Preface
‘Inward Gazes’ is derived from Chapter 54 of the Tao Tze Ching by Lao Tze.
While the human body is a product of different eras, environments and individual dispositions, it is also a performing object given to individual and social activities. At the same time, the body is an important subject of mutual discovery, contact, care, encouragement, resistance, interchange and introspection. In a relatively individual space-time, people usually have their own unique interpretation of defining the body.
In ancient China, the human body was considered an integral part of the unity of Heaven and Man. The internal organs, limbs and orifices of the body are ingeniously connected to the universal landscapes of mountains, rivers, forests and valleys, as well as day, night, morning and dusk, and the rhythm of yin and yang, forming an entity which has direct access to the Universe, thought, sentiment, inner knowledge, nerves and skeletons along with the perception of the high and low emotions of an individual. Being one of the most characteristic organic components of the Chinese culture, this ‘entirety concept’ lays the foundation for theories of many knowledge systems of China - including medical science, literature, wushu (martial arts) and the art of life science.
We discover that human bodies composed by the same elements may be affected by various dispositions and generate an entirely different meaning when we look at each individual entity. According to the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, in order to deliver a strong message of forsaking wickedness and following Godly ways, in 800 B.C. the Israelite prophet Isaiah took his clothes off and demonstrated in the streets for three years. His body had already departed from the form of a human creature and become an exterior symbol of Salvation of the Jewish People while he obstinately enacted his controversial mission.
In the early 20th Century, during an era of rapid change in living conditions, a small number of poets and artists in Italy consistently kept a critical vigilance over society and its predicament. They firmly believed that performance was the most direct method through which they might call an audience’s attention to understand their thinking; as a result, the expression of individual values became the major subject of performance art. They attempted – via shocking acts - to alert people to the realization that the primitive human body covered by clothes was merely a ‘façade’. In an early provocative performance, the high-spirited audiences continued to throw chairs and potatoes, etc. at the performers when the artist Carlo Carrà yelled out, “Throw an idea instead of potatoes, idiots!”
Since then, Western artists have inspired people by means of acoustic noise and rude behaviour in order to reach a state of spiritual detachment, and ‘language of art’ no longer limited to quiet and elegant landscapes and figures within the pictures, or the proud and icy statue standing on its marble base. Continuous artistic movements and incidents pre- and post-World War I - such as Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism and Bauhaus, Viennese Actionism, Happening and Fluxus - have used a variety of expressions and emotions such as humour, indulgence, wisdom, haphazardness, bloodiness, weirdness, incredibility, unlimited imagination, hopefulness, passion and patience, etc. with different creative tools and facilities, the artists had fulfilled many exploratory journeys into the deepest consciousness hidden within the human body, as well as rebellion and provocation against the living conditions and power system of contemporary society in such an unstable man-made or natural environmental space.
The boundaries between life and art have become unclear along with the unceasing development of artistic explorers who ‘push the envelope’, as do performing artists. Art has already exceeded so-called sensational gambits within traditional values such as beauty, ugliness, grandness and spectacle, and the artist has shepherded our sense of art into deeper discussions on social configuration, race, religion, sex, collective consciousness, ecological environment, material society and individual features, etc. The abovementioned vigilance and introspection of history and civilization is a must for the civilized development of human beings, and the bodies of performing artists serve as an unparalleled physical form in exploration of the spiritual will; or discovery of perceptional potentiality; or self-liberation. Only they are human beings - the expression of performance art as expressed by the human body and its acts will never disappear.
From the 1980’s until now, many Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong performing artists have employed the human body to express different ideas. These creative ideas highlight an individual’s awareness of life and reflects society and change. Many important historic events portrayed in the pictures have been inspired by the past era. Take, for example, the political and cultural oppression suffered by the Taiwanese for a long time and the end of martial law in 1987; the reform and open-up of Mainland China, the emergence of collective values and the great change in national and international politics after 1989; as well as Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997. Today, Chinese performance arts not only merge into the flourishing development of international performing art, but also catches the attention by its vigorous power and acute sense of culture.
Performing art activities have appeared in Macao rather late, and very few artists participate in this field. The events propelling performing art did not actually come into existence here until the 1990’s. The Exhibition of Asian Performing Art hosted by the Glass House in 2000 and the First International Live Performing Art Festival held in Ox Warehouse earlier in the year are considered the representative works of Macao. However, we treasure these valuable experiences since these fragments serve as a warm-up exercise and are of great significance in the development of local art. The fulfillment of the “Inward Gazes - Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art” and “Performance Art in China – Exhibition by invitation” is grounded in such experiences.
Two years ago, the Macao Museum of Art mapped out the Inward Gazes activity. We made our final decision after lengthy discussions that we would collect the best art through a call for submissions, and that the winners would be selected by a panel of judges. We also encouraged the participation of Chinese artists from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. We have received a total of 329 items of art submitted by 145 artists between 15th July to 4th September 2005. The panel of judges comprises curators, scholars, artists and art commentators from art galleries, academies of art and artistic groups in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan and Europe. The 10 judges include Huang Zhuan, Feng Boyi, Carlos Marreiros, Mio Pang Faei, Yao Jui-chung, Petr Nedoma, Gao Shiming, Seiji Shimoda, Chang Tsong-zung and myself. After the first phase of judging - from 11th to 14th September 2005, and the second phase of judging from 20th to 23rd September 2005 - 58 pieces of artwork will have been chosen by judges from Performance Art – Videos and Photographic Records and Performance Art – Photographs. All of this outstanding work will be exhibited in the Macao Museum of Art and preserved in our documentary albums.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank each of the judges for their hard work, devoting themselves day and night to selecting the best works with the most objective and patient criteria, meeting a series of visual and emotional challenge emerging from various powerful videos, photographs and characters in order to discover the distinctive ideas and hidden meaning of each artwork.
We have to thank the enthusiastic participation of all artists coming from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and their presence has given the activity an unimaginable significance. Meanwhile, their bodies and acts to some extent present the depth and width of the development of Chinese contemporary art. We are especially grateful to have a few famous performing artists to participate here at our invitation and several important artistic commentators and friends of the artistic fraternity for their appearance in the seminar and offers of help. Thanks, too, for the assistance given by the China Academy of Art, Asia Art Archive of Hong Kong, Siyin Academy of Art, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Visual Culture Centre of China Academy of Art, Art Union and Oriental Visual Art. With your support, we are confident in taking each solid step. Finally, we would like to thank the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macao for giving us such a valuable opportunity for prize winners to visit France for artistic exchange.
As a newly established organization, it is not easy for the Macao Museum of Art to organize such momentous documentary and invitation exhibitions of contemporary art. Although the operation experience, resources arrangement and academic groundwork have far exceeded our original expectations, we finally overcame the difficulties which arose. Our initial objective of holding this exhibition is actually quite simple. We are attempting to promote and contribute to the development of Chinese contemporary art by means of collecting and exhibiting exceptional Chinese performance artworks. It is our objective to bring the role of culture into full play in this historic place, and also expect that the particular expression forms of performance art will take deep root in this small land of Macao.
Ung Vai Meng
Director of the Macao Museum of Art