第八届上海双年展的策展思考
第八届上海双年展策展团队
为什么排演？
在过去的两年中，全球资本遭遇了它的最新危机并又一次绝路逢生。与之相伴随的是，在两届双年展的间隙，当代艺术也陷入了一场全球性危机之中。这不是现代主义者那种创造性个体深处的精神危机，而是一种瘟疫般的世界性疲软，或者说，这是一种“系统病”——艺术体制的生产力远远大于个体的创造力，艺术家无法摆脱被艺术系统雇佣的感觉和“社会订件”的命运，到处是仿像和角色扮演。2010上海双年展将致力于追问：在当代艺术的政治经济学网络中，是什么在抑制着心灵的力量？是什么在阻挠解放的步伐？是艺术系统那只无所不在的“看不见的手”？还是国际艺术市场的“行情”？是千篇一律的国际大展？还是渗透到我们身体深处的大众文化？艺术家的个体正变得越来越健康而空洞，我们莫名其妙地进入一种“后历史”状态。如何来清晰地描述这种状态？在现行的由国际话语、国际大展、世界博览会以及跨国资本所构成的无限-无缝链接的艺术系统中，如何摆脱这种艺术创造之僵局？如何在这个被全球资本主义俘获的“艺术世界”中发现其内在边疆？在“体制批判”（Institutional critique）和“社会参与”（participation）之外，当代艺术实践是否能够开拓出一种新型的生产关系？
第八届上海双年展的主题词是“排演”，强调展览作为一种文化生产的实验性和开放性。“排演”是排布与推演。“巡回排演”是开放性的和流动性的，强调展览的策划情境和展开的过程，强调展览的创作与生产意识。在巡回排演中，展览空间不仅仅是艺术品的陈列场所，而且是生产性的、变化中的、反复试验的感性现场。正如布莱希特所指出：“排演者不希望去‘实现’一个思想。他的任务是唤起和组织他者的创造性。排演就是试验，就是发掘出此时此刻的多种可能性。排演者的任务是揭露一切模式化的、俗套的、习惯的解决方案”。今天，每个展览都呈现为剧场。展览的“剧场化”与奇观化甚至已经成为当代艺术领域的一个备受质疑的问题。对于双年展而言，“剧场”和“排演”不仅是一种展览效果，更是一种创作、展示和交流的方法。排演中的“剧场”首先是一群人，是一个知识共同体的构造，剧场中人在彼此合作与响应的关系中工作，在排演中，当代艺术创作的个体性被改造和修正，艺术家成为一个开放的主体，一个创作-交往中的“跨主体”。本届上海双年展将从剧场、排演的这种跨主体性出发，强调创作的群体互动性，推动当代艺术家集体现场的探索和呈现。同时，“巡回排演”以“双年展剧场”作为现场，旨在呈现当今艺术语言形态的综合性与实验性。近年来，现场、情境、叙事和社会参与逐渐成为当代艺术与视觉文化中的最前沿话题，本届双年展将以“巡回排演”的形式，争取在这一前沿领域有所推进，将双年展剧场打造成一个多领域、跨媒介的公共现场。
作为艺术与公众的交往空间，展览是超脱于日常生活世界的一块飞地，它坐落于日常之中，又超出日常领域，它的存在方式与剧场相类。就当代艺术而言，展览就是其剧场。展览不但是艺术对日常世界进行表述-再现的剧场，也是艺术界自身的代议剧场。同时，展览首先是艺术之自治领域。在这个自治领域中，艺术家成为立法者，这是现代主义留给我们的最珍贵的遗产。但是，为什么艺术家对展览既渴望又心怀疑虑？为什么艺术家对展览的依赖令我们忐忑不安？对艺术家尤其是装置和影像艺术家来说，展览正在成为创作的第一现场，艺术家的工作被展览绑架为一种机制化创作。最近十年以来，甚至机制批判也早已成为一种机制化创作的套路。更有甚者，展览这个艺术自治领域、这块公共领域中的飞地已经成为全球资本生产、展示和消费的集散地……
另一方面，如果艺术果真是一种“日常生活的实践”，那么，展览的必要性何在？展览现场是否是艺术家工作的目的地？如果说艺术作为一种社会活动，是交互主体性偶遇、共享和普遍的连接，是以团体对抗大众，以邻里关系对抗宣传，以千变万化的“日常”对抗被媒体-体制定制和买办的已蜕化为意识形态的“大众文化”。那么，展览是否是这一对抗的基地？或者相反，作为艺术之自治领域的展览是否就成为了更广大更真实的日常交往空间中的一个可有可无的游乐场？
然而，展览却并非只是为了不同主体之间的交往，它不只是交往空间、发布空间或者实现空间，展览首先是创作空间。展览之悖论在于——展览之目的不就是为了展现那无法被展示之物吗？在每个时代，总有些东西是难以呈现的。这并不等于说，此难以呈现者是现成存在的，只是因为某种人为之限制而无法被公布。事实上，此难以呈现者在“呈现”之前并不存在，它生成于“呈现”。使不可见者可见的“呈现”不是反抗而是建构。展览也不是作品之发布而是事态之创生。正是在这里，展览同时成为剧场与“反剧场”。在布莱希特与阿尔托之后，再现之舞台已然崩塌，戏剧打破了它的自治状态，“剧”和“场”分离开来又重新闭合。
