了拍攝，藝術街追溯早期華人移民從香港前往加利福尼亞的旅程。
兩位主角似乎在尋找一個身分不明的“某人”，也可能是從他身邊逃離。這是一個充滿想像的敘事可以是男人，尋找他們的妻子或女兒，也可以是女人尋找他們的父親，丈夫或兒子，他們因為時間，地理，歷史或環境的因素分離。作品也是逃避一個人的過往或尋找一個人身份的隱喻。〈唐人街之後〉反映了我們如何成為命運共同體的一部分，緊緊地被命運、歷史、地理、文化遺產等因素聯繫在一起。
Drew Lint http://www.drewlint.com/
Drew Lint 融合各種類型電影的元素，重新設計以創造當代酷兒世界。他的電影已於Slamdance電影節，Guadalajara 國際電影節，溫哥華國際電影節，新藝術節電影節，Iris Prize Festival，Inside Out：多倫多，Outfest：洛杉磯和BFI：Flare等影展放映。Lint 最近以個人首部長片M / M 獲得加拿大導演協會頒發的DGC發現獎提名。
〈粗暴貿易〉，2013。
一個街頭騙子被一個無名氏接走，並且給於一個以皮革崇拜的成員身份展開新生活的機會。作為對經典酷兒電影的探索，〈粗暴貿易〉匯集經典男同性戀的形象再現，除了作為對過往酷兒影人的致敬，同時也開拓索新的酷兒美學。
范坡坡
范坡坡是中國著名的酷兒導演，他的作品主要關於同志人群。他的作品在國際影展中廣為流傳，與此同時也通過網絡和獨立電影放映讓國內觀眾熟知。作品的話題涵蓋同性婚姻（《新前門大街》）、跨性別（《舞娘》）、女權主義（《來自陰道》）等等。而影響力最大的莫過於“彩虹家庭三部曲”，包括《櫃族》、《彩虹伴我心》、《彩虹伴我行》三部作品關注於同志出櫃議題，引起巨大社會反響。2011年，香港同志影展授予他“玲瓏大獎”以表彰其在同志影像、平權的不懈努力。2016年獲得CHOUFTOUHONNA突尼斯女性藝術節最佳短片獎（《來自陰道》）。2017年入選柏林電影節天才訓練營。
〈新前門大街〉，2009。
前門位於天安門廣場以南，擁有百年曆史的古老建築，可以見證北京城市的歷史。情人節原本是西方節日，對許多中國年輕人來說已成為一個重要的日子。對於沒有權利發表意見的中國數以千萬計的男女同性戀者來說，這個地方和日子對他們意味著什麼？
在北京奧運會之前，前門大街被改造成一個受歡迎的購物和旅遊景點。 2009年2月14日，情人節，一對同性戀夫婦和一對女同性戀夫婦選擇在前門大街拍攝婚紗照。這是北京一個美麗的春日。目睹這一事件的人包括當地居民和來自全國各地的遊客。他們會明白發生了什麼嗎？品牌“新北京”是否也帶來了關於愛情和婚姻的“新概念”？
此次活動吸引了廣泛的媒體報導和公眾關注，是中國LGBT運動史上的一個重要里程碑。
余政達 http://www.yuchengta.com
余政達畢業於國立台北藝術大學碩士班。 2008年，他獲得台北美術獎首獎。2012年東京藝術博覽會燈塔獎的第一名。2009年，他參加第六屆台北雙年展，奧地利林茨當代藝術中心的雙年展 Cuvée08，並入選代表台灣參加第53屆威尼斯雙年展。其他展覽包括澳大利亞墨爾本 Experimenta 第五屆國際媒體藝術雙年展（2012年），法國圖盧茲亞洲藝術節（2013年），台灣國立美術館亞洲藝術雙年展，皇后區國際和紐約皇后區博物館，北京第二屆CAFA雙年展，第十屆上海雙年展和第56屆柏林國際電影節，拓展論壇。他曾在台灣高雄市立美術館和台北市立美術館舉辦過個展。
〈倘若（島嶼的）身體是一個優秀的（邊緣）粽子〉，2017。
此錄像作品靈感來自於一篇刊載於文化評論雜誌《島嶼邊緣》14期（1995.09）的對談文章 〈粽浪彈：身體像一個優秀的粽子〉，該文從對端午節與粽子的各種綺想與文化分析展開，探討情慾流竄的身體，及背後的政治性。藝術家從中擷取了「粽子般的身體」那近乎S/M施虐與被虐狂的視覺意象，以雙頻道錄像的形式，拍攝BDSM（虐戀／綁縛／調教）表演藝術家珂琳所撰寫、演出的類小說劇場《奴隸拍賣會》。故事講述一個（寵物）身體透過（主人）訓練變為更具價值的（拍賣）藝品的經過。經過責繩、自縛再到離別前的情慾繩縛，展示著「屈服」與「認同」拉扯所形塑出的自我意識。
Phile Magazine www.philemagazine.com
Phile 雜誌是由Erin Reznick和Michael Feswick創辦的雙年刊，從社會學的角度來探討情慾次文化中知名與曖昧不明的趨勢和社群。該出版物綜合學術期刊，藝術書籍和色情雜誌的各種元素，近一步剖析各種情慾行為的形式和實踐，旨在鼓勵對生活在社會性別二元結構規範之外的人和社群更多理解。
〈前進阿拉伯〉，2018。
導演，剪輯：Drew Lint，改編自〈前進阿拉伯〉。劇本：阿史坎 ‧西帕凡德
