我们的目光 —— 艺术、人类学与亚洲映像

Our Gaze— Art, Anthropology, and Asian Imagery

时间：2025 年 3 月20日－ 5 月11日

地点：广州美术学院大学城美术馆7、8号厅

策展人：陈晓阳、熊迅

艺术家：

艾金·基·查尔斯（马来西亚）

何锐安（新加坡）

阮纯诗（越南）

娜塔莎·通泰（印度尼西亚）

秦晋（中国）

周滔（中国）

人类学家：

阿尔尤·达努西里（印度尼西亚）

鲍江（中国）

凯瑟琳·雷·利马约（菲律宾）

邱垂珍（美国）

索拉尤特·艾梅亚尤特（泰国）

张静红（中国）

Duration: 20th March 2025 - 11th May 2025

Venue: Exhibition Hall 7&Hall 8, Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, University Town  

Curators: CHEN Xiaoyang & XIONG Xun

Artists:

Ekin Kee Charles (Malaysia)

Ho Rui An (Singapore)

Nguyên Trinh Thi(Vietnam)

Natasha Tontey (Indonesia)

QIN Jin (China)

ZHOU Tao (China)

Anthropologists:

Aryo Danusiri (Indonesia)

BAO Jiang (China)

Kathleen Lei Limayo (Philippines)

Jenny Chio (USA)

Sorayut Aiemueayut (Thailand)

ZHANG Jinghong (China)

作为“平等媒介”的影像

陈晓阳

影像技术的起源可以追溯到19世纪初的欧洲，从早期的无声影像，到有声彩色电影和二战后进入普通人生活的电视，影像逐渐成为现代世界主要的视觉艺术形式和大众传播媒介。在艺术领域，因20世纪60年代开始出现的便携式摄像机，为视觉艺术创作提供了新的工具，艺术家们也开始探索影像技术和叙事语言的表达可能性，创作出具有实验性的录像艺术作品。自20世纪80年代末到90年代，伴随冷战结束后全球经济一体化所带来的科技和产业的迅速扩张，录像艺术从欧美传播到亚洲、南美洲等非西方世界，在全球范围内迅速发展，逐渐成为全球当代艺术的重要类型。

自19世纪末20世纪初开始，人类学家开始意识到摄影机和纪实功能可以作为田野工作的辅助记录工具，用于记录田野调查中的文化现象和社会生活图像，继而发展出专业从事民族志电影制作的学者和学术共同体，人类学家开始关注与文字、语言相异的“视觉性”信息，如人类学影像对于身体和感官多模态经验的表达，成为民族志研究和写作之外的有效补充，人类学作品的感官转向，使其具备了走出学术象牙塔的可能，甚至来到更具公共性的美术馆空间与更广泛的读者和公众进行对话。

21世纪以来，在网络技术和随身移动设备全球普及之后，影像艺术愈发显现出其作为“平等媒介”的可能，大多数人都拥有了记录和展现影像的技术，通过镜头的“看与被看”慢慢演变为成为权力与话语的博弈和较量。不但有人类学家尝试通过“影像赋权”给田野伙伴帮助他们自我表达，当代艺术家也借助民族志视角转向走入地方和现场的文化深处进行观察，从视而未见处着手，寻找艺术创作的新路径。因此，在这些来自田野及现场的影像中，拍摄者和被拍摄者的关系也已超越早期现代主义时期单向度的“他者”凝视，文化所有者内部本身也已裂变出具有组织能动性的反思者、研究者与行动者的多元社群，为“我们”在反身性思考和多向度凝视中找到文化叙述的新的可能性。这个展览并不是为亚洲文化的某种形象或印象正名，而是邀请中国和东南亚的12位艺术家和人类学家参与，通过他们长期在地进行创作的影像，呈现在被动的亚洲叙事之外，一些以往未曾顾及的微观世界或个体声音，结合不同的情境装置带来微妙的具身感受，呈现山海、岛屿、雨林、港口、社区、村落和其间人群“映像”的对照与交叠。在展场的中间地带，呈现了策展过程中的不同学科和领域的参与者对于各自工作的误读、对话和理解过程，一些开放的问题结构同时提醒了依赖模糊与多义的“我们”概念的风险。

展厅中除了以意向的亚洲南部常见的“热带坡屋顶”构成影像聚落，并不过多强调艺术家与人类学家作品的分别，这种有意模糊学科边界和对专业中心主义的降解，是希望在去掉知识标签后，以影像作品为核心构建多维感官现场。这些对话，除了将考察创作者的思考、问题意识和视觉叙事在现场所具有的表达上的穿透性，也希望观看者可以循着感受和直觉的引导创造自己的观看线路，借由作品中亚洲南方的图景、故事和经验，思考到底是什么构成了关于“我们”的认知，理解“目光”背后的历史与现实变迁，以及寻找未来之眼的可能。

Moving Image as an "Equal Medium"

