【新世纪】策展专文丨具身之镜：中国录像艺术中的行为与表演

策展人：杨北辰 

艺术家：曹斐、陈晓云、戴陈连、胡向前、蒋志、阚萱、厉槟源、李燎、李明、李然、林一林、马秋莎、佩恩恩、石青、唐狄鑫、陶辉、童文敏、汪建伟、徐震、鄢醒、姚清妹、章清、周滔、赵赵

展览空间设计：梁琛

开放时间：周二-周六 12：00-17：00

地址：新世纪当代艺术基金会丨北京朝阳区798艺术区797东街A05

文/杨北辰

表演的唯一生命就是在当下。其不能被保存、录制、纪录，或以其他方式参与到“再现的再现”的流通中：一旦这样做了，它就变成了表演以外的东西。到了表演试图进入再生产经济的程度，它就背叛与削弱了自身的本体承诺。1 ——佩吉·费伦

在费伦这样的表演原教旨主义者眼中，表演一旦沦为图像再生产的对象便会彻底堕落，这自然与第二次前卫艺术运动所宣扬的“去物质化”立场暗通款曲——其主张媒体与资本主义同构——只不过这种意识形态在新的媒介现实面前多少显得不堪一击。在录像艺术发端的1960年代，同时也是偶发与激浪派的极盛时期，一些艺术家如阿伦·卡普罗（Allan Kaprow）旗帜鲜明的反对表演作为媒体事件发生，而另一些如白南准则全力拥抱之。在没有数字技术的时代，第一代录像-表演艺术家依据模拟技术的特征（闭合的回路系统），选择将摄像机对准自己，在工作室或者画廊空间中探索身体的诸种可能。因其提供了最小的时间延迟，身体的图像被录像以实时的方式展开，这种全新的反馈机制实现了一种互动式的“拼贴”与“解拼贴”效果，达成了基于空间的媒介，如雕塑与绘画，所无法企及的身体表现性。卡罗莉•施尼曼（Carolee Schneemann）曾指出，录像之于表演如同“一个放大的拼贴，打破了坚固的形式、框架、常规或可理解的平面，以及镜框式舞台造成的观众与表演者的分离。” 2 身体在镜头与监视器之间的场域获得了反射的“镜像”，其与表演者既分裂又统一，既在观看/监视又在被观看/被监视，既是“真实的”（real）又是“直播的”（live），这个自反的化身进而成为了自我与他者、个体与社会间关系的隐喻。

早期录像的发展恰好与1960、70年代兴起的新的表演与舞蹈运动相重叠，在诸多层面它们共享着趋近的理念：打破戏剧性\再现性幻觉，强调参与性与互动性，以及追求真实生活在真实时间中的呈现。这种趋近有着复杂的政治与美学动力，诸如消解历史的企图、对于权力与（艺术）体制的抵抗、身份与性别的危机等等。与那个时期的其他艺术一样，二者均试图完成某种批判性承诺：颠覆现代主义的总体性、自律性与媒介特殊性神话，揭示组织化的日常经验背后的意识形态，暴露社会结构中的压迫性力量，以及生产出新的主体性。然而自1970年代中期以降，随着技术的不断发展，以表演为导向的录像艺术开始摆脱拼贴式的激浪派方法论，其一方面朝着更加装置化的方向发展，另一方面又与大众文化及传媒发生了更紧密的连接。1980年代迎来的机构化令其获得“媒体艺术”的正名，录像逐渐远离前卫及反叛的位置并“回撤”至技术美学的范畴，在一个处于“严肃艺术、大众文化与社会记录之间的不确定地带” 3 发挥效应。而此时的录像表演亦不再如早期实践一般，主要围绕媒体机器的各种可能性展开，而是衍生出了更为多元的视野。正如伊娜•布鲁姆（Ina Bloom）指出的：“（录像技术）在具体的语境或情境中的特殊表现变得更加重要，也就是说，操作逻辑如何在不同的表达层次和过程性之间建立联系，这必须被理解为新的记忆事件和新的社会联系的构成。” 4 家用录像系统（VHS）的发明以及数码摄像机（DV）的普及，令录像的形式与思想得以超越机器记忆的既定范畴，成为了一种真正的社会记忆，而这直接影响了录像表演之后的发展，亦是我们讨论中国录像艺术中表演性因素的出发点。