「在這個自我矛盾的東方主義中，”阿拉伯人“是強烈男性氣質的理想化具現，某部分與”他的“心理 /身體刻板印象特徵有關 – 毛茸茸，鬍鬚，粗獷，強壯，暴力，衝動 – 以及對他社會地位的迷戀。無產階級，未受過教育，移民，來自貧民窟，犯罪，恐怖分子，家暴者，狂熱分子。是在戰後，白人，中產階級，世界主義且日漸女性化的歐洲男性中，一個“真正的男人” — 一種野蠻的火藥桶，令人憎惡和欽羨。」
– 阿史坎 ‧西帕凡德
2 Weeks #4
John Monteith’s Kindred Spirits
October 18 – November 3 2018
Opening Thursday October 18 2018, 7-10pm
Performances by Mria Prosphora, Soa and Huang Fang on October 18 and 28, 2018 from 8pm
Participants: John Monteith, Mria Prosphora, Soa and HuangFang, J Triangular, Yu Cheng-Ta, Ming Wong, Popo Fan, Vika Kirchenbauer, Jean-Paul Kelly, Drew Lint, Byron Duvel, Phile Magazine
Centered around TCAC’s 2018 annual theme “Art Lab,” the program 2 Weeks is a series of process-based exhibitions focusing on space as a medium. 2 Weeks attempts to imagine the possible outcome of artistic experimentation as narrative performativity unfolds over time.
Acting in roles as both artist and curator, John Monteith’s exhibition Kindred Spirits includes a newly created immersive installation of individually designed unique flags. Based on a collection of recent drawings, these flags were created in response to the architecture of various relational sites of social exchange that make up the urban environment. Skyscrapers and skylines, towers and buildings, zones, paths, parks, highways and roadways are recast in a series of overlapping, repeating, reformulated geometries, systems of exchange through the reverberation of form and their articulation of the representational politics of space. [1]
As an installation, these flags mark gallery as an active non-hegemonic queer space of difference, Kindred Spirits explores themes of gender fluidity, identity, intimacy, fiction, desire, race, and self-representation through relationship between the abstract and the corporeal. As part of the Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts, and coinciding with Pride Taipei, Monteith has invited a number of local and international queer artists working in the fields of performance film and video to activate this open space of being, meeting, participation, and community-building.
[1] Jayne Wilkinson, On John Monteith’s Resonances.
