Summary
策展人 / 黃思農
再拒劇團2012秋季演出的《接下來,是一些些消亡》（包括我自己的)，是一含概聲音藝術(Sound Art)、動態裝置、物件劇場(Object Theater)和現場藝術(Live Art)的另類劇展。參與展演的四個演出與一個靜態作品，表演者可能作為演出裝置的一部份，悼亡儀式的帶領者，甚或完全沒有演員的出現。
這個劇展部份啓發自吳爾芙的小說《戴洛維夫人》和她的意識流書寫手法，我們讓演員不再作為表現的主體，反透過不斷變化的物件流動、舞台裝置與聲音事件，交織出一個（或多個）不在場的女人生命所留下的痕跡與印記，並隨時間逝去，創作者與觀者共同在劇場見證這些生命刻痕的消亡一如肉身。而對於這個不在場的女性描繪與勾勒的同時，創作群亦探索著「陰性書寫」(écriture féminine)在劇場創作中擁有的可能，「她（們）」作為表演主體的「缺席」，如何得以與整個空間、空間裏的物質發生共鳴，作為一個整體在本質上「實存」。
透過動態裝置、身體、聲音、物件和一系列於演出前再拒部落格的書寫，我們希冀透過這個劇展，為這個不在場女人的生活空間所描繪的「存在地圖」，得以讓創作者與觀眾進一步反思，海德格 (Martin Heidegger)上一世紀的名言，人如何「在─世界─存在」(In-der-Welt-sein)。
All that’s left to happen is some deaths (my own included) is a performance-exhibition project curated by artistic director Huang Sze-nung, of the Against-Again Troupe. It consists of a series of performance pieces incorporating elements of object theater, sound art, and live art. The key concept is to devise alternative theater pieces that emphasize the “non-presence” of the actor.
Partly inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, and her stream-of-consciousness writing style, All... attempts to create theater without the human presence of actors. Through animated physical objects and sound events, the individual pieces reveal the life-traces of an absent woman. As the audience and artists collectively experience this absence through the passage of time, it is as though we are experiencing little deaths of moments gone by. By portraying the absent figure as a woman, we explore the possibilities of a vocabulary of écriture féminine (feminine writing) in the field of theater and performance by examining the absence of the feminine body and how it resonates with the space to reveal an existence that is, in fact, essentially “present.”
In the absence of the actor, objects and sounds describe a “map of presence” as we observe this absent woman through different stages of life. In this way we examine the Heideggerian concept of “In-der-Welt-sein” (Being-in-the-World).
Background
自2002年成立迄今，再拒劇團已邁入第十個年頭。從創團作《受壓迫者劇場─尋找布萊希特》，到2007年以新移民處境發想，在改造後的信義區四四南眷村演出的音樂劇《沉默的左手》，2009年在花蓮舊酒廠倉庫駐村創作和展演的《黑暗潮》，多部環境劇場(Site-Specific Theater)創作，累積了多元的藝術公共意識，並針對該城市、建築物獨有的文化與社會意義，透過劇場創作演現並拓展環境的內在意涵，展現其環境特質，進而體現劇場與生活緊密相連與無法切割的關係。
而從2007年開始舉辦迄今，在再拒劇團團長黃思農家中上演的《微型劇場─公寓聯展》，到即將於今年9月演出的劇展《接下來,是一些些消亡》(包括我自己的)，再拒劇團在台灣環境劇場所嘗試實驗與開發的，即是微型空間造成的觀/演者距離消融，如何在因之放大的官能體驗中，建立新形態的鏡框式/非鏡框式表演？有別於美國六零年代與台灣八零年代以降的環境劇場追求，我們除了空間意義上與言說權的爭奪外，又該如何創造新的劇場語彙，開啟甚而改變人的感知模式。
The realization of All... can be seen as a continuation of our experimentations in the fields of site-specific theater and micro-theater.
Since our founding in 2002, the Against-Again Troupe has continuously worked with the idioms of site-specific theater. Such works include our debut production Theatre of the Oppressed: In Search of Brecht which transformed the theater space into a bar; 2007’s The Silent Left Hand, a rock musical staged in a former military housing community; and 2009’s Kuroshio staged in an old wine factory warehouse. Through these works we have accumulated a multi-faceted public-consciousness in our art, striving to touch the inner social significances of the city and its architecture. By exposing the idiosyncrasies of space, we experience the inherent bonds between theater and life.