Chen Xiaoyang

The origins of moving image technology can be traced back to early 19th century Europe. From the initial silent images, through the advent of sound and color films, to the television that became a part of everyday life post-World War II, visual media have progressively emerged as a dominant form of visual art and mass communication in the modern world. In the realm of fine arts, the introduction of portable video cameras in the 1960s provided artists with a novel tool for visual expression, leading them to explore the expressive potential of moving image technology and narrative language, thereby creating experimental video artworks. From the late 1980s into the 1990s, following the end of the Cold War and the rapid technological and industrial expansion spurred by global economic integration, video art disseminated from its Western roots in Europe and the United States to non-Western regions such as Asia and South America. This period witnessed a rapid global development of video art, which has since become an integral component of contemporary global art.

Starting from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, anthropologists have recognized the potential of cameras and documentary techniques as auxiliary tools for fieldwork, these technologies facilitate the recording of cultural phenomena and social life during field investigations, leading to the emergence of scholars and academic communities specializing in ethnographic filmmaking, anthropologists began to focus on "visual" information that transcends verbal and linguistic expression, for instance, anthropological images effectively capture multi-modal experiences of the body and senses, thereby complementing ethnographic research and writing, the sensory turn in anthropological works has enabled these studies to transcend the confines of academia, entering public spaces such as art museums, thus engaging a broader audience in meaningful dialogue.

Since the 21st century, with the widespread adoption of network technology and portable mobile devices, video art has increasingly demonstrated its potential as an "equal medium", the democratization of image recording and display technologies has transformed the act of "seeing and being seen" into a complex interplay of power and discourse. Anthropologists have sought to empower their field partners through "image empowerment", enabling them to articulate their own narratives, meanwhile, contemporary artists have adopted an ethnographic perspective to explore the cultural depths of places and scenes, uncovering new modes of artistic expression from previously unseen perspectives. Consequently, the relationship between photographer and subject has evolved beyond the one-dimensional gaze towards "other" characteristic of early Modernism. A diverse community of reflective practitioners, researchers, and cultural actors has emerged, fostering new possibilities for cultural narrative through reflexive thinking and multi-dimensional perspectives. This exhibition does not aim to vindicate any particular image or impression of Asian culture. Instead, it invites 12 artists and anthropologists from China and Southeast Asia to participate. Through their long-term on-site creations, it presents some previously overlooked microcosms or individual voices beyond the passive narrative of Asia. Combined with different situational installations, it brings about subtle embodied experiences, presenting the contrasts and intersections of the "moving images" of mountains and seas, islands, rainforests, ports, communities, villages, and the people within them. In the middle of the exhibition hall, it also highlights the curatorial process, showcasing the misreadings, dialogues, and understandings that occur among works from different disciplines and fields. Additionally, it raises open-ended questions about the risks associated with relying on vague and ambiguous concepts of "we."

The exhibition hall minimally emphasizes distinctions between the works of artists and anthropologists, apart from the deliberate incorporation of the "tropical slope roof" design, a common architectural feature in South Asia, to create an image community, this intentional blurring of disciplinary boundaries and decentering of professional hierarchies aims to construct a multidimensional sensory experience centered on visual works, stripped of knowledge-based labels. These dialogues not only examine the creators' penetrating expression of thought, problem awareness, and visual narrative within the context but also encourage viewers to forge their own viewing paths guided by feelings and intuition, through the images, stories and experiences of South Asia presented in the works, viewers are prompted to reflect on what constitutes the cognition of "us", understanding the historical and contemporary changes behind the "gaze" and exploring the possibility of envisioning a future perspective.

目光的复调

熊迅

当代艺术与人类学之间正在出现一种新的交汇与合作趋势。这种跨学科合作被称为艺术的人种志转向——艺术家开始采用人类学的方法，关注文化“他者”的声音与生活。而另一方面，人类学家的艺术实践也正在蓬勃发生，他们建立在田野洞察和伦理关照的基础上，突破传统“写文化”的单一模态，不断用影像、装置、图像、行为等方式参与到表达“我们”的互动探索中。

当代的艺术展览不仅可以是作品成果的陈列，也是合作研究的延伸现场。人类学家与艺术家各自带来的方法论、叙事手法和审美策略，在这里相互激发。本次展览的“艺术现场”被设计成流动的田野工作和持续对视的目光交流：我们刻意模糊了公共艺术展厅与人类学研讨室的界限，人类学家的田野影像在美术馆中呈现并生长，当代艺术家的感官实验则在多个层次上与民族志暗中互动；我们也力图让美术馆的展览变成一个“过去将来进行时”，展览不只是美术馆空间正在进行中的作品的交织和共鸣，更包含整个策展过程中人类学家、艺术家、策展人、设计师之间的结识、打量、碰撞与融合的过程，以及这个过程中的发现、反思、记录和表现。

