策展人|程少鴻
展覽靈感來自一名短暫來台,中介於荷蘭與西班牙等多方勢力的人物薩爾瓦多.迪亞茲(Salvador Díaz)。迪亞茲被荷蘭人俘虜來台當作翻譯,在台期間透過竊取商船情報,販賣給海盜和向中國商人收取保護費,並且在逃出台灣後,將荷蘭基地的佈署交給葡萄牙與西班牙人。這個展覽對迪亞茲提出「你為什麼來到台灣?」的問題,藉此引出殖民者與被殖民者之間複雜交錯的身分關係。
學者陳光興指出,被殖民者的去殖民工作,必須與殖民者的去帝國運動配合才有進行的可能,展覽從這個設定出發,以藝術的平台做為台灣解殖的實驗場域。考量歷史對應的當代政治現況,就可行性與議題的擴散性,鎖定西班牙在台灣的殖民史做為這個實驗的開端。展覽於是成為一個「沙盒」(Sandbox),在這當中被殖民者與殖民者彼此面對自己的歷史,合作進行去殖民與去帝國的工作。然而,沙盒建立的真正目的是要以此作為引線,觸及台灣近代難以言說的殖民、國族以及族群認同問題。
此次參展的外籍藝術家首次接觸台灣被殖民的歷史,他們以現地製作的作品做出回應。西班牙威爾斯裔藝術家拉斐爾.伊凡斯的《魔鬼之鳥,鳥占術》以虛擬實境的技術帶領觀眾回探西班牙傳教士與台灣原住民傳統信仰的相遇。另一位西班牙藝術家芭芭拉.巴洛索《遙遠的福爾摩沙》邀請菲律賓籍移工擔任台北城市漫遊的嚮導,回應自十七世紀以來西班牙和台灣一脈相承的勞力輸入策略造成的跨國族群移動與城市文化變遷。菲律賓藝術家亨麗艾爾.帕格里文安《後–謨區查抄本》描繪西班牙化的菲律賓生活用品、生產工具與宗教器物,反映殖民與文化融合的關係,並做為十七世紀因西班牙殖民來台的菲律賓原住民的替代歷史(alternative history)。
參展的兩位台灣藝術家均透過田野,以及虛實交錯的紀錄片形式構成敘事。高俊宏《丁修女–但是我們從來不會去西班牙傳教》以鬼魂探測、觀落陰和口述歷史的方式挖掘十七世紀至今,西班牙人在台灣的傳教軼事,思考和帝國擴張行動並行的精神志業如何在台灣開啟與延續。李紫彤《時差書寫》以原住民部落及女性個人史,作為穿越族群認同與歷史書寫權威的方式,藝術家除了面對外部的影響,也從在地族群內部尋找解殖的路徑。
Curator|Cheng Shao-Hung
This exhibition was inspired by Salvador Díaz, who was an intermediary between Dutch and Spanish forces during his short stay in Taiwan. Captured by the Dutch to serve as a translator in Taiwan, Díaz would steal intelligence pertaining mercantile ships in his time here, selling them to marauders or extorting protection fees from Chinese merchants. After escaping Taiwan, he delivered the layout of the Dutch base to the Portuguese and Spanish. This exhibition takes Díaz’s comment, “Why did you come to Taiwan?”, as the catalyst to explore the intersecting identities between colonizer and colonized.
Scholar Chen Kuan-Hsing remarks that for the grand undertaking of de-colonization by the colonized to be possible, it must correspond to de-imperialization movements of the colonizer. With this as a starting point, this exhibition treats the platform of art as an experimental site for Taiwanese decolonization. Considering the juxtaposition of contemporary politics with history, the aim of this project is to focus on Spain’s colonial history in Taiwan, as a basis of possibility and to expand coverage of key topics. The exhibition thus becomes a “Sandbox”, within which the colonizer and colonized each confront their own histories, and collaborate in the joint endeavor of de-colonization and de-imperialization. Nevertheless, the real intent of establishing this sandbox is also for it act as a lit fuse, to encroach upon the prickly issues of colonization, nationalism, and ethnic identity in present-day Taiwan.
This exhibition is the first encounter by these foreign artists with Taiwan’s history of colonialism, and they have each produced site-specific works as a response. The Devil’s Bird, Ornithomancy, by Spanish-Welsh artist Rafael Pérez Evans, escorts audiences back to the earliest confrontations between Spanish missionaries and traditional aborigines faith by way of VR technology. Far from Formosa by Bárbara Sánchez Barroso, another artist from Spain, invites Filipino migrant workers to serve as guides for a city tour of Taipei, responding to the strategic influx of labor for Spain in the 17th century—and in the same vein modern Taiwan—that resulted in trans-national migrations and transformations in urban culture. Filipino artist Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan’s Beyond the Boxer Codex illustrates the influence of Spain on basic commodities, production tool, and religious items in the Philippines, not only reflecting upon the relationship of colonialism and cultural integration, but also as an alternative history for 17th century indigenous Filipinos who arrived in Taiwan due to Spanish colonization.
The two Taiwanese artists taking part in this exhibition both constructed narratives out of their field research and documentaries that weave fiction and reality. In Kao Jun-Honn’s Sister Ding–But We Never Preach in Spain, from the 17th century up to the present, anecdotes of Spanish missionaries to Taiwan are uncovered through paranormal detection, Taoist ritual, and oral history, furthermore contemplating how the counter-consciousness taking place in parallel to imperialist expansion can be adopted in Taiwan. Lee Tzu-Tung’s Writing the Time Lag takes the aboriginal tribe and a woman’s personal history as the impetus to traverse ethnic identity and the authoritative position of historical writing, not only confronting the impact of external forces, but also seeking a path towards decolonization from within the local community.