The Artist
John Monteith (b. Canada) graduated with a Masters in Fine Art from Parsons, the New School for Design (2008) and his BFA at The Ontario College of Art and Design University (1997). His work and collaborative projects have been shown at the 7th Beijing Biennale, the Tate Modern, London, The Schinkel Pavilion, Berlin, X Initiative, New York, the DUMBO Art Center, New York, Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City, and SALTS, Basel. Monteith has held residencies at CAT Cologne, Germany (2011), Kunsthalle Roveredo, Switzerland (2014) and in fall 2018 he will be the resident artist at I Project Space, Beijing.
Reviews and essays dedicated to his work have been included in Art in America, (print and online), Charley, C Magazine, October 135, The Huffington Post, K-48, Petit Mort: Recollections of a Queer Public, The New Yorker, www.disorientations.com, and others. Monteith has been awarded grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council, and The Toronto Arts Council. Represented by Division Gallery in Canada and Galerie Wenger in Switzerland he currently lives and works in Toronto, where he is where he is a faculty member of the University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.
Major support is provided by the National Culture and Arts Foundation, the Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government and the RC Culture and Arts Foundation.
Kindred Spirits is supported by .
Performances
Untitled Is a sound and dance work produced, choreographed and performed by Mria Prosphora drawing upon the subversive and expressive forms of Butoh tradition that explore rawness of emotion, the subjective materiality of the body, visceral improvisation, vulnerability and often horror.
Created in response to Monteith’s installation Kindred Spirits, Untitled draws connections from the word “breath” to the words, “inspiration,” and “spirit,” which share the same linguistic root in her native Russian language. Responding to the sonic frequencies of the sounds of her breathing, Prosphora performs an intuitive and physical, non-linguistic narrative connecting her body to its disembodied breath. A breath which fills the space of the gallery in a performance that draws on memory, queer spirituality and temporal continuity.
In Front of Walls is a performance created by Soa and Huang Fang. By using bondage techniques developed in exchange between Taiwan and Japan, Soa and Fang question the threshold between the materiality of the art object and the corporeality of the fetishized body.
In conjunction with this exhibition opening, Colombia-born, Taiwan-based poet, filmmaker, curator and photographer J Triangular will launch her latest edition of RUB, a now-wave zine created in collaboration with Cayla Lockwood, based in New York.
About the Performers
Mria Prosphora
Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Phosphora works in interdisciplinary areas of contemporary art, combining experimental sound, poetry, installation and performance, notably performative activity fields and butoh, noise performance. She is preoccupied with the issue of corporeality and the individual’s physical identification in private/public space. She is interested in ways that cultural regimes, totalitarian ideologies and mechanical systems repress the body, thus reducing life itself to extreme corporeality using her own body to challenge the margins, and notions of how perception defines the body. She employs sound works and butoh dance in her performances to deconstruct these very notions as a way of expressing the hidden violence and the inner forces of life itself.
Soa https://www.facebook.com/soa.rope/
Practitioner and performer of BDSM bondage, Soa is an activist that employs shibari and other bondage skills in different fields, exploring the language of this material. He performs through various forms and techniques, running workshops in Taipei.
Huang Fang
Huang Fang is a BDSM performer, model and a contemporary dance performer. Employing dramatic and intense expressions of body movements, she draws inspiration from daily life in Hualian. Through bondage performance she embraces issues of gender and identity, trust and security while reflecting feminist challenges.
Film/Video Program
Vika Kirchenbauer, WELCOME ADDRESS, 2017, and PLEASE RELAX NOW, 2014.
Popo Fan, NEW BEIJING, NEW MARRIAGE, 2009.
Jean-Paul Kelly, THE INNOCENTS, 2014.
J Triangular, LOVE IS THE ONLY TRUE ACT OF RESISTANCE, 2018.
Byron Duvel, [BAE], 2017.
Ming Wong, AFTER CHINATOWN, 2012.
Phile Magazine, LA PUTE ARABE, 2018.
Yu Cheng-ta, IF THE (ISLAND’S) B0DY IS A (MARGINALIZED) RICE DUMPLING PAR EXCELLENCE, 2017.
