In the posthumously published book, Across the Land and the Water, W.G. Sebald in one poem writes about passing through the Bridge of Peace, a journey that he barely survived.
Crossing the Water
In early November 1980
walking across
the Bridge of Peace I almost
went out of my mind
Does Sebald try to say that to cross the warring water, to reach the other side, borders something unthinkable? He “almost” went out of his mind. Perhaps he did not. Is it really that impossible to find a corridor in the midst of contested waters, to the other shore, or to return, to make peace, or simply to be there? Shall we swim instead, if not walking? Is there enough water under the bridge for a good swim even? Would someone shoot me, or seduce me away, from taking this route named peace?
Contested Waters addresses the ways in which waters are militarized, capitalized, and thus troubled in the age of hyper geopolitical frictions. The exhibition nonetheless presents artistic and political attempts to walk across the aquatic troubles, and to return to water. We wrestle with the perplex proposed by Sebald’s enigma of losing one’s mind trying to pass across contested waters by way of peace. And while acknowledging that it is an impossible attempt to walk Sebald’s walk, crossing Sebald’s cross, by tempting the impossible, we bring together a string of stellar artists who, along the way, in the dark, surrounded by murky and warring seas packed up by a greedy and headless crowd, who lead us through the contested waters with their works, their lives, and the haunting ghosts carried through as well as the marine animal blood already mixed in our vessels by way of vaccine injection. The heavy, desiring, lusty and weary liquids we carry through shall be with us to the other side of the Bridge of Peace.
We are the contested waters. Where’s the bridge of peace?
Curator: Dr. I-Yi Hsieh (Taiwan National Yangming-Chiaotung University)
Exhibition Schedule:
- 2024 October 11-12th, S.a.L.E. Docks workshop: Aquatic Futurism
Collaborators: Francesca Tarocco, Environmental Humanities program, University of Venice, Art for Critical Ecology network
A 2-day workshop in which participants imagine a living design in relation to aqua futurism, and the thing/life set up in 2024 can be revisited in 2025 at S.a.L.E Docks.
Participating artists and scholars: Szu Ni Wen, Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, Domenico Napolitano (Sec_), Francesca Tarocco, Roberta da Soller, Marco Baravalle, Tita Salina & Irwan Ahmett, lám-nuā, Delayed Takeoff from Taoyuan, and more.
- 2025 April – June, Taipei Hong-Gah Museum
Participating artists: Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, Yuping Kuo, Tzuan Wu, Chen-Yu Chen, YAO Juilan, Ilmari Koria.
- 2025 April – June, Kaohsiung
Participating artists: Szu Ni Wen and Choangwen Ting,
- 2025 September – November, S.a.L.E. Docks full exhibition
Participating artists: Yuping Kuo, Tzuan Wu, Choangwen Ting, Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, Chen-Yu Chen.
關於涉水而渡
在 W.G. Sebald 逝後編輯出版的《穿越土地和水》一書中,一首詩寫道他穿過和平之橋,但在這場旅程中,他的倖存幾乎勉強。
渡水
1980年11月初
我走過了
和平之橋我幾乎
是瘋了
Sebald 試圖說的究竟是什麼?難道越過交戰的水域、到達彼岸,是一件幾乎不可想像的事?在這一個旅途中他「幾乎」是瘋了;也或許他沒有瘋。要在有爭議的水域中,找到一條泳道到達彼岸,或者返回到和平,或者就只是去到對岸然後待在那裡,真的如此不可想嗎?若我們不走水上的橋,從橋下游泳而渡,是否是個途徑?橋下有足夠的水讓我們游泳?過去到了對岸,會有人拿著槍對著我嗎?
《涉水而渡》橫跨台北、高雄、與威尼斯的跨國展覽合作計畫,探討在高度地緣政治摩擦的時代,水被高度領域化、軍事化、資本化,並因此陷入無以為渡。儘管如此,展覽還是試圖以當代台灣、芬蘭、與威尼斯的視覺藝術合作者,一起接近能夠穿越水生麻煩的各種可能性。在這些朝向水未來主義的試探中,我們探問返回水宇宙的當代視覺藝術,與合作型人類世藝術的新形式。這個計畫希望回應 W.G. Sebald 所提出的這個充滿著水謎團的問題:在幾乎喪失理智的涉水而渡中,在這個幾乎無法跨越的那個以和平為名的橋上與橋下,我們怎麼穿越爭議水域,到達彼岸。
《涉水而渡》齊聚了來自台灣、芬蘭、與威尼斯的當代視覺藝術家與藝術空間行動者,試圖回應 Sebald 所說的渡水之難。藝術家們以他們深具開展性的開放性潮濕雕塑、陶片巢穴與關渡濕地的共生變化、淡水河沿岸冷戰爆破後劫後餘生的水下多物種聲響、影像與潮濕媒介的瀉湖交織、海洋物種與疫苗蛋白質的潮濕交換、以及歷史疊影裡的潮濕未來主義,讓未生的精靈和已逝的鬼魂與水神,帶領我們,一起穿過爭議不休、紛擾難渡的水域。
我們這一身所攜帶著的,沉重、渴望、疲憊的液體,將與我們一起直到和平橋的另一邊。我們就是有爭議的水域,但哪裡是以和平為名的橋呢?
《Contested Waters 涉水而渡》跨島展覽,延伸自2022年台灣當代文化實驗場 CREATORS 補助下的「海水遇場:島嶼潮濕美學」計劃,並生長於2023年國藝會支持下的「水生四城:赫爾辛基、威尼斯、海港高雄、盆地臺北的潮濕宇宙」策展駐地研究。在近兩年展開的「台灣 – 歐洲」合作基礎上,聚集一系列具歷史批判性的視覺藝術與表演藝術家,於2024-2026年在台北、威尼斯、高雄,與在地藝術機構開展島嶼潮濕美學。
展覽與工作坊深入三水域內在的瀉湖深時間,並探問這些瀉湖深時間裡的潮濕記憶、多物種共生、感官多媒體未來、以及水怎麼與這些數百年來的鹽巴遺跡持續存在於今。當代藝術與台北盆地北端濕地、與已被抽乾的高雄打狗鹹水瀉湖、與威尼斯當下瀉湖城市一起「涉水而渡」的跨島展覽,蔓延出被貶抑的、被忽視的、或是被輕易已開發為名而被填平抽乾的潮濕生命,以及這些瀉湖都市中的宇宙政治。
2024-2026年的規劃中,針對所選取的三地 – 台北、高雄、威尼斯 – 將各自進行深入在地水文政治的工作坊,以參與和合作藝術(collaborative art)的形式,與各地的潮濕宇宙政治,發生合作、延展關係。