中国录像艺术的发端便与表演有着深厚的关联。在被公认为中国第一部录像艺术作品的《30x30》（1988）中，张培力反复打碎与粘贴一块玻璃的行为被解读为激进的取消意义的举动。以笨拙却决绝的姿态祛除意义无疑意味着新的政治声言，其解读可以是多层面的：对于主体与时间意义的追问，对于行动与劳作的质疑，以及历史虚无主义，等等。事实上，这种事关“无聊”（boredom）的操作一直是录像艺术中非常重要的美学表达。正如激浪派艺术家迪克•赫金思（Dick Higgins）在他的《无聊与危险》（1966）中谈及的：“那是一个充满冲击、危险、偶然性的时代，但也是一个 ‘无所事事’的时代。” 5 1960年代的西方与1980年代的中国相映成趣，艺术家不约而同的将无聊视为抵抗性的实践，用以探索更为私人与个体化的时间，其表现形式便是摆脱了计算与掌控的不确定的“时间过剩”。录像的时间性在可控与失控之间：记录时间的有限性（磁带长度）与不间断拍摄的可能相伴而生，这恰与人的内在精神时间与外在物理/社会时间构成了对照。张培力在此打造起了一条贯穿身体、观念与表演的链条，折射出特定时期追求审美自由的时代精神。即便在1990年代强烈的去政治化趋势下，这条线索依旧以某种微观政治的面目留存在了中国录像艺术的脉络中。正如我一直认为的那样，中国录像艺术从来都不是技术导向的，有限且贫乏的物质条件令我们从不仅仅视其为媒体实验的工具，而是一种与身体及主体相关的精神辅具。

在“自传”单元中，李明的《让光来证明我正在消逝》（2007）无疑回应了张培力20年前的实践。艺术家剥落身上的尘埃与皮屑，并令其在光线中显形。题目透露出作品的真实意图：能够将主体性与无聊行动连接起来的恰是某种自由的诗意，无意义从而化作意义的证明。作为张培力的学生，李明继承了早期中国录像艺术观念化表达中的虚无主义倾向，以及经由此抵达自由的渴望。与之“相反”的则是厉槟源的《自由耕种》（2014），艺术家貌似无意义摔打身体的背后并非是虚无或绝望，而是批判性审视自身与社会历史关系的企图。

厉槟源丨Li Binyuan

《自由耕种》丨Freedom Farming

2014

录像，彩色，有声丨Video, Color, Sound

5' 02''

图片由艺术家提供丨Images courtesy of the artist

在该单元的其他作品中，身份、性别与情感问题则是艺术家关注的焦点。从罗萨琳娜•克劳斯（Rosalind Krauss）的著名论述开始，“自恋”便成为了录像固有的标签，然而早期录像的镜像化自恋却是反记忆的；而从自恋转变为自传恰恰需要摆脱过于形式主义与观念主义的表达，从抽象走向形象与感知，进而生成构建记忆所需的时间-影像。录像语言的发展事实上难以回避其他艺术或文化形式的影响，尤其是以电视与电影为代表的视觉媒体，它们提供给录像与社会记忆及个体叙事相连接的契机。无论曹斐的《链》（2000）中亚文化色彩浓重的造型与B级片式的演出，还是马秋莎的《爱情事件》（2004）中对于爱情/接吻这一仪式进行的图像学处理，抑或鄢醒的《艺术的，太艺术的》（2013）里元绘画般的电影性造型，以及陶辉的《谈身体》（2013）中对于电视新闻与真人秀的嬉仿，这些作品之所以能够展示主体具体的情感境遇与记忆经验，正因其摄取、挪用或移至了来自其他艺术的情动之力。

“事件”单元则涉及录像艺术另一重要面向：由记录性带来的介入可能。1990 年代末期，DV的普及以及数字剪辑的广泛应用为艺术家直接参与社会现实带来了便利。在徐震的《喊》（1998）与阚萱的《阚萱！哎！》（1999）中，行动构成了对于公共场所秩序的直接扰乱。这种与达达或激浪派相近的实践却在当时发生于“后感性”运动的名义下。后感性式的行动主义依赖于感官经验引领下的直觉化现场，而叫喊声正是激活这种现场最便捷亦最无害的方式——只不过徐震倾向于嘲弄旁人，而阚萱却在焦虑的寻找自我。在更晚近的创作中，唐狄鑫的《芦苇》（2009）与李燎的《一记武汉》（2010）则采取了不同的方法，他们在现实中为个体与他者的遭遇设置了某种特殊的情景，并为其配上了戏剧性的脚本，使得或荒诞或暴力的关系得以实现。

赵赵的《雨》（2012）贯彻了艺术家一直以来对于社会现实的敏锐觉知，通过当机立断的介入与诗意的转化，巧妙的完成了社会事件向艺术事件、现实政治向生命政治的过渡。相映成趣的是，《每个人都是企业的同时也是产品》（2015）则试图抹平社会事件与艺术事件间的差异。佩恩恩在这件作品中延续了其对于各种社会组织运作方式的兴趣。这是一场“以毒攻毒”的演技对飙，艺术家以变本加厉的癫狂行为干预并摧毁了非法传销的现场。在此我们看到了两种“中邪”或“着魔”的对撞。佩恩恩似乎在提示我们，社会事件与艺术事件之间的转化过程其实无需发生，艺术家可以如游击队般直接介入社会生活，戳破附着于其上的假象与谎言，即便是短暂与无效的。艺术家的表演令我们突然意识到经济活动与资本主义背后存在的疯狂的社会表演机制，其并不比艺术家的表演更具理性。

佩恩恩 Payne Zhu

《每个人都是企业的同时也是产品》丨Each Is a Corporate and Each Is a Product

2015

录像，彩色，有声 | Video, Color, Sound  

12' 17''

图片由艺术家提供丨Images courtesy of the artist

在早期录像艺术以及延展电影中存在诸多与舞蹈相关的案例，舞蹈家往往将媒介景观纳入编舞之中，与录像装置或投影影像展开互动。然而在“舞者”单元中，我们看到的并非是专业舞者经受过严格训练的优雅舞姿或精心设计的编舞，而是艺术家的日常身体在非舞台的时空中自由又富于表现性的运动。在蒋志的《飞吧，飞吧》（1997）与陈晓云的《拉》（2006）中，单调的动作被多角度的重复拍摄，并经由后期剪辑形成强烈的视听效果。无论是不断模仿翅膀的手，还是拉扯绳子的半裸身体，皆具备感性与冲动的气息，且身体的动作与运动影像的内在韵律形成了彼此的流动与共振。

而在另一组作品中，身体成为了感知与想象空间的载具。周滔的《互助练习》（2009）宛如一段双人舞，两位表演者熟悉、信任彼此以及周遭的生活环境，并借助其中的各种元素展开互动。他们既是表演者又是居民，这两种并行不悖的身份使得他们与参与表演的事物之间保持了和谐且亲密的关系，而始终远观的镜头则仿佛另一位过路的居民。与之类似，在《盘旋》（2017）中，童文敏“飞翔”的路径在多个公共空间与私人空间之间不断切换。手上绑定的羽毛既可能意味着逃离的冲动，也可能源于对于熟悉空间的浪漫化想象，与周滔的不同之处在于，与事物及空间的互动在此成为了一种重新图绘（mapping）的努力，即以某种私人的、身体的地理学来描述世界。

童文敏丨Tong Wenmin

《盘旋》丨Hover

2017

录像，彩色，有声丨Video, Color, Sound

6' 00''

图片由艺术家提供丨Images courtesy of the artist

林一林在 《金色游记》（2011）中却扮演着“闯入者”的角色。艺术家以滚动的方式缓慢的通过城市地标，奇特的姿势与步行的人群形成了鲜明的反差甚至对抗。作为所处空间的陌生人，这种“在场”自然会带来困扰、惶惑甚至愤怒，然而林一林的“图绘”试图触及的正是交流中由身份差异带来的焦虑与不安。在此身体成为了一个思考的器官，用以“入侵”不同历史、文化与社会之间相互交织的地带，而表演则是思考方式。章清的《的士桑芭》（2003）则将人的存在焦虑还原为一种动物本能式的紧张，对于那些闯入汽车舞蹈方阵的人们，一切事关自我的不确定都在游戏性的气氛中烟消云散了。

表演性演讲是当下极具生产性的话题。其最初的模型可追溯至罗伯特•莫里斯（Robert Morris）1964年的一次实践。在那次表演中，莫里斯用对口型的方式配合自己的原声，“朗读”了潘诺夫斯基的名作《图像学研究》的第一章。在表演的过程中，艺术家还会透过一些“额外”的小动作——走向讲坛一边，举起水杯，抱拢双臂——破坏自身与音轨之间的正常同步。之所以这件作品如此重要，在于其预示了之后表演性演讲的基本原则：作为分析性的工具，其必须打开文本与作品、呈现与中介之间的空间。之后的安德烈•弗雷泽（Andrea Fraser）则进一步拓展了表演性演讲的边界与内涵，将之与机构批判的立场连接起来。费雷泽深受布尔迪厄的启发，利用其社会场域理论批判当代艺术内部制度化的知识形式与权力结构，并质疑其与资本的关系。

而“讲者”单元的四部作品均带有这种机构批判与质疑知识生产制度的倾向。在《向前美术馆》（2010）中，胡向前以自身的身体、记忆与语言塑造了一座“想象的美术馆”，这其中自然有针对美术馆价值体系与话语权的质疑；李然在《圣维克多尔山》（2012）中透过“配音腔”与“翻译腔”的呼应，探讨了“模仿”在艺术史与思想史中的独特意义；戴陈连的《如何成为一个艺术界装逼犯》（2012）则如同一则“成功学”指南，艺术家以调侃与反讽的态度反思剧场艺术内部流行的话语逻辑及其虚妄之处；而在《审判》（2013）中，姚清妹与自动售货机之间的激烈辩论，无疑在映射当代"左右之争"的局限与尴尬。

胡向前丨Hu Xiangqian

《向前美术馆》丨Xiang Qian Museum

2010

录像，彩色，有声丨Video, Color, Sound

14' 31''

图片由艺术家提供丨Images courtesy of the artist

姚清妹丨Yao Qingmei

《审判》丨The Trial

2013

录像，彩色，有声丨 Video, Color, Sound

9' 00''

图片由艺术家和魔金石空间提供丨Images courtesy of the artist and Magician Mpace Beijing

最后一部分“剧场”只收录了两件作品。有趣的是，无论《厌食症》（2006）抑或《三岔口》（2007）都存在与“吃”相关的表演。对于石青而言，厌食是中国近现代历史的经历者注定的命运，这种自我厌弃的疾病源自无法消化的历史经验在体内的沉积与发酵，即历史是我们如鲠在喉甚至令我们作呕的精神与生理创伤；而汪建伟的“吃”则不同，不同时代与形象的人物吃着盒饭和馒头，充斥在本应空空荡荡的三岔口，这个共时的场景令我们体会到历史中存在的多重质地与线索。这两位也许是对于剧场具有最为深刻理解的当代艺术家，虽然他们都认同剧场形式（如间离的效果）与思想之间存在相互激发的可能，但又不愿将二者的关系束缚在形式的层面，进而我们看到影像的意义得以凸显：思想的活性必须经由演员与镜头、舞台与屏幕、场面调度与蒙太奇的共同塑造，才不会被任何既定的框架所捕获。也正因如此，这两部作品与我们一般谈及的影像化戏剧大为不同。

汪建伟 丨Wang Jianwei

《三岔口》丨Dilemma - Three Way Fork in the Road

录像，彩色，有声丨Video, Color, Sound

2007

10' 00''

图片由艺术家提供丨Images courtesy of the artist

在这个展览中，我刻意回避了录像作为表演纪录（documentation）这一面向，尽量选取二者相互融合的案例。录像艺术从其诞生之时便是跨媒体与反媒介特殊性的，或者说每一次对其媒介特殊性的强调都会带来新的“非纯性”，某种录像与相邻艺术之间的新关系。录像艺术与表演的关系即是如此：录像化的表演或表演性的录像中身体与技术的互动将两种不同的话语糅合在一起，有机与人工、即时与纪录、肉身与屏幕不可避免的发生着摩擦与交融，而这正是“具身之镜”的基本出发点。从早期具备强烈观念色彩的录像表演作品开始，中国录像艺术中的表演因素逐步多元化，艺术家携带着不同的技术、文化、社会以及政治诉求开展着自身的实践。五个单元以主题的方式呈现，“自传”对应主体性，“时间”瞄准社会性，“舞者”强调身体性，“讲者”凸显体制批判，“剧场”则为思想性。这种梳理自然冒着一定的风险，选择的过程亦尤为艰难。然而就如同一种风格练习，强势的整合必然会带来某种程度的晓畅与清晰。

“具身之镜”指向了这样一个事实，即录像并没有为表演带来新的“舞台”，而是一个通往世界的“镜面”或“出口”；其作用亦并非仅仅在于解放身体，或令其摆脱社会与历史语境的规约，而是提供了新的战术装置或解码器：影像化的身体如同一个“不朽的”与“可传播”的化身，在这种情境中，媒介呈现为崭新的生命情景，而主体对于现实的回应已被转化为共通的媒介感知。

1.佩吉·费伦，《无标记：表演的政治》，第146页。

2.转引自约翰斯•卜林杰，《媒体&表演：沿着边界》，第155页。

3.同上，第153页。

4.伊娜•布鲁姆，《录像的自传：一种技术记忆的生命与时间》，第6页。

5.迪克•赫金思，《无聊和危险》，第4页。

Embodied Mirror: 

Performances in Chinese Video Art

2020.5.22-8.30

Text/Yang Beichen

Performance's only life is in the present. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of representations of representations: once it does so, it becomes something other than performance. To the degree that performance attempts to enter the economy of reproduction, it betrays and lessens the promise of its own ontology.[ Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance, p.146] 

—— Peggy Phelan

In the eyes of a performance fundamentalist like Phelan, once this medium degrades to the object of reproduction of images would be fully degenerate. Behind this, one would likely find its supporting position of "dematerialization," advocated by the second avant-garde art movement where the medium is isomorphic to capitalism – although such ideology may seem somewhat flimsy before the realities of a new medium. The inception of video art in the 1960s coincided with the apex of the Happenings and the Fluxus. Artists such as Allan Kaprow adamantly rejected performance as a media event; others like Nam June Paik, on the contrary, fully embraced this notion. In the absence of digital technology, the first-generation video-performance artists relied on features of analog technology (closed-circuit system), who pointed the video camera at themselves in exploring the infinite possibilities of the body in their artist's studios or gallery space. With a minimal temporal delay, the images of the body captured on video unfolded in a timely fashion. This new mechanism of feedback achieved an interactive "collage" and "de-collage" effect, attaining a physical representation unmatched by other space-based medium such as sculpture or painting. Carolee Schneemann once pointed out, that video art to performance is comparable to "an enlarged 'collage,' to break up solid forms, frames, fixed conventions or comprehensible planes, the proscenium stage and the separation of audience and performer."[ Johannes H. Birringer, Media & Performance: Along the Border, p.155] A reflected "mirror image" of the body is discovered at the liminal site between the camera and the monitor, which is both divided and united with the performer, one who is watching/monitoring while being watched/monitored, both are "real" and "live," such self-reflexive embodiment becomes the metaphor for the self and other, the individual and society. 

Video art in the early stages overlapped with the rise of new movements in performance and dance in the 1960s and 1970s, on many levels, these mediums share similar notions: undo the illusions in theatricality/representation, emphasize on participation and interaction, and pursue a presentation of real-life taking place in real-time. Such affinities are often propelled by complex political and aesthetic impulses, for instance, to undermine the actual intent, to resist power, and systematically to address (in artistic ways) the crisis in identity and gender politics, and so forth. Like other art forms from that period, all attempt to take on a critical position: either subverting the totality of modernism, the myth of artistic autonomy and medium specificity, revealing the ideology behind the organized everyday experience, exposing tension in the oppressive social structure, or engendering a new subjectivity. However, since the mid-1970s, as technology continued to advance, the performance-oriented video art began to break away from using collage as did the Fluxus. On the one hand, it shifted towards installations; on the other hand, it becomes more intimately tied to mass culture and media. With the institutionalization of the medium, the nomenclature of video art changed to "media art." Video art gradually departs from the avant-garde and its contentious position, and “retrieved” back to the domain of “technical aesthetics,” making an impact on “operating in a yet undermined space between the established arts, popular culture, and social documentary.”[ Ibid., p. 153.]At this point, video performance, unlike the early phase of experimentation that revolved around exploring the possibilities in the machines of the medium, tried to derive diversified visions. As Ina Bloom pointed out, "(video technology) their particular performance in concrete contexts or situations becomes more important; that is, the way in which their operational logic creates connections between different levels of expression and processuality, which must be understood both as new memory-events and as the constitution of new social links.”[ Ina Bloom, The Autobiography of Video: The Life and Times of a Memory Technology, p.16. ]The invention of VHS and popularization of DVs allowed the form and ideas of video to overcome the video's domain as memory technology and become a truthful social memory. They had a direct impact on the development of video performance, also mark the point of departure for our discussion on the performativity in Chinese video art.

The inception of video art in China tied intimately to performance. 30 x 30 (1988), commonly known as the first video art in China, artist Zhang Peili shattered a mirror repetitively and glued it back together, often interpreted as an action that radically dissolved meaning. To take an awkward yet resolute position to abolish meaning is undoubtedly implying a new political voice which can be interpreted on multiple levels: a probe at the meaning of the subject and time, skepticism towards action and labor, and historical nihilism, etc. in fact, this kind of operation on "boredom" has always been a pivotal means for aesthetic expression in video art. Like the Fluxus artist Dick Higgins wrote in his volume Boredom and Danger, “It was a time of shocks, danger, chance occurrence, but also of “nothing” in particular going on.5 [ Dick Higgins, Boredom and Danger, p.4. ] The West in the 1960s and China in the 1980s reflect each other in exciting ways. The artists unanimously considered boredom as uncertain "temporal excess" and a practice of resistance, exploring private and individualistic times. The temporality of video perpetuates between the controllable and the lack thereof: the limit to record time (measured by the length of the cassette tape) paired with the possibility of continuous filming, which contrasts with the spiritual time of man, and the physical/social time. Here, Zhang Peili created a chain that strings together the body, concept, and performance, projecting the Zeitgeist when artists pursued the freedom of aesthetics in a specific period. Even though there was an apparent tendency to depoliticize in the 1990s,  this line of thought concealed under the facade of microcosmic politics was nevertheless preserved in the chronology of Chinese video art. I have always believed that technology had never overwhelmed the practices of Chinese video art. The limited and stark material condition led us to treat it as a tool to experiment with the medium and as a spiritual supplement relevant to the body subjectivity.  

In the “Autobiography” section, Li Ming’s Let the Light Prove I am disappearing (2007), which undoubtedly responds to Zhang Peili’s practice two decades ago. The artist peeled off the dust and skin on his body and allow the light to configure them. Its title reveals the actual intent of this work: what connects subjectivity with tedious actions is precisely the kind of liberal poetic, meaninglessness hence transforms into a proof of meaning. As Zhang Peili’s student, Li Ming inherited the nihilistic tendency to conceptualize Chinese video art in the early period, from there to reach for a desire for freedom. On the "contrary," Li Binyuan’s Freedom Farming (2014) behind the artist’s meaningless action of throwing himself into the field is not necessarily nihilism or despair but an attempt to critically investigate the relationship between the self and social history.

Among the other works in this section, the artists focus on issues of identity, gender, and emotions. Since Rosalind Krauss's famous statement, "narcissism" has become a fixed tag for video art. Although the mirrored narcissism in early video art practice was anti-memory, thereon narcissism transforms into autobiography precisely had to abort the formal and conceptual expressions, shifting from abstraction to figuration and sensibility, to engender the time-image necessary for building memories. The development of the language of video art, in fact, could not be devoid of influences from other artistic or cultural forms, especially from visual media such as television and film, providing opportunities to connect the video to social memories and individual narratives. Be it Cao Fei's Chain Reaction (2000) featuring sub-cultural and B-class movie performance, or Ma Qiusha’s An Incident of Love (2004) iconic execution on the ritual of love/kissing, or Yan Xing’s Arty, Super Arty (2000) whose cinematic composition draws from meta-painting, or Tao Hui’s Talk About Body (2013) that mocks news broadcast on TV and reality shows. For these works of art to present the subjects' emotional realms and lived memories, they have extracted, appropriated, or mobilized the power of affect from other artistic forms.  

"Event" section addresses another essential aspect of video art: the possibility of intervention through recording. By the end of the 1990s, the popularization of the DVs and general application of digital editing made direct engagement into social reality convenient for the artists. In Xu Zhen’s Shouting (1998) and Kan Xuan’s Kan Xuan! Ai! (1999), actions became a direction for interrupting order in public spaces. This kind of practice, similar to Dadaism and the Fluxus movement, was umbrellaed under the "Post-Sensibility" movement. The actions in the style of post-sensibility relied on instinctive site dominated by the senses while screaming was the most convenient and harmless way of activating such scene – only that Xu Zhen leaned towards mocking bystanders, while Kan Xuan anxiously sought out the self. Later, art practices such as Tang Dixin’s Reed (2009) and Li Liao’s A Slap in Wuhan (2010) adopted different approaches. They set up unique scenarios for the encounters of the individual and others in reality, and assigned them with dramatic plots, to allow the relationships, either absurd or violent, to come true.   

Zhao Zhao’s Rain (2012) testifies for the artist's acute perceptions of social reality, and through incisive intervention and poetic transformation, the artist adroitly transitions social events to art events, social politics to biopolitics. Interestingly, Each is a Corporate, and Each is a Product (2015); on the contrary, it tries to efface the difference between social events to art ones. Payne Zhu expanded his interests in the operational models of various social organizations. It is an acting competition of "take one to know one," the artist adopted outrageously mad actions in intervening and destroying an illegal Ponzi scheme. Here, we are witnessing the collide between two kinds of “obsession.” Payne Zhu seems to suggest that translating social events to artistic events may be unnecessary, and the artist could engage in social life like a guerrilla, piercing through the imagination and deceit on the surface, as brief and ineffective as it may be. The artist's performance made us suddenly realize that there is a mad mechanism of social performance behind economic activities and capitalism, which is not any less rational than the artist's performance.

In the early stage of video art and extended films, there have been many examples related to dance. The dancers often adopted media landscape into their choreography, that would interact with video installation or projected projected images. However, we are not looking at trained professional dancers’ elegant movements or sophisticated choreography in the “Dancer” section, but the artists’ everyday bodies in free yet rich and expressive movements in off-stage settings. Jiang Zhi’s Fly, Fly (1997), and Chen Xiaoyun’s Drag (2006) present monotonous movements captured from multiple angles with compelling visual and auditory effects through post-production editing. Be the actor's hand gesture mimicking wings, or the half-naked body pulling on a rope, either embodies the impressions of sensibility and impulse where corporeal gestures rhyme with the moving images to generate fluidity and resonance.

In another group of works, the body becomes the vehicle for sensibility and imaginary space. Zhou Tao’s Mutual Exercise (2009) reminds one of a duet dance where the two actors' familiarity and confidence with each other in their immediate living environment while unfolding their interactions with the various elements around them. They are the performers and residents; these parallel and non-contradictory identities allow them to maintain a harmonious and intimate relationship with the objects involved in the performance, while the camera lens' gaze from a distance is similar to a resident passing by. Likewise, Hover (2017), Tong Wenmin’s “flying” trajectory switches between multiple public and private spaces. The feathers attached on her hands possibly suggest an impulse to escape, or perhaps romanticizing the imagination of an intimate space. Unlike Zhou Tao, her interactions with objects and the physical space becomes an effort of re-mapping; in other words, adopting private and corporeal geography to portray the world.

In Golden Journey (2011), Lin Yilin played the role of an “intruder.” The artist rolled on the ground to slowly traverse urban landmarks, whose outstanding gesture becomes a distinct or even defiant contrast to other pedestrians. Being an alien to a place naturally provokes confusion, fear, or even anger to this kind of "on-site," while Lin Yilin's "mapping" attempts to touch on the anxiety and restlessness symptomatic of identity difference. Here, the body becomes a thinking organ, adopted for "intruding" the areas of overlap among different histories, cultures, and societies, and performance marks the mode of thinking. Zhang Qing's Taxi Samba (2003) restores man's existential anxiety to an animal instinct nervousness; for those who intrude into the car dance formation, all uncertainties about the self seem to dissipate in such playful atmosphere.  

Lecture-performance is a productive topic at present. Its early prototype may be traced back to Robert Morris' 1964 experiment. In that performance, Morris's lip-synched his original recording while "reciting" the first chapter of Erwin Panofsky's acclaimed volume, Studies in Iconography. During this performance, the artist's "additional" small gestures – walking to the side of the podium, raise the water glass, hugging oneself – disrupted his synchronization to the soundtrack. The significance of this work lies in forecasting the fundamental principles of performance speech thereon: as an analytical tool, opening up the relationship between the document and the work, between the presentation and the mediation. Later on, Andrea Fraser further expanded the boundary and implications of lecture-performance, connecting it to the position of institutional critique. Inspired by Pierre Bourdieu, Fraser adopts the theory of the social site to criticize the institutionalization of knowledge and power structures in contemporary art and questions the relationship to capital.

The four works in the “Speaker” section are all inclined to engage in institutional critique and skepticism in the knowledge production mechanism. In Xiangqian Museum (2010), Hu Xiangqian builds an "imaginary museum" from his body, memories, and language, underscoring the artist's challenging to the value of art museum and its power of discourse. Li Ran's Mont Sainte-Victoire (2012) explores the significance of "imitation" in artistic and intellectual histories through "dubbing" and "translation." Dai Chenlian’s How to Become a Poser in the Art World (2012) is similar to a guideline for "success," where the artist reflected on the internal discourse and logic of theater art and its vanity through commentary and satire. In The Trial (2013), Yao Qingmei’s heated discussion with the vending machine undoubtedly projected the limitations and dilemma in the “battle between the left and right” in the contemporary.. 

The last section, "Theatre," includes two artworks. Interestingly, both Anorexia (2006) and Dilemma: Three-Way Fork (2007) are both related to the performance of "eating." For Shi Qing, anorexia is a destined fate for those who have experienced modern Chinese history, and the root for such self-loathing ailment comes from the indigestible historical experience accumulated and fermented in the body, in other words, history is the spiritual and physical trauma in our throats or even what makes us gag. At the same time, Wang Jianwei’s “eating” is different. People from different times and forms eat boxed lunch and steam buns, filling up a supposedly empty stage, this synchronic scene allows us to realize the various textures and clues of history. These two artists perhaps have the most profound understanding of theatre among contemporary artists, although agree with the possibility that the form of theatre (for example, the distancing effect) may stimulate intellectual advancements and vice versa. However, both are reluctant to confine the relationship between the two on a formal level. Hence we could observe the highlighted significance of moving images: the vivacity of thoughts must be shaped collectively by the actor and camera lens, the stage and screen, the mis-en-scene and the montage, would they not be subdued to any conventional frameworks. For this reason, these two works are mainly different from what we often refer to them as audiovisual theatre or live theatre.

For this exhibition, I purposefully avoid the direction of video as documentation of performance and selected examples that integrate these two aspects. Since the birth of video art, it has exhibited cross-disciplinary and anti-medium specificity characteristics. In other words, each attempt at emphasizing medium specificity would introduce new "impurity," and the new relationship of video art with its neighboring artistic forms. The case between video art and performance is such that, the interaction of the body and technology in recorded performance or performative video blend two different types of discourse, where the organic and the artificial, the immediate and the recorded, the flesh and the screen generate unavoidable friction and integration, these mark the points of departure for this exhibition, "Embodied Mirror." From the video performances that embodied distinct conceptual affinities at the early stage, the elements of performance in Chinese video art gradually diversified, the artists adopted different types of technology and set cultural, social and political goals in expanding their practices. Presenting these five sections thematically, where "autobiography" addresses subjectivity, "Event" focuses on social features, "Dancer" emphasizes on corporeality, "Speaker" highlights institutional critique, and "Theatre" projects intellectualism, this kind of organization may undoubtedly run into some risks. The process of selection has been especially tricky. As a stylistic practice, while the imposed consolidation would achieve a certain degree of clarity. 

“Embodied Mirror" points to the fact that video art does not necessarily provide the "stage" for performance, but a "mirror" or "exit" to access the world. It does not necessarily emancipate the body or to isolate it from the confines of social and historical discourses but to provide new strategic device or decoder. The body becomes the embodiment of "eternity" and "transmission" in the context of moving image, and in such context, the medium becomes a new scenario of life. Meanwhile, the subject's response to reality translates into a shared media sensibility.