Heterotopia
Derived from the term “utopia,” the prefix “hetero” in “heterotopia” means “difference, contradiction”; therefore, heterotopia is a place of contradicting differences. In his Of the Other Place, Michel FOUCAULT mentioned the state of intersubjectivity in contemporary space. “The other place” both responds to and conflicts with the subject that is the center; and such dynamic spatial subject provides a theoretical basis for heterotopia.
The concept of heterotopia is commonly found in the field of art to explore and question said concept. For the Taiwan Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, curator LIN Hong-John borrowed German sociologist Helmut WILLKE’s idea of “atopia” and used it as the exhibition title. Continuing Foucault’s idea of the heterotopia as a peripheral space, the prefix “a” in the newly coined term “atopia” means “not”; and when combined with the affix “topia,” the term “atopia” carries the meaning of “a non-place place.” The term was used to describe the reality of the Taiwan Pavilion, which was supposed to be a national pavilion but was forced to awkwardly adopt the informal title of “Chinese Taipei” for the international occasion. “Atopia” became an interpretation of others controlled by cultural hegemonies under globalization—“‘Atopia,’ as a topic for Taiwanese contemporary art, is an attempt to enact/demonstrate local politics and cultural texture through creating a fluid consciousness both artistically inscribed within as well as embedded and entangled with local cultural manifestations to reflect on the demonstration of glocalization in Taiwan.”
In his essay, “The Politics of Border Poetics in Taiwan,” CHEN Tai-Song began with HUANG Tu-Shui’s Aboriginal Child and its revelation of identity. The essay reviewed a series of works revolving around Taiwan’s subjectivity by artists such as MEI Dean-E and YAO Jui-Chung, and used the mimesis of the butterfly, the orange oak leaf, as a metaphor to place “Atopia” in topological geography to illustrate the formation of heterotopia. Yves MILLET, in his “Atopia & Aesthetics. A Modal Perspective,” departed from the exhibition “Atopia” and emphasized on the relative concepts and active points of view stressed in the exhibition to set it apart from the idealized model indicated by its etymological root of “utopia.” In The Venice Biennale and the Asia-Pacific in the Global Art World, along with Taiwan’s unusual political circumstances, “Atopia” is treated as one of the crucial case studies.
Other examples that have employed the concept of heterotopia include the exhibition “Between Earth and the Sky: The Spiritual State of Our Times” (2020) that led the audience to explore the artists’ imaginary worlds through the senses, and Akira TAKAYAMA’s work in “Negative Horizon the 5th Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition” Beitou Heterotopia (2016), which required the audience to hop on specially designed “scooter taxis” to participate and view the project.
Reference
The concept of heterotopia is commonly found in the field of art to explore and question said concept. For the Taiwan Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, curator LIN Hong-John borrowed German sociologist Helmut WILLKE’s idea of “atopia” and used it as the exhibition title. Continuing Foucault’s idea of the heterotopia as a peripheral space, the prefix “a” in the newly coined term “atopia” means “not”; and when combined with the affix “topia,” the term “atopia” carries the meaning of “a non-place place.” The term was used to describe the reality of the Taiwan Pavilion, which was supposed to be a national pavilion but was forced to awkwardly adopt the informal title of “Chinese Taipei” for the international occasion. “Atopia” became an interpretation of others controlled by cultural hegemonies under globalization—“‘Atopia,’ as a topic for Taiwanese contemporary art, is an attempt to enact/demonstrate local politics and cultural texture through creating a fluid consciousness both artistically inscribed within as well as embedded and entangled with local cultural manifestations to reflect on the demonstration of glocalization in Taiwan.”
In his essay, “The Politics of Border Poetics in Taiwan,” CHEN Tai-Song began with HUANG Tu-Shui’s Aboriginal Child and its revelation of identity. The essay reviewed a series of works revolving around Taiwan’s subjectivity by artists such as MEI Dean-E and YAO Jui-Chung, and used the mimesis of the butterfly, the orange oak leaf, as a metaphor to place “Atopia” in topological geography to illustrate the formation of heterotopia. Yves MILLET, in his “Atopia & Aesthetics. A Modal Perspective,” departed from the exhibition “Atopia” and emphasized on the relative concepts and active points of view stressed in the exhibition to set it apart from the idealized model indicated by its etymological root of “utopia.” In The Venice Biennale and the Asia-Pacific in the Global Art World, along with Taiwan’s unusual political circumstances, “Atopia” is treated as one of the crucial case studies.
Other examples that have employed the concept of heterotopia include the exhibition “Between Earth and the Sky: The Spiritual State of Our Times” (2020) that led the audience to explore the artists’ imaginary worlds through the senses, and Akira TAKAYAMA’s work in “Negative Horizon the 5th Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition” Beitou Heterotopia (2016), which required the audience to hop on specially designed “scooter taxis” to participate and view the project.
Reference
- CHEN Shu-Lin (editor). Taiwan Pavilion: Atopia. Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2010.
- CHANG Fang-Wei (chief editor). Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale: A Retrospective 1995-2007. Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2007.
- NAYLOR Stephen. The Venice Biennale and the Asia-Pacific in the Global Art World. Routledge, 2020.
- Yves MILLET. “Atopia & Aesthetics. A Modal Perspective.” Contemporary Aesthetics.
