出生于中国台湾，旅居西方二十余年，面对“台湾策展人”这样的角色定位，不能说我足以代表台湾观点，而是，我以我的方位，曾观看了台湾当代艺术三十年发展，以及所感知的台湾新艺术之崛起。
1.
“改造历史 2000—2009年中国新艺术”，原是由青城山·中国当代美术馆群策划而起，试图呈现进入21世纪，2000年至2009年这10年间，中国大陆艺术家之活动面貌。“改造历史”之展题，并非是预设性的史观建立，而是提出当代中国艺术的全面风貌，让新生代艺术家与其生活的世界，获得进入世代艺坛的平台。它所衔接出的艺术演变，是后设性的、回顾性的，以2000年至2009年已发生中，仍进行中的艺术新貌为主要整合对象。
个人以为“改造历史”这个命题极大，虽不认为艺术具有改造历史的能耐，但相信艺术可以制造不同的艺术史。“30年内的作品算不算进入历史?10年内的作品能不能代表当代?”这些还在活动中的创作者，能否走到未来可回顾之位?面对这些问题，当代艺术书写者不是预言家。当代艺术的历史定位之启步，既无法强求于运动史之发生，也无法矫行于风格史之串连，它的脉络乃依附于现代艺术的本质：为否定现实或不满现实而激发的种种行动。其间，制造一个有影响性的艺术展览，常常是艺术界活动者的浪漫理想。因此，面对30年内的区域多元作品，能介于运动史与风格史之间的书写角度，便是近30年来汇成艺术风貌的展览史。
以展览作为一种艺术运动或年代回顾，一直是印象派以来，艺术界长达一百多年的方法。我们称艺术史是一部争鸣的展览史并不为过。观看近30年的各地艺术史之制造，便是一大部大小展览史的书写;简言之，以展览造成时潮或运动，已成为近代艺术的演进方式或手段。至于运动史，则需要“事件”，而“事件”往往又是改变历史河道的枢纽点。在21世纪初的亚洲地区，第一个10年所面对的一个影响事件，便是2008年世界金融风暴对当代艺坛的冲击，它重新震撼了过去10年来，对近30年当代艺术、尤其是中国当代艺术的狂热操作，并且重新盘整了艺术界许多唯市场是瞻的盲点。
谁的艺术?谁的历史?乃是一种多元的艺术史视野，它质询了任何以部份群体意志所强行设定的一元论。当代艺坛，正因全球化与反全球化风潮，以及对历史与现实的不同认知，而分出不同的创作目的，形成当代大展趋势与当代市场趋势的微妙对立或融合。因此，在回顾与前进21世纪当代华人艺术演进之路时，艺术书写工作尤具挑战性，因为它必须面对的历史时空，也包括了市场与反市场的两种艺术定义。
基于视觉艺术的历史，随着时间推移，必然会走向以风格和社会两者互动关系为思考的文化普遍史，因此视觉艺术也常被视为一种年代美学的参考文件。在近30年间，多元的宽容与异议已使当代艺术的书写变得繁复而无法单向化，其梳理的方式除了艺术运动史与艺术风格史之外，还有属于美术馆的艺术史和属于市场的收藏史。前者以史观、历史、教育为目标，多由美术馆或学术界的判断知识作为导引;后者则以民间收藏、品味、投资为方向，藉由民间收藏者的喜好和投资判断作为艺术品的市场价值设定。一般而言，知识判断应属客观，而品味判断应属主观，然而在全球化的今日，史观可能出自主观的意识型态，品味可能出自制造的讯息影响。当艺术趋于政治和金钱的纷争中，常让人忘记它本身的价值。无论如何，一件具有年代性代表的理想作品，它应兼具一个时代、一个时代人物的证据或承传上的功能;而艺术作品之吸引人，在于那一个物质性的载体里，不仅盛装时间、空间和人物，也留下了年代的美学研究。
在走过21世纪第一个10年的今日，当代、历史与艺术的关系建立，不再是一种答案，而是不同书写角度和形式的汇集。在艺术活动同质化的年代，是否可能“改造艺术历史”，也需要回到如何观看艺术史的认同和再定义。至于，展览是否可以是一种艺术运动?很显然，它们跟所有作品一样，也有其时间性与不可刻意制造的天命。
2.