“剧”与“场”分离断裂之处，就是“排演”自我消除和自我拯救之所。“排演”是非正式的演出，是可反复的、抹去重来的实验；排演可以把任何场所变成剧场，也可以把剧场变成日常空间。在排演时刻，剧场不再是看与被看交接的命定之舞台，不再是把现实排除出去的再现空间，而是一个自我欣赏同时又被不断打断-拆穿的世界，排演是幕前与幕后的中间状态，也是剧场与日常的中间状态。
在伯格曼的影片《排演之后》中，一切至关重大的事情都发生在剧场之外，可排演的剧目和不可排演的生活（什么是不可排演的？政治、历史和……生活）穿插在一起。在《八部半》的结尾，费里尼将故事中的所有演员和角色摆上舞台，共同狂欢，他们既是他们所扮演的角色，又是他们自身（演员又何尝不是一种角色？）。这就是“排演”，一种演习，一种“表述的中间状态”，比表演更真切实在，更轻松写意，可以随时停顿，可以重新开始。
那么，展览是否是可排演的？艺术家为展览创作，是否如同演员为了演出而排演？展览开幕时刻就是艺术创作的最终完成吗？还是说，展览就是排演，展览必须是且只能是排演？
所有展览都希望成为一个结论，一次宣告，一次最终的演出，一场完美的戏剧。而实际上，它只是排演。因为进入剧场之时，所有的观众都带着“观众”之面具（在古希腊的剧场中，所有个性[personality]都只是差异之面具），流俗的剧场经验已经把工人、教师、商人、学生……这些无限差异之个体（multitude）驯化为“观众”这一角色的扮演者。在排演之时，排演之剧场是开放的，因为观众尚未临场，在场的所有人都是排演的参加者。排演之剧场是开放的，还因为我们只是“艺术”这一史诗剧的排演者，艺术之决断本身即是历史之决断，历史没有终点线，艺术的历史尚悬而未决。
展览即是排演。与舞台演出相比，“排练场”更加日常化，但是，排演却也并不在日常之中，日常也早已经成为一个剧场，惟有在排演之中，我们才可以从此日常剧场中脱身，摆脱日常生活这座堡垒对个体的宰制，进入生命政治的解放时刻。
展览即是排演。戏剧演出并不能达到解放。因为表演在演出时走向完结，它成为一次性发生之事件，迅速地消融在日常之中。也因为在剧场中，观众只是从一场戏进入另一场戏，从一个梦进入另一个梦。我们并没有摆脱“剧中人”的身不由己状态，我们是集体梦境的陷落者，是被动的观众，被订制的他者。只有在排演中，观众作为主体之参与才得以施行。然而这是与所谓“社会参与”（social engagement）和“公共介入”（participation）相反的行动。后者是艺术家对社会的介入和参与，仿佛艺术家本来不在社会之中，艺术家进入日常之剧场，他或她相对于“公众”或社会仍然是居高临下的“主权者”（sovereign）；而“排演”则是邀请大家进入我们的排练场，加入到艺术的生产中来，如同在排练场中，演员和灯光师、教师和学生、政治家和工程师一同登上舞台。此中关键在于：在“参与主义”的框架中，“公众”和“社会”都只是单数，而在排练场上，所有的排练者都被保持为无穷差异之个体，是“众人”（multitude）。
展览即是排演。“排演”是一种解放，因为一切尚处未定状态。在本届上海双年展的框架中，策展不是总结，不是调查或再现，而是组织排演。只要在排演之中，展览之剧场就尚未封闭，尚有其未来。今天，艺术体制的生产力远远大于个体的创造力，艺术家难以摆脱被艺术系统雇佣的感觉和“社会订件”的命运，到处是仿像和角色扮演（cosplay）。“排演”号召艺术界的同仁脱掉角色扮演的戏服，从机制化的艺术剧场中出走、从日常剧场中出离，成为那“未被定义者”，回到我们的排练场，进入到自发、自由的演习之中。
2010上海双年展拟邀请Performa、“长征计划”等具有重要学术影响力的策展机构作为合作伙伴，共同参与双年展的国际“巡回排演”计划。同时，从“巡回排演”这个主题方向出发，我们将在展览操作层面成立巡回排演“行动委员会”（Acting Committee）。该团队由“巡回排演”计划中的十余位主要思想家、艺术家和策展人组成，参与并且协助策展人进行双年展各流动站的学术研究和组织工作。
如何“排演”？
1924年苏联未来主义作家 Tret’iakov创作了革命诗歌Roar China!
1926年苏联左翼群体在莫斯科演出的同名戏剧Roar China!