異托邦（Heterotopia）
源自於烏托邦（Utopia） 一詞，「hetero」指「差異、矛盾」，異托邦是差異的矛盾之地。在傅柯（Michel Foucault）的著作《他方》（Of the Other Place）提及了當代空間中互為主體性（Intersubjectivity）的空間狀態，「他方」既對應於中心的主體，卻互不相容，動態的空間主體為異托邦一詞提出論述。
異托邦的概念常見於藝術領域，作為對於異托邦的探究與提問，第五十二屆威尼斯雙年展臺灣館的策展人林宏璋借用德國社會學家維克（Helmut Willke）所提出的概念「勿托邦」（Atopia）作為展覽名稱「非域之境」的英文展名。延續自傅科對於異托邦是邊陲空間的概念，勿托邦是個新創的字彙，字首「a」意指「非（not）」，接續「地方（topia）」後成為「不是一個地方的地方」，用以描述臺灣臺灣館雖是國家館的展覽設置模式，卻必須以別名如「中華台北」等出席國際場合的窘境，詮釋全球化底下文化霸權對於他者的控制，「……『非域之境（Atopia）』作為一個台灣當代藝術的課題，藉由創造一個藝術書寫於內的流放意識，又寄生並荧繞於在地的文化樣態，是一個將在地政治與文化肌理作為發作/操演於展覽的企圖，反思於台灣全球在地化圖誌的操演」。
在〈邊境詩學的政治性在台灣〉一文裡，陳泰松從黃土水的作品《蕃童》在身份認同上的表態開始，爬梳了梅丁衍、姚瑞中等藝術家一系列關注於臺灣主體性的作品，並以枯葉蝶的擬態作為隱喻，將「非域之境」置放在拓樸地理學當中，點明了異托邦的背後成因。在伊夫‧米葉（Yves Millet）的〈勿托邦與美學—一個情態視角〉（Atopia & Aesthetics. A Modal Perspective）文章中，從展覽「非域之境」出發，強調展覽命題所關注的相對性概念與積極觀點，以區隔字源「烏托邦」裡的理想化模型；在《威尼斯雙年展與全球藝術世界中的亞太地區》（The Venice Biennale and the Asia-Pacific in the Global Art World）一書中，「非域之境」與臺灣特殊的政治處境成為討論的重要例子之一。
其他援引異托邦概念的展覽有「藍天之下：我們時代的精神狀況」（2020），邀請觀眾以感官探索藝術家的異想世界；作品有高山明參與「服地平線2016台灣國際錄像雙年展」的《北投異托邦》（2016），觀眾必須搭乘地方特殊的「計程摩托車」參與、閱讀這個計畫。
參考文獻
異托邦的概念常見於藝術領域，作為對於異托邦的探究與提問，第五十二屆威尼斯雙年展臺灣館的策展人林宏璋借用德國社會學家維克（Helmut Willke）所提出的概念「勿托邦」（Atopia）作為展覽名稱「非域之境」的英文展名。延續自傅科對於異托邦是邊陲空間的概念，勿托邦是個新創的字彙，字首「a」意指「非（not）」，接續「地方（topia）」後成為「不是一個地方的地方」，用以描述臺灣臺灣館雖是國家館的展覽設置模式，卻必須以別名如「中華台北」等出席國際場合的窘境，詮釋全球化底下文化霸權對於他者的控制，「……『非域之境（Atopia）』作為一個台灣當代藝術的課題，藉由創造一個藝術書寫於內的流放意識，又寄生並荧繞於在地的文化樣態，是一個將在地政治與文化肌理作為發作/操演於展覽的企圖，反思於台灣全球在地化圖誌的操演」。
在〈邊境詩學的政治性在台灣〉一文裡，陳泰松從黃土水的作品《蕃童》在身份認同上的表態開始，爬梳了梅丁衍、姚瑞中等藝術家一系列關注於臺灣主體性的作品，並以枯葉蝶的擬態作為隱喻，將「非域之境」置放在拓樸地理學當中，點明了異托邦的背後成因。在伊夫‧米葉（Yves Millet）的〈勿托邦與美學—一個情態視角〉（Atopia & Aesthetics. A Modal Perspective）文章中，從展覽「非域之境」出發，強調展覽命題所關注的相對性概念與積極觀點，以區隔字源「烏托邦」裡的理想化模型；在《威尼斯雙年展與全球藝術世界中的亞太地區》（The Venice Biennale and the Asia-Pacific in the Global Art World）一書中，「非域之境」與臺灣特殊的政治處境成為討論的重要例子之一。
其他援引異托邦概念的展覽有「藍天之下：我們時代的精神狀況」（2020），邀請觀眾以感官探索藝術家的異想世界；作品有高山明參與「服地平線2016台灣國際錄像雙年展」的《北投異托邦》（2016），觀眾必須搭乘地方特殊的「計程摩托車」參與、閱讀這個計畫。
參考文獻
- 陳淑玲編，《台灣館非域之境》，台北市立美術館，2010。
- 張芳薇總編，《威尼斯雙年展台灣館回顧：1995-2007》，台北市立美術館，2007。
- Stephen Naylor，《The Venice Biennale and the Asia-Pacific in the Global Art World》，Routledge，2020。
- 伊夫‧米葉（Yves Millet），〈勿托邦與美學—一個情態視角〉（Atopia & Aesthetics. A Modal Perspective），當代美學（Contemporary Aesthetics）