2010年，中国大陆正式承认当代艺术多元表现方式，提供如此大的当代艺术活动空间，也可以说是近10年来，当代艺术寻求被理解的一种成果。至于中国台湾馆之介入，始于2009年10月中旬。寒舍艺术中心主动以民间单位，非盈利参与的认知下，希望台湾新艺术能参与此华人当代艺术大展。是故，获得善意的共识：台湾馆将以完整区块的方式呈现，台湾当代艺术30年介绍也将以完整专书方式呈现，台湾参展艺术家以1970年以后出生的新生代艺术家为主，其主题订为“平凡的奇观”。这些开放、尊重、不涉商业的前提，是个人参与台湾馆之因。
为何要以完整而不被打散的方式呈现?中国台湾新艺术有其近代的历史经验脉络，其呈现背后，不能切割它曾有的艺术现实。台湾当代艺术发生的相关事件年，一是长达十年缓进的乡土文艺运动和经济的崛起，此一阶段台湾当代艺术进入艺廊时代。二是1980中期现代美术馆之成立，以十年时间带动本土意识，对台湾抽象艺术展开历史反思，并进入多元的后现代时期。三是1995年之后，台湾的双年展狂热，以参与制造国际展做为艺术外交行动，将台湾当代艺术带上国际艺术舞台，当代艺术则进入替代空间、美术馆、艺博会的时代。四是2001年之后的全球化、科技化、网络化、市场化之年代，国际展览和艺廊勃兴，使新艺术也在此特殊时空萌生。
是故，在论述方面，自1980年代开始，书写者无法再用线性时间、风格归类、媒材划分等方法，有效地陈述正在发生中的年代景观，以及与过去历史可衔接的线性关系，但这并不意味着冷战时期的艺术没有历史感。西方当代文化论者布什亚(Jean Baudrillard)，在1990年曾延用人类学家利瓦伊斯陀(Claude Levi-Strauss)之人类学概念，以“冷社会”(cold society)来解释冷战时期，尤其在1950至1960年代期间，艺术从历史感中出离的现象。那时西方的“现代性”乃以抽象形式为主，以理智观念是瞻;在历史感上，则以精神分析之说为本，可以溯及人类共有记忆或去过往事件的余绪。
1970年代后期，两岸当代艺术开始有了时空的会合。自1970年后期，中国台湾文学界的乡土运动和美国乡土写实画家怀斯(Andrew Nowell Wyeth)的引进，使台湾当代艺术进入历史感的追寻情境。值得注意的是，中国四川的伤痕文学运动下的美术，也受怀斯的影响。在谈论两岸当代艺术之30年会合之际，怀斯的乡土写实内容和技法及贴近平民生活的主题，可以说是1970年代后期，两岸共同认同的一种艺术形式;然而中国四川的伤痕写实和中国台湾的乡土写实，在历史情境和意义上却又是截然不同的。
从1980至2010年，“中国台湾当代艺术30年”，可以说是经历了：土地的情感—后殖民与后现代的拼图(画会的年代)，城市的欲望—新历史现实主义(美术馆的年代)，平凡的奇观 —新-存在主义(画廊的年代)。在时空分配上，这30年是相互重迭而非断层的。例如，1980年代的艺术景观，在1990年前期才进入论述上的对辩，至1990年代后期才被美术馆整理，加入国际艺坛多元文化的对话。1990年代至2000年代，世代代有人才出，而至2000年至2009年之间， 1980年代出生者已开始被推入国际展览、市场舞台。
总之，在21世纪之前，中国台湾当代艺术的确具有相当大的台湾区域意识，它试图透过国际大展的制造与参与，表达台湾的区域处境。至21世纪初，在开放中，中国当代艺术亦成为国际瞩目焦点，京沪两地更是吸引了许多国际艺界人士前往，其间自然也包括寻求艺术生存境遇的台湾当代艺廊和艺术工作者前往。在经济文化交流下，科技革命和全球生活语境下，亚洲各地的许多新艺术逐渐呈现无疆域状态，他们共同面临了亚洲新现代化生活的种种新存在情境，其认同与差异遂有了新的流转。
3.