1930年10月27日前卫戏剧Roar China!在Martin Beck Theatre上演
1934年，未名社成员刘岘在上海创作该剧的插图《怒吼吧中国！》。
1935年中国版画家李桦创作黑白木刻《怒吼吧中国！》
1937年国际纵队成员Langston Hughes在Volunteer for Liberty 发表反法西斯诗歌Roar, China!
这段发生在1920-30年代的上海-苏联-纽约-西班牙之间的曲折往事，是艺术-政治史上的一次曾经真实存在的“巡回排演”。这80年前的“巡回排演”为我们提供了一个角度，去重新检讨前卫与革命、革命与国际、国际与民族-国家、国家与政治、政治与艺术、艺术与前卫-革命之间的复杂关系。80年后的今天，上海双年展将以另一次跨地域的国际性的“巡回排演”向那个大时代致敬。
第八届上海双年展“巡回排演”计划从2010年6月开始，共展开四幕。可以被视为一种历史的回声。
第一幕：胡志明小道，与“长征计划”合作，2010年6月至9月于北京展开，议题为“从生产到排演”。“长征计划”是中国最具国际影响力的策展项目之一，多年来一直致力于推动中国当代艺术的视觉生产和话语生产。“巡回排演”第一幕将以“长征”正在进行的“胡志明小道”计划为排演案例，检验“文化生产”这一观念的有效性，以及从“生产”到“排演”的范式转变对于艺术创作与思考的意义所在。本次“排演”将在中国、越南、柬埔寨和老挝之间搭建一系列艺术与思想的活动平台，深入到这个地区的复杂记忆中，集中探讨艺术和思想在重新定义“自我-历史-社会”这一集合体的过程中的作用。“胡志明小道” 以调研（2008-2009）、教育论坛（2009.7）、实地行走（2010.6-7）、“排演”（2010.9—11），“剧场”（2010.10—2011.2）以及“知识资料库”等元素构成，其中“排演”和“剧场”部分共同构成2010年上海双年展的“巡回排演” 项目。
第二幕：指路明灯（Guiding Light），将与PERFORMA：纽约表演艺术双年展合作，2010年11月于纽约展开。PERFORMA 致力于探讨“现场”与表演艺术在20世纪艺术史中的意义和影响，以及21世纪表演艺术的发展方向，致力于以表演、现场等方式进行社会批判，是当今国际双年展领域最富有挑战性的活动。排演第二幕的主题为“指路明灯”，这个题目取自史上最长的电视肥皂剧，该剧先在电台而后在电视上播放，长达72年之久，并于去年停播。纽约著名艺术家林姆·吉利克（Liam Gillick）和安东·维多克（Anton Vidokle）将邀请二十余位精英艺术家、批评家和策展人参与，共同思考和讨论上海双年展提出的若干议题，共同探讨自我和艺术的危急时刻。本次“排演”将探讨艺术创作在作品与现实、剧场与排演、社会空间与艺术体制之间的纠结关系，在现代主义以来的乌托邦思想与左翼文艺的背景中反思当代艺术的“社会参与”及行动主义，深入探讨艺术家当前创作中的困惑与僵局。“指路明灯”破坏了传统的“排演”概念，这也是对本届双年展的主题的一种呼应。它的目标不在于一出完美的剧目，而是对可能性的拓展和加强。排演作品的原动力变成了作品本身，完整感的延迟最终将实现本届上海双年展关于“建造一个表演的自省空间”的提议。
第三幕：巡回排演——主体展，将于2010年10月23至2011年1月在上海美术馆展出。本届双年展主体展强调当代艺术的叙事容量与场所精神，将打造出一个注重时间性、虚拟性、体验性的跨媒介现场，绘画、影像、装置、网络……不同的媒介和形式在剧场中登台表演，彼此串联。通过这些媒介和形式，双年展把不同的时间意象引入现场，时间空间化了，不同艺术家的作品构造起一个总体化的叙事性环境，观众可以在展厅流线中渐次领略一幕幕的“双年展情境”。这渐次展开的双年展情境演绎出起伏跌宕的“情绪场”，牵扯着记忆、筹划与建造。在这个意义上，双年展剧场中的排演，可以被看作是在“剧”和“场”之间的一次次超越经验的历险。
第四幕 待租赁艺术家
