Ghost
After being associated with the imagery of local beliefs, this animist concept is often appropriated by artists to discuss the lack of subjectivity and indicate the object erased by capitalism to reflect the history of new imperialist invasion. This concept is extended from Jacques DERRIDA’s Specters of Marx, The Politics of Friendship and Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Furthermore, as international exhibitions have been launched in Asian cities, such as “Taipei Biennial – Death and Life of Fiction” (2012), “Mediacity Biennale – Ghosts, Spies, and Grandmothers” at Seoul Museum of Art (2014) and the “Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition – The Return of Ghosts” at Hong-gah Museum (2014), the concept has become one of the frequently used vocabularies in contemporary art.
The etymological root of “animism” is the Latin word “anima” (soul) and the Greek word “anemos” (flowing air, such as wind and breath). The English term was first used by anthropologist Edward Burnett TYLOR in the professional discipline. He observed primitive tribes and considered the system of animist belief, which believed that all things in the universe had a spirit, as a feature of unenlightened culture. He also borrowed French philosopher Auguste COMTE’s notion of human progress, implying that the civilized had the responsibility to educate the uncivilized by introducing them technology that could improve their life. This concept has also been employed to illustrate the idea of psychological projection: in Sigmund FREUD’s Totem and Taboo, the psychologist mentioned that animism was a way to stabilize the proper boundary between the inner self and the external reality.
In the “Taipei Biennial 2012 – Death and Life of Fiction,” the curator Anselm FRANKE used the concept of animism for a re-examination of the shackles imposed by modernity. The next year, Franke curated the exhibition “Animism” staged at OCT-Contemporary Art Terminal in Shenzhen, accompanied by a Chinese publication of Animism. In the book, he states that “the discourse of ‘Animism’ creates a clear boundary between the European modernity and the colonized ‘other.’ […] To ‘de-colonize’ modernity, we need to discuss these frontiers […] for the self-empowerment through thoroughly creating a line of demarcation between the ‘modern’ and the ‘external.’”
In “The Return of Ghosts,” curators GONG Jow-Juin and TAKAMORI Nobuo attempted to respond to the boundary of modernity through the exhibition theme. In 2019, Singaporean curator Jason WEE and his co-curator from MOCA Taipei, HUANG Hsiang-Ning, curated “Stories We Tell to Scare Ourselves,” in which they employed historical images left by the colonizers as a point of departure, turning ghosts into a metaphor for the oppressed. Related artworks include LN Yi-Chi’s Requiem for the Dream of Father (2017) and LIANG Ting-Yu’s The History of Anthropophagy and Documents of Anthropophagy (2018).
Reference
The etymological root of “animism” is the Latin word “anima” (soul) and the Greek word “anemos” (flowing air, such as wind and breath). The English term was first used by anthropologist Edward Burnett TYLOR in the professional discipline. He observed primitive tribes and considered the system of animist belief, which believed that all things in the universe had a spirit, as a feature of unenlightened culture. He also borrowed French philosopher Auguste COMTE’s notion of human progress, implying that the civilized had the responsibility to educate the uncivilized by introducing them technology that could improve their life. This concept has also been employed to illustrate the idea of psychological projection: in Sigmund FREUD’s Totem and Taboo, the psychologist mentioned that animism was a way to stabilize the proper boundary between the inner self and the external reality.
In the “Taipei Biennial 2012 – Death and Life of Fiction,” the curator Anselm FRANKE used the concept of animism for a re-examination of the shackles imposed by modernity. The next year, Franke curated the exhibition “Animism” staged at OCT-Contemporary Art Terminal in Shenzhen, accompanied by a Chinese publication of Animism. In the book, he states that “the discourse of ‘Animism’ creates a clear boundary between the European modernity and the colonized ‘other.’ […] To ‘de-colonize’ modernity, we need to discuss these frontiers […] for the self-empowerment through thoroughly creating a line of demarcation between the ‘modern’ and the ‘external.’”
In “The Return of Ghosts,” curators GONG Jow-Juin and TAKAMORI Nobuo attempted to respond to the boundary of modernity through the exhibition theme. In 2019, Singaporean curator Jason WEE and his co-curator from MOCA Taipei, HUANG Hsiang-Ning, curated “Stories We Tell to Scare Ourselves,” in which they employed historical images left by the colonizers as a point of departure, turning ghosts into a metaphor for the oppressed. Related artworks include LN Yi-Chi’s Requiem for the Dream of Father (2017) and LIANG Ting-Yu’s The History of Anthropophagy and Documents of Anthropophagy (2018).
Reference
- Guide book of the 2012 Taipei Biennial. Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2012.
- Anselm Franke. Animism. Trans. Shen Boliang et al. Beijing: Gold Wall Press, 2013.
- Gong, Jow-Juin. The Return of Ghosts: Hauntology in Taiwanese Contemporary Arts. Taipei: Chew's Culture Foundation, 2014. “Ghost Month Special Issue: The Evil Boundary between Contemporary Art and the Irrational Forbidden Realm.” ArtTouch (2019.07.31).