Building upon this foundation, the biennial Micro-theatre Apartment Showcase held in the residential apartment of artistic director Huang Sze-nung since 2007 is an example of how we examine the nature of performance in minuscule spaces. In the compactness of the apartment, the line between audience and performer is blurred and sensory perception is magnified, leading us to rethink the vocabularies of performance. It is here that we depart from the spatial politics of the 60‘s environment theater and work towards a poetic vocabulary of the senses. With All..., we attempt to further develop this sensory vocabulary and focus on the magnified perception of objects and sound in alternative performance spaces.
Curatorial Concept
■ 意識流劇場
能劇大師世阿彌曾舉過一個例子說明表演的本質，「一個好的演員透過他的身體向觀眾表現月亮，觀眾為其美妙的手勢與身形讚嘆；但更好的演員不會讓觀眾只著眼於自身，而是讓觀眾真實的看見他所表現的月亮。」這個例子適切的說明東方傳統表演藝術的最高精神，演員所有技藝的表現，皆為了服務於劇中所創造的無窮世界。然而，同樣是劇中世界的描繪，《接...》這個沒有演員的劇展裡，我們則是採取反向的思維和操作─懸吊移動的生活用品與傢俱、自行開啟的窗戶，地面與空氣中震動的聲波，覆蓋於觀眾身上的薄紗和黑暗裡閃動的光束─所有這些技術劇場的藝能所交織的流動意象，讓觀者真實的看見，創作者向我們開展的角色生活的風景(landscape)與心靈圖像(mindscape)。
正如吳爾芙以意識流書寫細膩且微妙地刻劃筆下人物心理癥候，這個形式特殊的劇展對角色生命旅程的刻畫，亦消弭了感知主體與客體之間的界線，以無間斷的意象流動，呼應著小說《戴洛維夫人》無間斷流動的角色意識，及其所刻畫的女性戀物情結，以物件向我們揭露，那些隱藏在所有瑣碎的生活事物中，存在無窮的可能與樣貌。
■ 陰性書寫作為劇場的表意實踐
1928年，吳爾芙以兩篇講稿向兩座英國女子學院宣告，女性要寫作，一是要擁有自己的房間，二是一年500英鎊的收入。換言之，書寫的革命必然發生在空間的革命之後，而這個「自己的房間」，亦可以延伸成為心靈的空間、思考的空間、創作的空間。回應著吳爾芙的思考，《接...》劇展在Mad L這個空間所勾勒的女人，雖無實體出現，但所有圍繞其中的劇場元素卻以她的身體做為主體。該劇展以空間為畫布，以聲音、身體和物件為畫筆，相繼湧現的符號組構著嶄新的劇場語言系統，作為創作者表意實踐 (signifying practice)的表現場域。
現今父權體系的書寫運作模式，是一個二元對立的差異為基礎而建構的封閉體系，「陰性」特質只能被認定為否定性的存在，「無法被再現，無法被說出，超出所有名稱與意識形態」(Kristeva, 1989:156)，但實際在劇場透過開放而流動的象徵物件，去演現女性的「缺位」，反而讓我們取得更大的自由，去凝視與發現受到壓抑的陰性驅力，是如何在本質上實存，又同時做為一個瞬息變幻的主體，讓觀/演者在演出中享有空間的超/踰越。我們企圖實驗的，正是劇場創作的「陰性書寫」如何成立與實踐？劇場語言又該如何與女性的身體交融和共構，在符號的神祕旅程裏達成女性主義者西蘇所言，「詩意的超越」。(Cixous 1988: 145)
「觸摸妳，以雙聲撼動妳，將妳的胸懷充塞激動而發之於言，賦與妳力量：是妳歡笑的節奏；是親暱的接收人， 讓所有的隱喻皆得體合宜；是一個身體（還是眾多身體？），比聖身、靈魂，或是他者還難以描述；是妳身體的一部份，替妳保留了一個空間，激勵妳將女人的風格銘寫於語言中（Cixous 1980:252 ,朱崇儀譯）」
■ 另類空間發生的另類劇展
《接...》劇展選擇在新興的另類空間(Alternative Space) Mad L演出，該藝廊位於羅斯福路的狹小巷內，參觀者必須穿越當地居民於巷弄晾曬衣物，才能發現這隱身於都市之中，別有洞天的文化據點。有趣的是，雖是小巧的老舊屋舍改裝，建築原有的鐵構屋簷基座與牆柱、粉刷後的牆面與木頭地板鋪設，不但有別於傳統展館蒼白的中性空間，更兼具城市的工業感及都內寓所的居家感。
自九零年代以來，台灣替代空間日趨發展成熟，相當程度也開啟了台灣當代建築與當代藝術相互對話和彼此追尋的路徑。有別於傳統建築對巨大形骸建之紀念碑式建築的追求，當代建築亦開始思考與實踐著將人類行為與身體柔軟包裹的非固定型態建築。依此而隨光源、風等自然元素不斷變樣的空間，也開始和即場發生的當代藝術和劇場身體，產生獨特而微妙的化學反應。
如同衣物服飾之於人類的身體，伊東豐雄曾以人類「行為(performance)的皮膜」定義未來的建築，承接著他對建築本質所丟出的思考方向，再拒該次的年度劇展更將整個劇場空間化為一個柔軟而包覆性的裝置，在其內部物件與聲音的流動，同時包覆與欲求著演出中「不在的」肉身，和確實「存在」的角色行為與動作，以此構築關於人的本質與存在，概念與行動間的辯證場域。
Stream of Consciousness in a Theater of Images
Noh master Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) once said, “When a good actor presents the moon, the audience applaud his beauty of shape and gesture; but when a better actor presents the moon, he does not direct the audience’s attention to himself, but lets the audience see the moon.” This is a good example of oriental performance philosophy. All acting techniques exist for the purpose of serving the reality as created by the play. In a sense, the actor himself retreats to a state of non-presence to make room for theatrical reality to take the stage. In All..., we take this concept further, eliminating the actor and employing methods of technical theater to create images of animated furniture, windows that open by themselves, sounds traversing the air and through the architecture, fabrics brushing against the audience and light that flickers in the darkness... all to present the landscape and mindscape of the life of the main character in our devised reality.
