展期｜2021年2月19日（五）—3月14日（日）
地點｜空總臺灣當代文化實驗場- 通信分隊展演空間
開放時間｜週二至週日11:00-18:00，週一休館
*2月19日僅於開幕活動開放參觀
*3月1日連假期間照常開放，延至3月2日休館
策展人｜游崴
參展藝術家｜引爆火山工程、她的實驗室空間集、安魂工作隊、江之翠劇場、吳秉聖、李慈湄、走路草農／藝團、施懿珊、許哲瑜／陳琬尹、陳志建、黃苓瑄、黃偉、黃博志、黃鼎云、遠房親戚實驗室、羅懿君
關於展覽｜
在2020年，共有16項創作研發計畫在C-LAB空總臺灣當代文化實驗場進行，主題橫跨敘事、空間、表演、農事、網路輿論、媒體批判、基因改造、聲景採集、歷史檔案、地理踏查、文化交流等。這些計畫透過「CREATORS創研進駐／支持計畫」，以及臺灣聲響實驗室的「聲鬥陣」項目徵選而來，並以各自的方式持續發展至今。「實驗通信 CREATORS 2020–21」透過展覽、表演與現場活動，集合呈現這16項計畫各自進行中的樣貌。
16組參展者的身份大多是藝術家，但他們在這段時間所進行的事務，卻不全然為了特定的展演映製作，他們在更多時候像是純粹的好奇之人，在學科之間的隙縫與慣性邏輯之外尋求新的可能。這些計畫不斷定義著C-LAB對於文化實驗的想像，並終將描繪出這塊場域該有的模樣。
傳統上饒富意趣的「工作室狀態」，如今被賦予了一種新的實驗室意象，甚至外掛了孵化器或加速器的科技新創想像。展覽作為一項發表機制，捲入了整個文化體制對於透明性的渴望──展示讓計畫變得可以評估、可以測量。文化實踐在規章中被錨定、在系統的凝視下變得透明，成為國家總體競爭力的一個計算項目。在另一端，獨立的文化生產者則進入了寫計畫、申請、執行、記錄、階段報告、結案報告與等待尾款的工作週期。然而，每個計畫自身的生命週期卻不僅於此，背後支撐著的，是對於特定主題一種時間跨距更大的熱情，而真正恢宏的計畫總是難以結案，或無法結案。
正如所有的冒險都帶有一點私密性，一項計畫最好的時刻很可能是它未被展示之際。「實驗通信」試著切入各個計畫行進中的狀態，展出內容擺盪在一條從提問、草案、調研紀錄、原始素材、原型／測試版，到接近準作品的光譜之中。相較於約定俗成定義下的「作品」，它們無疑地更接近實踐過程產生的創作文件，煥發著「空想之後下一步」的開放氣息。作為去年度CREATORS計畫的階段報告，「實驗通信」在某種意義上也是一項準展覽，或一份關於展示的含蓄提案，將這16項計畫帶著神祕氣息的內裡，局部而片段地翻轉出來。

指導單位｜文化部
主辦單位｜空總臺灣當代文化實驗場C-LAB
Signals: CREATORS 2020–21
Date｜February 19, 2021- March 14, 2021
Venue｜Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab – Art Space III
Opening Hours｜Open 11:00-18:00, Tuesday-Sunday
*Feb. 19: Only opens during the opening activity
*Open during holidays (including March 1), closes on March 2
Curator｜YU Wei
Artists｜Engineering of Volcano Detonating, Her Lab Space, Libera Work-Gang, Gang-a Tsui Theater, WU Ping-Sheng, TM Li, Walking Grass Agriculture, SHIH Yi-Shan, HSU Che-Yu/ CHEN Wan-Yin, CHEN Chih-Chien, HUANG Ling-Hsuan, HUANG Wei, HUANG Po-Chih, HUANG Ding-Yun, Lab of the Distant Relatives, LO Yi-Chun
About the Exhibition |
In 2020, 16 research and creative projects were carried out at the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB) on topics of narrative, space, performance, agriculture, online public opinions, media criticism, genetic modification, soundscape collection, historical archives, geographical research, and cultural exchange. These projects resulted from open calls for the CREATORS Creation/Research Residency & Support Program and Taiwan Sound Lab’s Sound-Off Program last year and have been undergoing their own stages of development. Through exhibition, live performance and events, Signals: CREATORS 2020–21 assembles and presents the current progress of these 16 projects.
Although most of the exhibitors are artists, their work during the program was not necessarily for the purpose of exhibition or performance. Most of the time, they were more like adventurists seeking innovative possibilities in the gaps between different disciplines and habitual thinking. These programs also continuously redefine C-LAB’s imagination toward culture experimentation and will ultimately mark the presence of this very place.
The “artist’s studio” that is traditionally considered the primary scene of artistic activities is now imbued with a new laboratory construct and even plugged into the concept of an incubator or accelerator for innovative start-ups. As a mechanism of presentation, the “exhibition” is an embodiment of the cultural system’s longing for transparency—it is what makes projects evaluable and measurable. Cultural practices are thus anchored in regulations and become transparent in the gaze of the system, thereby transforming into an item of evaluation of national competitiveness. However, at the other end, independent cultural producers are cornered in a loop of devising projects, working on applications, executions, documentations, work-in-progress reports, and final reports, and waiting for final payments. Yet, the life cycle of every project extends far beyond such working process; what upholds these projects is enthusiasm for the concerned topics with a much wider time span. Such truly grand ambitions are difficult or impossible to deliver in a “final” report.
Just as all endeavors and adventures require certain privacies, the best moment of a project might be the instant before it is presented to the public. Signals attempts to delve into the projects in their current phases with exhibits ranging from questions, drafts, research records, and raw materials to prototypes and semi-artworks. Compared to conventional “works,” these exhibits are undoubtedly much more similar to creative documentations that are produced in the processes of practice, as they herald “what the next step could be after imagination?” As a progress report of last year’s CREATORS program, Signals is, to a certain extent, also a semi-exhibition—or at least an implicit proposal of an exhibition—that selectively and modestly unveils the cryptic contents of the 16 projects.
Supervisor｜Ministry of Culture
Organizer｜Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB)