History Will Repeat Itself - Strategy of re-enactment in contemporary (media) art and Performance, 「歷史輪流轉」當代媒體及表演藝術重塑歷史的策略

History Will Repeat Itself - Strategy of re-enactment in contemporary (media) art and Performance「歷史輪流轉」當代媒體及表演藝術重塑歷史的策略

20/06/2008 - 20/07/2008

With the exhibition ‘History Will Repeat Itself – Strategies of re-enactment in Contemporary Art’ the Goethe-Institut Hongkong follows a two-part project. The first part takes place from June 20 to July 20 in 2008, the second being in exactly one year, in the summer of 2009.

The first part shown in this summer undertakes a slightly-modified version of the exhibition under the same title that was curated by Inke Arns from Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund and Gabriele Horn from KW Kunst-Werke – Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. The exhibition was last shown at the KW in Berlin (November 18, 2007 – January 13, 2008).

In general, the term re-enactment is used to describe a historically correct recreation of socially relevant events. In a re-enactment, the audience, which normally remains passive or at a certain distance from the documented event, either becomes immediate witness of a (repeated historical) event that unfolds in front of its eyes, or even protagonist in an action in which it actively participates. The re-creation of historical events seems to exert a fascination particularly because they provide the opportunity to gain a different entry into history by re-experiencing it. Because history and memory are seldom directly experienced but more often mediated through media, re-enactments also represent an artistic scrutinization of media images. They do not naively ask what really happened beyond the representations of the historical events. Rather, they replace these media based images with a direct and often physical experience and at the same time point out the way in which our collective memory is based on media.

Different to the version shown in Germany, the exhibition in Hong Kong takes up an accent with a strong emphasis on the events in Asia. The focus here, among other things, is the Vietnam War. Whoever sees the photo Napalm by Zbigniew Libera is immediately reminded of the My Lai Massacre and the absolutely helpless female victim Kim Phúc, who was exposed to the violent force of the bombs – an original published photo which stays in our minds since then. Yet Libera’s photo is only a kind of reconstruction of the scene in the form of a beach party. This kind of weird return to the place of disaster is a typical approach of the works that we present in this exhibition.

The second part searches for Asian answers on the concept of re-enactment. It will be additionally curated to look into its correspondence with Asia. It will be shown in the summer of 2009.

The Institut sees interest in two layers: in the first layer it is the treatment of a historical event transmitted through the media, in the second layer the event is now taken by the artist who created something that makes us curious about. The works on display show traces of the constitution of the artistic subject.In this respect, the show ‘History Will Repeat Itself’ combines history with contemporary art.

香港歌德學院藉著「歷史輪流轉-當代媒體及表演藝術重塑歷史的策略」展覽，進行一個分為兩部分的項目。項目的第一部分從2008年6月20 日至7月20日舉行，而第二部分則於一年之後，即2009年的夏季舉行。

在今年夏天中展出的第一部分將會是由多特蒙德Hartware媒體藝術協會lnke Arns 及柏林KW當代藝術研究院 Gabriele Horn策展、同名為「歷史輪流轉」的展覽的一個略修改的版本。該展覽較早前曾於柏林KW當代藝術研究院展出（2007年11月18日-2008年1月13日）

在通常的情況下，「重演」一詞是指將一些社會事件進行正確的歷史性重塑，例如重要的戰爭或其他歷史事件。在重演中，觀眾成為（重復性歷史）事件的直接見證人或者某一行動的參與者。透過再次體驗歷史，觀眾獲得另一個進入歷史的機會。由於歷史和記憶往往不是透過自身的經歷，而是透過傳媒的間接轉介，歷史重塑亦同時代表著對媒體影像的審查。它們不會天真地問這些影像所真正代表的歷史事件。它們通過重復或重演已經進入集體記憶中的歷史事件來質疑現在，同時指出這個事實：集體記憶基本上就是媒體記億。

第二部分嘗試從重塑的概念上搜尋亞洲的答案，並加入與亞洲有關的附加策展部分，將會在2009年的夏季展出。

香港歌德學院在這裹看到兩個有趣的層面：在第一個層面中我們看到媒體對一項歷史事件的處理，在第二個層面裏該事件被藝術家重新創造，從而令我們感到好奇。在這方面，「歷史輪流轉」展覧把歷史與當代藝術結合起來。

展覽期間將有一連三天〔二零零八年六月二十日至二十三日〕的電影放映。

展場內將備有一張列出「歷史輪流轉」展品項目的清單，為觀眾提供一個展覽導賞的目錄。