Drew Lint, ROUGH TRADE, 2013.
J Triangular www.jtriangular.com
Triangular makes art that speaks about resistance, gender dynamics and memory landscapes. Her work presents poetic portraits of unresolved social violence, history and the rupture of identity in a culture of manufactured fear and legally institutionalized discrimination. Triangular and her brother Diego Barrera together run the experimental film collective: Celestial Twins.
LOVE IS THE ONLY TRUE ACT OF RESISTANCE, 2018.
A musical dream, a video love letter recorded in VHS, an experimental travel diary which uses cut ups of love songs on the radio in Taiwan. A portrait of bodies, water, light and memory, and the organic color and sensorial possibilities of queer intimacy within the surreal landscapes of Taiwan.
Vika Kirchenbauer www.vk0ms.com
Vika Kirchenbauer is an artist, writer and music producer based in Berlin. Her work explores opacity in relation to representation of the ʻotheredʼ through ostensibly contradictory methods like exaggerated explicitness, oversharing and perversions of participatory culture.
Her work has been exhibited at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, ICA London Artists’ Film Biennial, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Images Festival Toronto, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and European Media Art Festival.
She has given lectures at institutions at New York University, Otis College Los Angeles, Goldsmiths University of London and the Berlin University of the Arts.
WELCOME ADDRESS, 2017.
“The politics of representation is a complex issue within the cultural field: prized progressive notions such as “difference” and “diversity” readily transform into a form of symbolic currency readily bartered between cultural practitioners, funding bodies, and target audiences. This reality is rarely addressed, especially in its cruder forms: this exhibition, for example, is presented as casting a postcolonial perspective “for the first time” on the “collection and history of the Schwules Museum*”. Is this first attempt fueled by an internal institutional urgency to engage with postcolonial theory, or is it made possible by current tendencies within official discourse that offer the necessary funding opportunities? Both are true.”
Text by Ashkan Sepahvand (curator of the exhibition “Odarodle – An imaginary story of naturepeoples, 1535-2017” at Schwules Museum* Berlin for which the piece was commissioned)
PLEASE RELAX NOW, 2014.
Please Relax Now addresses the overlap of current developments in performance art, art display, economics and the participatory nightmare of life and work as theatre. The striking similarities between Experience Economy – the rendering of memory as a source of profit – and the eventisation of art are deconstructed and reassembled in an artwork made possible only through the social element of spectatorship as a form of affective labour. Staging a darkroom as a promise of intensity and using transgression in its sexual and economic sense, the artist addresses the spectator as consumer, collaborator, client and immaterial worker.
Jean-Paul Kelly www.jeanpaulkelly.com
Jean-Paul Kelly makes videos and exhibitions that pose questions about the limits of representation by examining complex associations in the production, reception and circulation of documentary material. Forthcoming and recent solo exhibitions include VOX, Montréal (2019); Plug In ICA, Winnipeg (2019); Delfina Foundation, London (2016); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2014); and Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto (2013). Kelly’s work has been included in group exhibitions at Musée d’Art Contemporain des Laurentides, Saint-Jérôme (2016); CGP London: Dilston Grove (2016); Oakville Galleries (2015); Mercer Union, Toronto (2014); and The Power Plant, Toronto (2013).
THE INNOCENTS, 2014.
The Innocents features an image stream, an interview with Truman Capote’s desire, and shapes that correspond to the former through the instructions of the latter.