作为“巡回排演”的第五幕，上海双年展将与著名国际策展组合WHW小组以及德国艺术家组织葛诺特·法伯合作，借助他们虚构的人物形象葛诺特·法伯进行一场别开生面的排演。WHW将以60年代南斯拉夫经济自治为背景创作剧本，邀请葛诺特·法伯这位虚构人物作为鼓动者和表演者参与演出。剧本以阅读列表的形式出现，在表演过程中，演员要克服诸如多语言之间的翻译、相互间的偏见、因知识产生的鸿沟以及政治和艺术的关系等等障碍，并借此进一步讨论自治、艺术和宣传有何相关？艺术家和策展人的界限在何方？观众的必要性是什么？以及什么可以被展示而什么又是隐秘的等诸种问题。第四幕的欧洲部分将在克罗地亚的萨格勒布（Zagreb）的非盈利机构诺瓦（Nova）画廊举行，分为两个部分。第一部分的研讨会于12月3日至4日举行，与维也纳的Tranzit组织合作，题为“甜蜜60年代：运动和空间”，研讨会由两场夜间讲座和三组日间讨论构成，研讨会内容从南斯拉夫经济自治运动开始，讨论60年代地缘政治及其政治背景，随后延伸到文化领域的讨论；第二组集中在当时艺术生产，讨论文化生产和文化系统之间的张与驰；第三组则探讨物理空间的意蕴，特别指向城市规划和建筑。第二部分为现场展示，将于2011年1月中旬开始，展期为一个半月，WHW将会和葛诺特·法伯继续合作，邀请中国艺术家共同参与，创作“租赁艺术家”计划的另一版本。
幕间——致中国“现场艺术”十年
2010，中国“现场艺术”已经走过十个年头。从实验剧场到媒体表演，从“后感性”到“联合现场”，中国当代艺术的跨媒介实践逐渐走出了一条独具特色的道路。值此十周年之际，我们需要追问：“现场艺术”实践给当代艺术的创作带来了什么？现场艺术是否造就了一种剧场化的展览文化？我们应该如何重新定义艺术现场与日常生活现场之间的关联？我们如何界定现场艺术的中国方式？十周年，是中国现场艺术的庆典时刻与回顾时刻，还是说，这只是一个“幕间”时刻？在幕间时刻，演员们回到后台，带着舞台上的装扮，交头接耳或闭目养神，他们处于现实与舞台、日常与剧场的中间区域，他们等待着下一幕的开场……作为本届双年展的“幕间”项目，我们将以文献展的形式对“中国现场艺术”的历史进行深入的学术梳理，并同时以一场与历史和现场观众互动的开放研讨构造起一个表演性的现场——什么是现场？什么是表演？什么是剧场？什么是观众？什么是社会参与？什么是排演？什么是历史？什么是纪念？
第五幕：“从西天到中土——印中社会思想对话”，将于2010年10月底至2011年1月在上海展开。“从西天到中土”印中社会思想对话将从双年展开展后开始，每两周邀请一位世界级的印裔学者与中国学者进行学术对话，同时编辑出版“印度当代社会思想系列读本”（8册55万字）。高峰对话将聚集20余位印中两国的知识分子，以当代思潮前沿的论点促进中国学界的亚洲内部交流，重新评估当今国际学术形势，刺激中国学术视野更新。参加本项目的印中学者包括：霍米•巴巴（Homi Bhabha）、迪佩什•查卡拉巴提（Dipesh Chakrabarty）、帕沙•查特吉（Partha Chatterjee）、阿希斯•南迪（Ashis Nandy）、杜赞奇（Prasenjit Duara）、特贾斯维莉•尼南贾纳（Tejaswini Niranjana）、吉塔•卡普尔（Geeta Kapur）、萨拉•马哈拉吉（Sarat Maharaji）、陈光兴、汪晖、赵汀阳、王晓明、陈宜中、陆兴华、贺照田、陈思、陈界仁、Raqs Media Collective等。
第八届上海双年展将邀请80余位思想家、艺术家、策展人共同参与以上四幕“排演”。“排演”强调话语生产与视觉生产的合一，对第八届上海双年展来说，“排演”并非某种展览形态上的隐喻，而是一种思考和运作的方法。双年展要做的，是以“排演”作为策略，邀请艺术界的不同参与者：艺术家、策展人、批评家、收藏家、博物馆长以及形形色色的受众们一起来到双年展这个排练场中进行排演，从而思考艺术实验和艺术体制之间、个体创造和公共领域之间的关系。
双年展将自身定义为“排演”，定义为一个反思性的表演空间。“排演”是艺术世界的自我排演，是不断地自我提醒和自我解放。以“排演”反对“表演”，以“排演”反对“生产”，以“排演”反对“话语实践”，策展人所做的，是划分和组织、集结和动员。对本届双年展来说，重要的不只是展览最终的视觉呈现，而是长达一年的策展过程中实际发生了什么？在这个意义上，真正的“排演”其实就是受邀艺术家、策展人、不同学术领域的理论家所构成的这个学术共同体在2010年的无数次对话、论辩、思想和实践。
WHAT IS REHEARSAL?
A CuratorialThinking of the 8[sup]th[/sup] Shanghai Biennale
Curatorial Team ofthe 8[sup]th[/sup] Shanghai Biennale
Theme: ‘Rehearsal’
Curatorial Team: FANDi’An, LI Lei, GAO Shiming
Executive Curator: GAOShiming
Curatorial Assistant: HUA Yi
Opening Time: Oct. 23, 2010(Sat.)