鬼（Ghost）
源自於泛靈論的概念，在連結在地信仰的形象後，經常被藝術家用來講述主體性的懸缺與代稱為資本主義所抹消的對象，以反映新帝國主義的侵略歷史。其概念延伸自法國哲學家雅克．德希達的《馬克思的幽靈》、《友誼的政治》與《檔案狂熱》，並隨著在亞洲城市舉辦的跨國展覽，如：台北雙年展「想像的死而復生」（2012）、首爾美術館的媒體城市雙年展「鬼魂．間諜．老祖母」（2014）、鳳甲美術館的台灣國際錄像藝術展「鬼魂的迴返」（2014），成為當代藝術經常被使用的語彙之一。
泛靈論（Animism）源自於拉丁文字根Anima（靈魂）與希臘文字根Anemos（風、呼吸等流動的氣體），英文最早被人類學家愛德華．伯內勒．泰勒使用於專業學科。他透過對於原始部落的觀察，將宇宙萬物皆有靈性的信仰系統視為未受啟蒙的文化特徵，並且借用法國哲學家奧古斯特．孔德人類進步的理論，暗示文明人在教化落後民族，引介科技改善生活的責任。此概念同時也被使用在心理學的投射作用中，在精神分析學家西格蒙德．弗洛依德的《圖騰與禁忌》一書當中，提及泛靈論是尋求穩定內在自我與外在現實之間正確邊界的方式。
2012年，安森．法蘭克所策劃的台北雙年展「想像的死而復生」中，借用泛靈論的概念重新檢視了現代性所強加的桎梏。法蘭克隔年於深圳的OCT當代藝術中心策劃「萬物有靈」，並出版了中文版刊物《泛靈論》。在該書中，他提到：「『萬物有靈』的話語在歐洲的現代性與被殖民者的『他者』之間劃出一條清晰的界線。［……］為了對現代性進行『去殖民化』，我們有必要探討這些前沿［……］通過在『現代』與『外部』之間徹底劃定一條分界線而為自身賦予權能。」。
展覽「鬼魂的迴返」裡，透過命題，策展人龔卓軍與高森信男試圖回應現代性的疆界；在2019年新加坡策展人黃漢沖（Jason Wee）與台北當代藝術館策展人黃香凝協同策畫的展覽「烏鬼」當中，借用殖民者統治下所遺留下來的歷史形象作為討論的開端，鬼成了被壓迫者的隱喻，相關作品如林羿綺的《父域安魂曲》（2017）、梁廷毓的《番肉考》與《食人文件》（2018）等。
參考文獻
泛靈論（Animism）源自於拉丁文字根Anima（靈魂）與希臘文字根Anemos（風、呼吸等流動的氣體），英文最早被人類學家愛德華．伯內勒．泰勒使用於專業學科。他透過對於原始部落的觀察，將宇宙萬物皆有靈性的信仰系統視為未受啟蒙的文化特徵，並且借用法國哲學家奧古斯特．孔德人類進步的理論，暗示文明人在教化落後民族，引介科技改善生活的責任。此概念同時也被使用在心理學的投射作用中，在精神分析學家西格蒙德．弗洛依德的《圖騰與禁忌》一書當中，提及泛靈論是尋求穩定內在自我與外在現實之間正確邊界的方式。
2012年，安森．法蘭克所策劃的台北雙年展「想像的死而復生」中，借用泛靈論的概念重新檢視了現代性所強加的桎梏。法蘭克隔年於深圳的OCT當代藝術中心策劃「萬物有靈」，並出版了中文版刊物《泛靈論》。在該書中，他提到：「『萬物有靈』的話語在歐洲的現代性與被殖民者的『他者』之間劃出一條清晰的界線。［……］為了對現代性進行『去殖民化』，我們有必要探討這些前沿［……］通過在『現代』與『外部』之間徹底劃定一條分界線而為自身賦予權能。」。
展覽「鬼魂的迴返」裡，透過命題，策展人龔卓軍與高森信男試圖回應現代性的疆界；在2019年新加坡策展人黃漢沖（Jason Wee）與台北當代藝術館策展人黃香凝協同策畫的展覽「烏鬼」當中，借用殖民者統治下所遺留下來的歷史形象作為討論的開端，鬼成了被壓迫者的隱喻，相關作品如林羿綺的《父域安魂曲》（2017）、梁廷毓的《番肉考》與《食人文件》（2018）等。
參考文獻
- 2012年台北雙年展導覽手冊，台北市立美術館，2012。
- 安森．法蘭克，《萬物有靈》，申舶良等譯，金城出版社，2013。
- 龔卓軍等編，《鬼魂的迴返：台灣當代藝術中的幽靈徘徊學》，財團法人邱再興文教基金會，2014。〈鬼月特輯：當代藝術與非理性禁地的邪魅邊界〉，典藏ArtTouch，2019.07.31