“Jean-Paul Kelly’s elegant and enigmatic The Innocents is partially constructed around a shot-by-shot re-enactment of segments from the Maysles brothers’ 1966 documentary With Love from Truman, with Kelly ingeniously recasting Capote’s desire as the speaker. With its own formal predilections, the film succeeds in drawing parallels with the legendary author’s brazen statements about form and style.” – Andréa Picard, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
“In this opening series, then, Kelly has literalized punctum, systematically removing from each photograph that mysterious thing that “fantastically ‘brings out’” the true nature of the image… Like Camera Lucida, The Innocents speaks in a subjective voice–presumably, these are photos that bruise and sting Kelly personally. Barthes wrote, somewhat controversially, “in order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes”. This characteristic distinguishes photography from cinema, he argues. The closing images of The Innocents are a counter argument to Barthes, I think, as they force viewers to experience retroactively the disorienting, “ill-bred,” and “lightning-like” chill of punctum.” – Darren Hughes, Senses of Cinema: “Image Problems”
Byron Duvel
Byron Duvel is a fictional character created by Zheng Yi Sung, former lead singer and song-writer of the indie rock band “Formosa Romance” and the electronic pop group “The Diamond Tigerz” from Taipei
[BAE], 2017.
[BAE], is a story of place, love, nostalgia and escape. Sung uses music, imagery, and literature in this video work that connects his character Byron to the ambiguity of his personal memories of an intense relationship while living in the city of Berlin and his difficulty separating his past from his present. His invention of Duvel in itself an act of distancing himself from the complexity of personal and emotional conflict.
Ming Wong www.mingwong.org
Based in Berlin, Ming Wong builds layers of cinematic language, social structure, identity and introspection through his retelling of world cinema and popular culture in his videos, installations and performances, often “miscasting” himself in multiple roles in a foreign language, interconnecting the concepts of gender, representation, culture and identity. He represented Singapore at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 with the solo presentation Life of Imitation which was awarded a special mention. He has had solo exhibitions at leading institutions worldwide, including Ullens Centre of Contemporary Art, Beijing, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, and REDCAT, Los Angeles. He has been included in numerous international biennials including Performa, New York, Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Sydney Biennale, Lyon Biennale, and the Liverpool Biennial.
AFTER CHINATOWN, 2012.
Triggered by the iconic last line of Polanski’s 1974 ‘neo-noir’ homage to film noir detective movies from the ’40s – ‘Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown’ – Wong embarked on a research journey into the legacy of ‘Chinatown’ as a cinematic symbol (of despair? helplessness? lawlessness?)
Wong plays two characters, a detective and a femme fatale, both in disguise, wearing a mask or a wig and sunglasses, adopting the look of classic film noir protagonists. The two figures are walking through what looks to be ‘Chinatown’, though the location keeps shifting between Los Angeles, San Francisco and Hong Kong. To shoot this, Wong retraced the journeys made by early Chinese immigrants who traveled from Hong Kong to California.
The protagonists, seem to be either searching for or running away from “somebody” who is never made clear. It can be an imagined narrative of men looking for their wives or daughters, or women looking for their fathers, husbands or sons, separated by time, geography, history and circumstance. It can also be a metaphor for running away from one’s past or searching for one’s identity. After Chinatown reflects how we are all part of a continuum, linked by and distorted by one’s destiny, history, geography, cultural legacy, etc.
Drew Lint http://www.drewlint.com
Drew Lint incorporates elements of genre films, reworked to create contemporary queer worlds. His films have been screened at the Slamdance Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Festival de Nouveau Cinema, Iris Prize Festival, Inside Out: Toronto, Outfest: Los Angeles, and BFI: Flare. He was recently nominated for the DGC Discovery Award from the Director’s Guild of Canada for his recent debut feature film, M/M.
ROUGH TRADE, 2013.
A street hustler gets picked up by a john and is offered a new life as a member of a leather cult.
As an exploration of classic queer film, Rough Trade assembles iconic forms of gay representation that aims to hold the tropes of past queer filmmakers in reverence while exploring a new queer aesthetic.
Popo Fan
Popo Fan is a queer filmmaker and activist. His films feature topics such as same sex marriage, gender, and feminism. His trilogy Chinese Closet, Mama Rainbow, and Papa Rainbow, focusing on LGBT families in China, made a strong impact on Chinese society. In 2011, he received the Prism Award from the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. And in 2016 he won best short film at CHOUFTOUHONNA, Tunis International Feminist Art Film Festival for The VaChina Monologues. In 2017 he was selected to be a part of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival’s talent development program.