Opening Duration: Oct.24, 2010 through Jan. 23, 2011
Why Rehearsal？
The last two years have witnessed the latest global crisis.As if on cue, almost concurrently, an unprecedented crisis also befellcontemporary art on a global scale. This one is no spiritual crisis experiencedby modernists in the depths of their individual creativity, but a malarialtorpor endemic to today’s world, or alternatively, a malaise of the system –the fact that the creativity of individual artists fails to match that of thesystem of artistic production, and by a wide margin. Artists cannot ridthemselves of the sinking feeling that they are in the system’s employment,made to order by society at large. Everywhere we look, artists are cosplayingtheir roles.
The 8[sup]th[/sup] Shanghai Biennale raises the followingquestion: What issuppressing and constraining the power of the heart in the economic andpolitical context of contemporary art? Is it because of the ‘invisible hand’ ofthe art world? Or is it because of ‘trends’ in the international art market?Should we blame all the identikit mega-exhibitions worldwide? Or the omni-presentmass culture? Artists are becoming more and more constrained and boring and weare dragged into a ‘post-history’ malaise. So how should we describe this stateclearly? How can we get out of the dilemma of creation in the contextof an art system constituted by seamlessand endless international dialogue, mega exhibitions, art fairs andtransnational capital? How do we identify the internal frontiers of the ‘artworld’ hijacked by global capitalism while we are ourselves part of it? Iscontemporary artistic practice capable of generating a new Produktionsverhältnisse – system of production – beyond thethrottles of institutional critique and social participation?
The8[sup]th[/sup] Shanghai Biennale defines itself as a ‘rehearsal’ and as areflective space of performance. ‘Rehearsal’ is not only a strategy or a specialform of exhibition. It’s travelling art and opening to all the audience. ‘Rehearsal’focuses on the full process of exhibition and on creativity itself. Theexhibition hall is not only the medium for the artworks, but also a changing spacethat can trigger creativity. As Brecht has noted, ‘Actors in rehearsal do notwish to ‘realize’ an idea. Their task is to awaken and organize the creativityof the other. Rehearsals are experiments, aiming to explore the manypossibilities of here and now. The rehearser’s task is to expose allstereotyped, clichéd and habitual solutions.’ The ‘rehearsal’ of the 8thShanghai Biennale is a self-performative act by the art world, a wake up callto itself and an attempt at self-liberation. Rehearsal is wielded against‘performance’, ‘production’ and ‘discursive practice’. The responsibility of thecurators is to differentiate, organize and then mobilize. Today many exhibitionsare restricted in the theatre, but for this biennale, the theatre and rehearsalare not only spaces for exhibition, but methods of creation, exhibition andcommunication. We hope that the biennale will be able to promote interactionbetween artists. The elements of venue, narration and social participation havebecome key concepts in contemporary visual art, so we also hope that we can explorethese areas in the mode of ‘rehearsal’.
Asthe space of communication between art and the public, the exhibition is likean enclave transcending everyday reality. It’s located within the quotidian,yet goes beyond it. Its mode of existence is not unlike that of the theatre. Theexhibition is the theatre of contemporary art. The exhibition not onlyreformulates/represents everyday life, but also provides a vehicle for its ownrepresentative polity. It is the autonomous region of art, within which artistsare also legislators. This is surely the most precious legacy of modernism. Butwhy do artists still harbor doubts about exhibitions, even while they crave theopportunity to exhibit? Why are we still somewhat perplexed by artists’reliance on them? For artists, the exhibition is fast becoming the primary venueof creativity, hijacking their work and transforming it into something systematizedand automated. In the last decade, even institutional critique has become a standardtrope in this industrialized art production. Even more worryingly, theexhibition – once art's autonomous enclave in the public domain – has turnedinto a hub for production, exposition and consumption of global capital…
Onthe other hand, if art is indeed ‘an everyday practice’, then where is the needfor the exhibition? Art as a social activity is a nexus that connects andshares inter-subjective encounters. It therefore aims to pit the group againstthe public, neighborhood against propaganda, and the mutating quotidian against‘pop culture’ - that nebulous construction tailor-made and co-opted by mediaand the establishment, consisting of almost pure ideology. So, can theexhibition be considered the battleground for this antagonism? Or on thecontrary, is exhibition, as art’s autonomous dominion, merely a theme park oflittle import trapped in the much larger and more real everyday space of socialcommunication?
Butthe exhibition is not solely intended for communication between disparatesubjects. It is not just a space for networking, release or realization. It isprimarily a creative space. The paradox of the exhibition lies in theimpossible mission of presenting that which cannot be represented. In every erathere is always that which defies representation. This is not to say that whichresists representation is already in existence and cannot be represented due torestrictions imposed by human beings. In reality, these things did not existprior to the act of ‘representation’. They are generated in that act. The‘representation’ that reveals what was previously invisible is not an act ofresistance, but rather one of active construction. Exhibitions are not allabout the releasing of works of art, but rather the creation of a scenario. Itis exactly here that the exhibition becomes simultaneously theatre and‘anti-theatre’ . After Brecht and Artaud, the theatre as a stage for representationhas all but collapsed. The theatre has broken with its own tradition ofautonomy. ‘Drama’ and ‘venue', the two elements which make up the Chinese wordfor theatre, have been separated and then reunited.