更重要的是，透过这次展览，我们打算持续追问一个核心问题，即“我们是谁？”南方的季风、热土与暖流，传统上是西方学术视野中的“他者之地”，但在我们看来，则应该是发现自我、呈现交流、表述观点的“我们家园”。这里的“我们”，既是影像作品或者装置中不断出现的人们以及他们身后的生活世界，也指作品或装置背后人类学者或艺术家所秉持的认识和主张；这种合作既承续了双方所在领域潜在的认识脉络和表达取向，又试图触碰和探索一个更大的人文关怀和影像表达的共同体的可能性；而这个共同体的目光，也许曾经来自于人类学者、艺术家、策展人和美术馆，但现在最重要的是，包含了正在观看展览的您的目光，您带着自己的看法，有着自己的见解，和每个人不同，但又同在“我们”之中。

“我们的目光”，意味着镜头不再是单向的窥视孔，而成为交织着多重光谱的棱镜。总之，这不是关于亚洲的展览，而是亚洲正在发生的展览；不是呈现多元文化的橱窗，而是孵化新视野和新见解的湿地。在此，邀请您步入这场保持开放的视觉交流。当您与展厅中的光影共振时，或许会惊觉：所谓"他者"，不过是尚未照见的自我镜像；而真正的跨文化理解，始于承认所有目光都带着温柔的偏颇。

The Polyphony of the Gaze

Xiong Xun

A new trend of convergence and collaboration is emerging between contemporary art and anthropology. This interdisciplinary exchange, often referred to as the ethnographic turn in art, sees artists adopting anthropological methodologies to engage with the voices and lived realities of cultural "others." Conversely, the artistic practices of anthropologists are gaining momentum, rooted in fieldwork insights and ethical considerations. Moving beyond the singular mode of traditional "writing culture," they actively experiment with images, installations, visual narratives, and performative actions to participate in a dynamic exploration of "us".

Contemporary art exhibitions are not merely spaces for showcasing finished works, but rather evolving sites of collaborative inquiry. Here, the methodologies, narrative strategies, and aesthetic approaches of anthropologists and artists mutually inspire and challenge one another. This exhibition unfolds as a fluid fieldwork-in-process, a sustained dialogue of gazes: we deliberately blur the boundaries between public art spaces and anthropological seminar, allowing anthropological field images to take root and grow within the museum, while contemporary artists’ sensory experiments subtly intersect with ethnographic narratives on multiple levels. We envision the exhibition as a continuum of pasts and futures in motion—not simply a convergence of works within the museum, but an entanglement of encounters, negotiations, and frictions among anthropologists, artists, curators, and designers. Embedded within this process are moments of discovery, reflection, documentation, and expression.

More importantly, through this exhibition, we pose a central question: Who are "we"? The southern monsoons, fertile ground, and warm ocean currents have long been framed as the "lands of the Other" in Western academic discourse. Yet, from our perspective, they are sites of self-discovery, exchange, and articulation—our shared homeland. Here, "we" does not only refer to the figures appearing in the images and installations, nor solely to the lived worlds that shape them. It also encompasses the perspectives and propositions of the anthropologists and artists who stand behind these works. This collaboration extends the epistemic and expressive trajectories of both disciplines while gesturing toward a broader community of humanistic solidarity and image-making. The gaze that animates this community may have once belonged to anthropologists, artists, curators, and museums. But now, most importantly, it includes your gaze—your perspective, your reflections, distinct yet entangled within this shared "we."

"Our gaze" signifies that the lens is no longer a one-way peephole, but a prism refracting multiple spectra. This is not an exhibition about Asia; it is an exhibition about Asia in motion. Not a showcase of cultural diversity, but a fertile ground for emerging perspectives and insights. Here, you are invited to step into an open-ended visual dialogue. As you resonate with the interplay of light and shadow in the exhibition hall, you may come to realize: the so-called "Other" is but a reflection of the self yet to be recognized. And true cross-cultural understanding begins with the acknowledgment that every gaze carries its own gentle partiality.

学术顾问：王璜生 胡斌

策展顾问：侯瀚如

展览总监：洪荣满

策展助理：赵凡  朱千悦

展览执行：李铁军 何泉 黄兴彪

传播教育：王秀媛 刘子瑗 余爽

行政支持：钟凌燕 王潇涵

视觉设计：TENBUTTONS

空间设计：刘洋 氹边建筑

Academic Advisors: WANG Huangsheng & HU Bin

Exhibition Advisor: HOU Hanru

Exhibition Supervisor: HONG Rongman

Curatorial Assistants: ZHAO Fan & ZHU Qianyue

Exhibition Executive: LI Tiejun & HE Quan & HUANG Xingbiao

Public Programme: WANG Xiuyuan & LIU Ziyuan & YU Shuang

Administrative Support: ZHONG Linyan & WANG Xiaohan

Visual Design: TENBUTTONS

Spatial Design: LIU Yang & Atelier Waterside