NEW BEIJING, NEW MARRIAGE, 2009.
Located south of the Tian’anmen Square and among the century-old old architecture, Qianmen bears silent witness to the history of the Beijing city. Originally a Western holiday, the Valentine’s Day has become a huge day for many young Chinese people. For the tens of millions of gays and lesbians in China who do not have the right to make their voices heard, what does this place and day mean to them?
Before the Beijing Olympics, the Qianmen Street was renovated into a popular shopping and tourist location. On February 14, 2009, Valentine’s Day, a gay couple and a lesbian couple chose to have their wedding photos taken on the Qianmen Street. It was a beautiful spring day in Beijing. People who witnessed the event include local residents and tourists from all over the country. Would they understand what was going on? Did the branded ‘New Beijing’ also bring about ‘new concepts’ about love and marriage?
The event attracted wide media coverage and public attention and is an important milestone in the history of China’s LGBT movement.
Cheng-Ta Yu www.yuchengta.com
Cheng-Ta Yu holds a masters degree from the Taipei National University of the Arts. In 2008 he received first place in the Taipei Art Awards and the Beacon Prize at Art Fair Tokyo in 2012. In 2009 he participated in the 6th Taipei Biennial, the Biennial Cuvée 08 at OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria and was selected to represent Taiwan at the 53rd Venice Biennale. Other exhibitions include the 5th International Biennial of Media Art at Experimenta, Melbourne, Australia (2012), Made in Asia Art Festival, Toulouse, France (2013), the Asian Art Biennial at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, the Queens International and the Queens Museum, New York, the 2nd CAFA Biennial in Beijing, the 10th Shanghai Biennial and the 56th Berlin International Film Festival, Expended Forum. He has had solo exhibitions at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts and the Taipei Fine Art Museum, in Taiwan
IF THE (ISLAND’S) B0DY IS A (MARGINALIZED) RICE DUMPLING PAR EXCELLENCE, 2017.
Combining the imagination of the body politic with an exploration of S/M culture, Yu created this quasi-novel theatre Slave Auction in the form of two-channel video in collaboration with Corrine, a BDSM performing artist. Written and performed by Corrine, the plot of this theatre revolves around the process in which the body (of a pet) was transformed into a more valuable artwork (for auction) by her owner’s training. The ambiguous same-sex love between the pet and the owner blossomed with the plot development by virtue of the pet’s self-bondage and farewell kinbaku, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the kinship, mentorship and friendship between Su-Zhen Bai and Xiaoqing in the Legend of the White Snake mentioned in the article “Bouncy Horney Rice Dumpling.” This work not only exhibits the self-awareness emerging from the tug-of -war between “submission” and “identity,” but also embodies Yu’s consistent linguistic manipulation at a meta-level. The theatrical performance and interview conducted outside the stage overlap with each other, making our lines of sight wander on the border of the theatrical framework.
Phile Magazine www.philemagazine.com
Phile magazine is a biannual journal founded by Erin Reznick and Michael Feswick exploring sexual subcultures, trends, and communities both obscure and well known from a sociological point of view. The publication combines elements of an academic journal, an art book and an erotic magazine. Phile dissects forms and practices of sexuality with the aim to encourage a more empathetic understanding towards people and communities who live outside of normative or binary structures.
LA PUTE ARABE, 2018.
Directed & Edited by Drew Lint
Based on and featuring text from La Pute Arabe
written by Ashkan Sepahvand
“In the contradictory terms of orientalism, the “Arab” also accounts for an idealized embodiment of hyper-masculinity, partially related to “his” stereotypical psycho-physical characteristics – hairy, bearded, rugged, strong, violent, impulsive – as well as to the fetishization of his social status. Proletarian, uneducated, immigrant, from the ghetto, criminal, terrorist, domestic abuser, fanatic. A “real man” amongst an ever-increasing effeminization of the post-war, white, middle-class, cosmopolitan European male. A powder keg of brutality, to be abhorred and admired.”
– Ashkan Sepahvand