Therupture between ‘drama’ and ‘scene’ is where ‘rehearsal’ can be a venue forself-purging and redemption. ‘Rehearsals’ are not formal performances. They arenot repeatable and forgettable experiments; rehearsals can turn any socialspace into a theatre and vice versa. During rehearsals, the theatre is nolonger the designated stage for the performance of seeing and being seen, or a representationalspace that excludes reality. It is rather a space subjected to constant self-appreciation,interruption and deconstruction. Rehearsing finds itself in the no man’s landbetween the onstage and offstage, and hence falls into the limbo between theatreand everyday life.
InBergman’s film Efter Repetitionen (Afterthe Rehearsal), everything that matters happens outside the theatre.Theatre rehearsals and real life, which by definition cannot be rehearsed (Whatare they? Politics, history and…life) are intertwined. At the end of 8½, Fellini places all actors and rolesonto the stage for a carnival. They are both the roles and the actors’ ownselves (Isn’t an actor a kind of role in some way?) This is a ‘rehearsal’, adrill, an ‘intermediate state of expression’; more convincing and relaxed thanacting, since pauses and fresh starts are always available options.
So,is it possible to rehearse an exhibition? Does the artist have to rehearse asthe actor does, for the purpose of exhibited creation? Is the opening moment ofan exhibition the consummation of artistic production? Or are exhibitions rehearsals?Can they be otherwise?
Allexhibitions aspire towards an announcement, a last show, a perfect theatre. Infact, they are but rehearsals. Because upon entering the theatre, all membersof the audience wear the ‘mask’ of spectator (in theatres in ancient Greece,personality was but a mask of difference). Popular theatre experience hascoaxed builders, teachers, business people and students, members of themultitude of infinite difference, into playing the part of ‘the audience’. Atthe time of rehearsal, the theatre is an open space, since the audience has yetto descend, and everybody present is participating in the rehearsal. Preciselybecause we are merely the cast of ‘art, the epic drama', artistic judgments arefor us also historical judgments. There is no finishing line to history;therefore the history of art still hangs in balance.
Exhibitionsare rehearsals. Compared to theatre performances, ‘the rehearsal studio’ of theexhibition seems more grounded in real life. However, it is not exactly so,since the everyday has already turned into a theatre. Only in rehearsal can weextricate ourselves from the theatre of everyday life, virtually a dictatorshipover the individual, and then enter into the moment of liberation in the politics of real life.
Exhibitionsare rehearsals. Theatrical performances do not guarantee liberation. Forperformance pronounces the end of acting, which then becomes an incidentquickly absorbed by real life. In the theatre, the audience merely enters fromone play into another, from one dream into the next. We have not escaped fromthe ineptitude of ‘a part in the play’, as we remain subject to a collectivedreamland, passive in our tailor-made otherness. Only in rehearsal does theaudience actually get to participate as subjects. But this runs counter to theso-called social engagement and public participation, the latter oftensuggestive of artistic intervention and participation in society at large, asif the artists were not there in the first place. Even when the artist entersthe theatre of everyday life, they are still "sovereign", looking down on"the public" or on society; whereas ‘rehearsals’ invite thepublic into the studio to participate in artistic production, just as, actorsand lighting technicians, teachers and students, politicians and engineers allclimb onstage during the rehearsals. In a ‘participatory’ context, the ‘public’and ‘society’ are singular, undifferentiated, whilst in rehearsing studios, allparticipants retain their individuality, laden with infinite difference, aspart of an undefined ‘multitude’.
Exhibitionsare rehearsals. ‘Rehearsing’ is liberating, since everything is undecided. Inthe framework of the 8th Shanghai Biennale, curating is not about reachingconclusions, or investigating or representing, but about organizing rehearsals.As long as a rehearsal is going on, the theatre of exhibition will remain opento the future. Today, the productivity of the art system far outstripsindividual creativity. As a result the artists cannot rid themselves of thenagging feeling that they are on the payroll of the art system and ‘made toorder’ by society. Everywhere we look, artists are cosplaying their roles.‘Rehearsing’ requires artists to strip off their costumes and walk out of theinstitutionalized theatre of art production, to sever their ties with thetheatre of everyday life, to become the ‘undefined’, to return to ourrehearsing studio and plunge into spontaneous, unfettered rehearsal.
Forthe 8th Shanghai Biennale, ‘rehearsal’ is not a metaphor for a form ofexhibition, but a way of thinking and operating strategy. What the Biennaleaims to achieve is to invite a wide range of participants – artists, curators,critics, collectors, museum directors, and members of the audience – a torehearse in the Biennale, a fertile theatre to reflect on the relations betweenart experimentation and the art system, between individual creativity and thepublic domain.
The Biennale willinvite curatorial institutions such as Performa and the Long March Project tobe partners, to promote institutional innovation. An ‘Acting Committee’ will beformed at the executive level to assist the curators in their academic researchand the organization of events. This team will include academics, artists and curators to assistwith the rehearsals.