进入21世纪，中国台湾新艺术家作品多涉及日常生活，因此将台湾馆主题定调为“平凡的奇观”。与前30年创作者不同，新生代艺术家是处于全球化与后现代生活文化的语境，前30年现代主义创作者却是处于现代主义与历史流动的文化语境。人的生存情境是跨时代的人文议题，台湾新艺术创作者曾被简论成宅型—微型的生活者，认为其作品“与”论述之间出现一个表象上的“冷感带”。针对这些新艺术创作者的总体性，个人乃提出“新-存在主义”一词，以形容他们面对的“我”与“日常生活”之新关系。
关于台湾馆的作品结构，乃分为三类：
一、平面—墙上展示作品、包括绘画、摄影、影像输出、二度空间装置
二、雕塑—对象等三度空间设计和装置
三、影录—动画，包括观念、行为、演出等记录，以及短片和动画制作
根据作品的内容与精神性，这些不同的媒材和形式则又在“平凡的奇观”总题下，归划为个子题：
一、自我身份的解构与建构
二、虚拟世界的魔幻想象
三、社会行为的异想批判
四、视象空间的美学实验
五、微型感性—心理现实主义的复兴
基于两岸文化有共承处，也有历史演进经验，中国台湾参与此展的实质意义是，透过艺术文字和图像的再现，让大陆观者理解近30年台湾当代艺术的发展方向，以及近十年的新生代艺术世界，让时间与空间决定台湾地区当代艺术在大中华文化圈、东北亚文化圈、亚太文化圈，乃至国际艺坛，在地理人文上的历史时空关联性。在认同与差异的并置下，两岸的艺术论述发展和视觉演变，能完整地获得最多中文人口的阅读和理解，在同一平台上，可对话可比较。
艺术可否能改造历史意识?历史意识是可否会改造艺术?且让我们留予另一个10年的时间来回答。
From the curator
Kao Chienhui
Born in Chinese Taiwan and having lived in the West for over 20 years, my role as the 'Taiwan curator' can not be read as someone who represents the views of Taiwan, but rather an observation from my seat, of the development of contemporary art in Taiwan in the past 30 years, as well as my perception of the rising new art in Taiwan.
1.
'Reshaping History Chinart from 2000 to 2009' was originally initiated by artists from the Institutions of Chinart in Chengdu. It tried to describe the activities of artists from China during the frst decade of the new 21st between 2000 and 2009.The exhibition title of 'Reshaping History' is not a default establishment of historical viewpoint, but a platform for the young generation of artists and the world they live in to enter the global art arena by showcasing the contemporary Chinese art in its totality. The art evolution it connects to is a retrospective one, with the ongoing new look in art that began between 2000 and 2009 as its main object of integration.
Personally I believe the theme of 'Reshaping History' is a huge one. Although I doubt the ability of art in making history, I believe art can create a different art history. 'Can 30 years of work be counted as part of history? Can 10 years of work represent contemporary art?' Can these working artists arrive at a point in the future that the history will remember? Looking at these issues, the contemporary art writers are no prophets. The start of historical positioning for contemporary art can not be imposed upon the occurrence of movement in history, nor can it dwell on a series of styles. In fact, its context is attached to the essence of modern art: actions stirred up by denial or dissatisfaction with the reality. In the meantime, organizing an infuential art exhibition is often a romantic idea of activists in the art circle. So, looking at 30 years of diverse work within the region, writing from an angle sandwiched between the history of movement and history of styles is indeed a history of exhibition merged by artistic styles of the last 30 years.
The use of exhibition as an art movement or review of an era has been a century-long practice in the art circle since Impressionism. So it will not be an exaggeration if one calls art history as a contending history of exhibition. Watching the making of local art history over the past 30 years is already a large volume of various sizes of exhibitions; in short, creating a trend or movement through exhibitions has already become the evolution or means for modern art. As to the history of movement, it requires 'events' and 'event' is usually the turning point that changes the course of history. For Asia, one of the infuential events took place during the frst decade of the 21st century is the impact of 2008 fnancial crisis on the contemporary art scene. It reawakened the fervor of the last decade on contemporary art of the past 30 years, particularly the Chinese contemporary art, and re-consolidated many blind spots of world market orientation in the art world.
Whose art? Whose history? But a pluralistic vision of art history that questions any monism forcefully set by part of the collective will. Contemporary art is splitting into various artistic purpose because of globalization and anti-globalization wave, and the different perception of history and reality, shaping a subtle opposition and fusion between contemporary exhibition trends and contemporary market trends. Therefore, the work of art writing is particularly challenging in the review of and future evolution of contemporary Chinese art in the 21st century, because the historical time and space it must address also includes both market and anti-market defnition of art.
Based on the fact that over time visual arts is sure to move toward a cultural universal history that bases its thinking on the interaction between style and society, therefore visual arts are often seen as a reference document to aesthetics. In the past 30 years, the writing of contemporary art has become complex and increasing less one-directional due to pluralistic tolerance and dissent. In additional to the history of art movements and history of art styles, other methods of arrangement include art history of art galleries and collection history of the market. The former has idea of history, history, and education as its goals, and is mostly guided by the judgment and knowledge from art galleries or academic institutions; the latter uses private collections, taste, and investment as its direction, and set the market value of art work by the like of private collectors and investment judgment. In general, knowledge judgment should be regarded as objective while taste judgment should be considered as objective. But in today's globalization, the idea of history may have come from a subjective idealism, and taste may have been the result of manufactured message infuence. As art draws closer to politics and money, it often makes people forget its own value. In any case, a good piece of work from a particular age should bear the evidence of both an era and its people or heritage function; the reason that work of art is attractive is that its material carrier not only contains time, space, and people, but also the aesthetic studies of the age.
Today, after frst decade of the 21st century, the building of relationship between contemporary, history, and art is no longer an answer, but a convergence of writing of different angles and forms. In the era of homogenization of the arts, one will also need to return to the recognition and redefnition of how to see art history before it is possible to 'transform art history'. But, can exhibition be an art movement? Obviously, like all works, it also has its timing and unavoidable destiny.
In 2010, China formally recognized its diverse manifestations of contemporary art; to provide such a vast space for contemporary art activities, one can say that it is the fruit of contemporary art's pursuit of recognition over the past decades to the participation of the Taiwan Pavilion, it began in mid-October of 2009.Under the knowledge of non-proft participation of private organizations, My Humble House Art Gallery invited Taiwan's new artists to take part in this exhibition of Chinese contemporary art. For this reason, a positive consensus was reached: the Taiwan Pavilion will be themed 'A Spectade of the Ordinary' and presented as a stand-alone block that showcases the works of new generation artists born after 1970, and the presentation of 30 years of contemporary art in Taiwan will be shown in a complete and dedicated book. Such an open, respectful, and non-commercial premise is the reason for my personal participation in the Taiwan Pavilion.
Why present in a stand-alone and unbroken manner? There is an experience
context of modern history in Taiwan's new art, and behind the presentation, one can not sever the art reality it once had. The frst major event in the chronicle of Taiwan's contemporary art is the resignation from the UN in 1971, which led to the rise of a slow local cultural movement that lasted 10 years, and an economic development. Itwas during this phase that contemporary art in Taiwan entered the art gallery age. The second is the abolishment of the martial law in the mid-1980s and the establishment of modern art galleries. For ten years it drove the local consciousness, initiated a historical refection on post-war abstract art in Taiwan, and entered the diverse post-modern period. The third is Taiwan's Biennale frenzy after 1995 that took Taiwan's contemporary art onto the world stage through art diplomacy of participation in and organization of international exhibitions, while contemporary art moved into the era of alternative space, art galleries, and art fairs. The fourth is the era of globalization, technology, the Internet, market after 2001, where international exhibitions and galleries fourished, resulting in the rise of new arts.
Therefore, since the 1980s, writers can no longer use methods such as linear time, style classifcation, and media division to effectively describe the changing landscape of the time and the linear relations connected to history, but this does not imply the lack of sense of history for art during the period of Cold War. In 1990, Jean Baudrillard, a contemporary culture theorist, borrowed anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss' anthropological concept and used 'cold society' to explain the phenomenon of art detached from the sense of history during the Cold War era, especially between 1950-1960. At that time, the Western 'modernity' was based mainly on abstract form and focused on rationality; in terms of sense of history, it oriented toward the theory of spiritual analysis and residual emotions that can trace back the common memory of mankind or past events.