In the stream-of-consciousness writing techniques employed by Virginia Woolf, the subject and object of perception become ambiguous, while the narrative shifts from character to character. In our theater of ever-shifting images, we also seek to obscure the line between subjective and objective sensory experiences. Without the strong presence of an actor to define the “I” and the “other,” the audience are invited to enter, through an array of sounds and everyday objects, into a world of possibilities.
Écriture Féminine as Signifying Practice in Theatrical Space
As Virginia Woolf proclaimed that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” so it should be that spatial revolution must precede literary revolution. This “room” can imply a room of the mind, a room of thought, or a room for creativity. In a dialogue with Woolf, the performance of All... creates a physical room where no physical woman is present, but all the sights and sounds therein correspond to the reality of the female body. We wish to focus on the signifiers of objects and sounds in space and utilize this new vocabulary in a theatrical context.
Language in patriarchal society is based on a structure of binary oppositions, whereas the “feminine” is invariably linked with the “negative,” the “absent,” or in Kristeva’s words, “the unnameable that one imagines as femininity, non-language, or body.” In our performance, devoid of the presence of the actor-as-phallic-being, we are open to a multiplicity of visual and sensory language, as we focus on the absent and reveal how the feminine non-being is, indeed, present, and how the fluidity of the subject enables the audience and performer to experience a transgression of space, or what Cixous calls “poetic transcendance.” In this way, we seek to formulate a kind of feminine vocabulary in the semiotics of theatrical communication.
Alternative Theater in Alternative Space
The performance of All... will premiere at Mad L, an alternative gallery space hidden in a compact residential alley in Taipei. Originally an old-style residential housing, it was refitted into a unique gallery space with industrial textures and partly exposed architectural structures. As a hybrid of residential and industrial atmospheres, Mad L is neither the white cube of the art gallery nor the black box of theater performance.
The use of alternative spaces in Taiwan has flourished considerably since its advent in the 1990’s, bringing about a growing dialogue between contemporary art and contemporary architecture. As a reaction against the monumentalism of 20th century architecture, new architects and designers are incubating an inclination towards the organic and the human, integrating natural lighting and ventilation into the construction of space. We believe that these spatial concepts open up many possibilities for interaction with contemporary art and the performing body.
Japanese architect Toyo Ito has defined architecture as “clothing” for urban dwellers. In a way, the performance of All... wishes to build upon this metaphor and transform the architectural space into a fluid entity that both envelopes and desires the non-present body, while manifesting the presence of the absent character. Through a dialectic of action, concept, and space, we construct a discourse on the essence of human existence.
微物之死, 亦如蜉蝣之翼。在場燈明滅之間, 劇場同樣作為即生即死的藝術, 那怕僅僅只是喚醒我們最細微的感知, 凝視著微小之物的消亡, 我們亦開啓著對於自己與他者生命想像的另途。