How to be Rehearsal?
In 1924, Tret’iakov, afuturist writer in the former Soviet Union, wrote a revolutionary poem Roar China!;
In 1926, the play Roar China! was performed by left-wing activists in Moscow;
On October 27[sup]th[/sup],1930, the avant-garde play Roar China! premieredin Martin Beck Theatre, New York;
In 1934, a series of illustrations of the play, also named Roar China!, were drawn by Liuxian, a member of the Unnamed Association;
In 1935, ablack-and-white woodcut print RoarChina! was created by Li Hua, a Chinese artist;
In 1937, InternationalBrigades volunteer Langston Hughes published the anti-fascist song Roar, China! in Volunteer for Liberty.
Thisstory spanned various locations, Shanghai, the Soviet Union, New York and Spain,through the 1920s and 1930s. It was a real-life ‘rehearsal’ from art and political history. It offers us a way to reconsiderthe complex relationship between the avant-garde and revolution, revolution andinternationalism, internationalism and nation state, state and politics, politicsand art, art and avant-garde/revolution. 80 years on, the 8th Shanghai Biennale,another international ‘rehearsal’, involve a number of different locations as a tribute to thosegolden years.
The ‘rehearsal’of the 8th Shanghai Biennale will start in June 2010, and will include fouracts.
Act I. HoChi Minh Trail
Incooperation with the Long March Project, the Ho Chi Minh Trail projectwill be run in Beijing from June to September, 2010. Its theme is ‘from creationto rehearsal’. The Long March Project is one of the most influential curatorialprojects in China promoting the development of Chinese contemporary art anddiscourse. The ongoing Ho Chi Minh Trail project is a part the LongMarch Project, and Act I of the ‘rehearsal’ will make a case study of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to verify the idea of ‘culturalcreation’, and to explore the significance of the paradigm shift from ‘creation’to ‘rehearsal’. This rehearsal will be an opportunity to exchange artworks and ideasin China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The rehearsal will also be a chance todiscuss the role of art and ideas in redefining the nexus of ‘self-history-society’.Ho Chi Minh Trail involves research (2008-2009), an educational forum(July 2009), field trips (June to July 2010), ‘rehearsal’ (September toNovember 2010), ‘theatre’ (October 2010 to February 2011) and ‘database’. The ‘rehearsal’and ‘theatre’ components will be a part of the 8th Shanghai Biennale.
Act II. Guiding Light
Incooperation with PERFORMA, Shanghai Biennale will perform Act II in New York inthe middle of November 2010. PERFORMA is committed to studying the role that ‘venue’and performance art played in the art history in the 20th century and itsfuture in the 21[sup]st[/sup] century. It creates social critique with itsperformances, and has built itself into one of the most exciting events in theglobal biennale community. In its New York part, the artists Liam Gillick andAnton Vidokle will invite a group of artists, critics, and curators to considerand discuss proposals for the Shanghai Biennial. We hope that participants can be releasedfrom their original roles by this group ‘rehearsal’, which will focus on thecomplex relationship between works and reality, theatre and rehearsal, society andart world. It aims to cover the issues of performance as art and ‘publicparticipation’ in contemporary art, in the context of ‘Utopia’ and left wingartistic trends after the emergence of modernism. There will be discussions on the troubles and deadlocksartists encounter while creating art. GuidingLight takes its title from the longest running television soap opera, whichwas cancelled last year after running on radio and then television for 72years. This reference proposes a provocative parallel between soap operas andart practice. Guiding Lightfrustrates the traditional concept of rehearsal. Its goal is not the perfectionof a repertoire, but a heightened state of potentiality. Rehashing the impetusof the work becomes the work itself, deferring a sense of completion, thusfulfilling Shanghai Biennale’s proposal for the creation of a reflective spaceof performance.
Act III. Rehearsal in Shanghai Art Museum
FromOctober 23, 2010, to February 2011 the theme exhibition Rehearsal will be presented in Shanghai Art Museum. Focusing on thenarrative capacity and site-specificity of contemporary art, the exhibitionwill conjure ainter-media theatre, reflecting on time, virtuality and experience. Performanceand intensive interaction among media and formats will run in parallel, activatingmultiple images of time and to spatialising the time experience of theaudience. The audience may walk from scene to scene, following an integralnarrative context constituted of work from different artists. These ‘biennalescenes’, engaging in memory, manoeuvre and construction, present an emotionalfield with a quirky twist. In this sense, the ‘rehearsal’ ofthe 8th Shanghai Biennale could be transcendental adventures along thewandering roads between the performance and its stage.
Act IV Artist to Rent
WHW (Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, NatašaIlić, Sabina Sabolović).