In the late 1970s, convergence of time and space in contemporary art between two sides of the strait began. Since the late 1970s, contemporary art in Taiwan began the pursuit of a sense of history after the start of local movements in the Taiwanese literature and the introduction of Andrew Nowell Wyeth's work, a local realism painter from the United States. It is noteworthy that the art under the movement of scar literature of Sichuan, China, was also infuenced by Wyeth. While we are discussing the 30 years of convergence in contemporary art between China and Taiwan, it can be said that Wyeth's content and techniques in local realism and themes intertwined with the civilian life, is an art form recognized by both parties across the strait in the late 1970s; however, the scar realism of Sichuan and the local realism of Taiwan are yet completely different in the sense of historical context and meaning.
During the '30 years of contemporary art in Taiwan China' from 1980 to 2010, we went through: emotion toward the land / post-colonial and post-modern puzzle (age of art association), desire for cities / new historical realism (age of art museum), and ordinary spectacle / new-existentialism (age of art gallery) .In terms of temporal and spatial distribution, these 30 years are overlapping and non-fragmented. For example, the art scene of the 1980s only moved into discourse debate during the early 1990s, and joined the international art multi-cultural dialogue toward the end of the same decade after it was structured by art museums. Many talents emerged during the period of 1990 to 2000, and between 2000 and 2009, artists born in the 1980s began to be promoted in the arena of international exhibitions, markets.
In short, prior to the 21st century, contemporary art in Taiwan was indeed highly regional conscious as it attempted to express Taiwan's regional and international circumstances through the organization and participation of international exhibitions. During its liberation in the early 21st century, the Chinese contemporary art also became the focus of international attention, and both Beijing and Shanghai attracted many international art professionals, including contemporary art galleries and artists from Taiwan in search of an art environment for survival. Under the economic and cultural exchanges as well as the technological revolution and global living context, as artists are confronted by many new situations of Asian new modern life, new circulation in knowledge and difference begins to emerge as borders gradually faded between new arts across Asia.
3.
Moving into the 21st century, Taiwan's new artists are involving more daily life in their work, hence the theme of 'A Spectade of the Ordinary' for the Taiwan Pavilion. Different to modernism artists of preceding 30 years who operate in a cultural context of modernism and historical exile, the new generation of artists exists in a context of globalization and post-modern life and culture. As situation of human existence is a humanity issue that spans across time, Taiwan's new artists were once labeled as the introvert-micro inhabitants, with a belief that there is a representative 'cold zone' between their work and discourse. In terms of totality of these new artists, personally I have come up with the term 'new-existentialism' to describe the new relationship between the 'I' they face and 'daily life'.
The structure of works in the Taiwan Pavilion is divided into three categories:
1. Flat-wall displays, including paintings, photography, video output, two-dimensional installations
2. Sculpture-objects, and other three-dimensional designs and installations
3. Video recording-animation, including the recording of idea, behavior,
performance, as well as short flms and animation production.
Based on the content and spirit of the work, these different media and forms are in turn grouped into fve sub-themes under the overall theme of 'A Spectade of the Ordinary':
1. Deconstruction and Construction of self-identity
2. Magical imagination of the virtual world
3. Fantastic criticism of social behavior
4. Aesthetic experiments of visual space
5. Psychological realism-The Renaissance of micro-emotional
With cross-strait cultural similarity and experience of historical evolution, the true signifcance of Taiwan's participation in this exhibition lies in letting the mainland audience understand the development direction of contemporary art in Taiwan through the reproduction of artistic text and images, as well as the new generation of art world of the last decade, allowing time and space to determine the geographical and cultural relevance of Taiwan's contemporary art in the historical time and space within the cultural circle of Greater China, Northeast Asia, Asia-Pacifc, and the international art scene. In the juxtaposition of identity and difference, cross-strait discourse on art development and visual evolution can be thoroughly read and understood by the largest Chinese population, while a common platform will make dialogue and comparison possible.
Can art transform historical consciousness, or can art be transformed by historicalconsciousness? Let us stay around for another ten years for the answer.
April 2010
【编辑：张瑜】