Gernot Faber (Lutz Krueger, Sebastian Reuss, Oliver Cole)
Incooperation with the radical curatorial group WHW, Shanghai Biennale willperform Act IV between Shanghai and Europe. WHW will provide a ‘script’ that Gernot Faber willgive a form. This ‘script’ will be in the form of a reading list that carriesmeaning for both WHW and Gernot Faber, involving overcoming the obstacles oftranslation, mutual prejudice, gaps in knowledge and the relationship betweenpolitics and art. Questions will be raised and discussed (Why self-management?What does art have to do with agitation? What are limits of the artist-curatorrelationship? How do collectives negotiate? What is ‘presented’ and what ishidden? Who is agitation for? Is the ‘audience’ necessary?) In the Europeanrehearsal, the first part of the Act will be a seminar, held on December 3-4th.The seminar will be realized as a collaboration with the Viennese collective Tranzit,and WHW and Tranzit’s long-term collaborative project ‘Sweet Sixties’. Thetitle of the seminar is ‘Sweet Sixties: Movements and Spaces’. One module willdiscuss self-management in Yugoslavia, its ideas, context, structures, failuresand heritage, as a kind of geo-political and political background to the 1960s.The seminar will move to the space of culture, one module focusing on art fromthe 60s (using ideas like the New Tendencies movement and events like a MusicBiennial or Genre Film Festival). In this module, the focus will be on the ideaof self organization and the collaborations and tensions between culturalsystems and cultural production. The last module will research physical space,going more in the direction of urbanism and architecture.
The second part, theexhibition of Act IV, will open in mid January, and will last for a month and ahalf. It will be collaboration with Gernot Faber, who willproduce anotherversion of the work exhibited at the Shanghai Biennale.
Interlude. The Past Decade of Chinese Live Art
In2010, Chinese live art will be celebrate its 10th anniversary. From experimentaltheatre to media performance, from ‘post-sensitivity’ to ‘joint scene’, the inter-mediumexplorations of Chinese contemporary art have produced their own unique form.Now it is time for us to inquire into the consequences of these explorations overthe past decade. What results hasthe specific practice of live art in theChinese contemporary art scene created? Is it a kind of spectacularizedexhibition culture? How can we revise defined relationship between thecontemporary art scene and real life? How can we define the Chinese mode oflive art? Have we reached a point of historical retrospection, celebrating thepast decade, or are we rather at an intermission? When the actors come offstage,waiting for the signal for the next act to begin, at that exact moment, theyare located in a limbo between reality and stage, life and theatre.
As theInterlude program of the Biennale, we’ll invite the active practitioners inChinese live art to transform the documentary exhibition The Past Decade of Chinese Live Art into a site of performativity in open dialogue with history. What isthe VENUE? What is the PERFORMANCE? What is the THEATRE? What is the AUDIENCE?What is SOCIAL PARTICIPATION? What is HISTORY? What is MEMORY? What isREHEARSAL?
Act V. From West Heavens To Cathay: India-China Summit on Social Thought
Act Vwill run from late October 2010 to January 2011 in Shanghai. This summit startswith the opening of the Shanghai Biennale, and will involve seven lecture-forums.Seven internationally-renowned Indian scholars have been invited to Shanghai,one every two weeks, to give an original lecture and engage in a dialogue withChinese scholars. Act V also includes the publication of a series of booksentitled Readers in Indian Contemporary Social Thinking (550,000words, 8 volumes, bilingual in Chinese and English). This Act is presented as apart of the project, started by the Institute of Visual Culture (ChinaAcademy of Art) to , promote cultural exchanges within Asia, present the latestideas, re-evaluate the international academic scene and encourage new thinkingin China. The participants are:Homi Bhabha, DipeshChakrabarty, Partha Chatterjee, Ashis Nandy, PrasenjitDuara, Tejaswini Niranjana, Geeta Kapur, Sarat Maharaj, Chen Kuan-hsing, Wang Hui, ZhaoTingyang，WangXiaoming, Chen Yizhong，Lu Xinghua，HeZhaotian, Chen Si, Raqs Media Collective.
Thoughthe five Acts, we will bring together around 80 thinkers, artists and curatorsin an attempt to bring about a convergence of discourse and visual production. Forthe 8th Shanghai Biennale, ‘rehearsal’ is not a metaphor for a form ofexhibition, but a way of thinking and operating strategy. What the Biennaleaims to achieve is to invite a wide range of participants – artists, curators,critics, collectors, museum directors, and members of the audience – a torehearse in the Biennale, a fertile theatre to reflect on the relations betweenart experimentation and the art system, between individual creativity and thepublic domain.
Thebiennale defines itself as a ‘rehearsal’, as a reflective space of performance.The ‘rehearsal’ of the 8th Shanghai Biennale is a self-performative act by theart world, a wake up call to itself and an attempt at self-liberation.Rehearsal is wielded against ‘performance’, ‘production’ and ‘discursivepractice’. The responsibility of the curators is to differentiate, organize andthen mobilize. For the 8[sup]th[/sup] Shanghai Biennale, what matters is notthe exhibition itself, but what it has brought to us in the past year ofpreparation. What the rehearsal shows is the dialogues, arguments, thoughts andpractices of artists, curators, and thinkers in 2010.
