台北當代藝術館將自2019年3月30起至5月26止展出《呼吸鞦韆—劉霞 蔡海如聯展》，本展覽展出兩位受政治迫害家屬的女性藝術家劉霞的26件攝影､詩篇以及蔡海如的裝置作品。劉霞，北京人，是詩人，藝術家，諾貝爾和平獎得主劉曉波的妻子，因政治犯妻子而被非法軟禁近十年。她一生遭遇如此可怖地與世隔絕的命運，與劉曉波的六四兩年牢獄､三年勞改､十一年顛覆國家罪，妻子劉霞的被監視､幽閉､恐懼､沮喪､熄滅卻是另一種牢獄。蔡海如是台灣白色恐怖受難者的女兒，50年代父親曾因參加讀書會以及加入地下黨活動成為政治犯，入獄長達14年，以及在她9歲那年再度因另一波白色恐怖抓人的高峰期因匪諜案牽連入獄10年。當她父親無故消失後，在家中發現一張張上面有著父親名字的匪諜破獲案剪報，生命於是開始了變了調。



多少政治受難家屬像另一種囚徒般心繫著獄中之人，在現實生活中必須承受治安單位不斷的搜查､無辜受牽累､鄰居同學的恥笑､不斷在孩子面前說謊､孩子不認得父親等等痛苦。完全被社會狠狠地否定之後，這個現實世界也跟著逐漸熄滅了，但是藝術家的靈魂卻讓另一個世界敞開，它悄悄的繞過了本來穩固存在的外在世界而形成了一種無指向性的、無可名狀的不可能存在之物的存在，充滿力量。於是，一個世界打開了，擴大了人類的視野，如此遭遇卻換來了藝術的高度。我們看到米沃什､赫塔．穆勒的文體，他們的作品表現出在遭受極度荒謬與痛苦的同時，返身看透它，超越它，如此才能安頓自己，獲得自由、尊嚴與詩意，至於作品，就是這種內在奮鬥過程的爆發。



劉霞在玩偶系列作品有一首詩《沉默的力量》描寫她的心境：

和玩偶們一起生活

沉默的力量無所不在

世界四面開啟

…



蔡海如也寫著：

我是一隻翅膀超大的蝴蝶

你看不見

我從她的腦門上 鑽出來了

在上方飛著

…



題目《呼吸鞦韆》直接引用羅馬尼亞2009年諾貝爾文學獎得主荷塔．慕勒得獎作品的書名。荷塔．慕勒敘述母親被勞改的遭遇，將二戰後蘇聯勞改營中，隨時可能發生逮捕、酷刑和謀殺，恐怖的陰影彌漫在日常生活中的情境，以一種詩意的方式表現。由於時時刻刻的飢餓乏力狀態，生命只剩下呼吸才能夠使人體服從於一種節奏的擺動，從而保持存在感，這就是所謂「呼吸鞦韆」。



The Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei will present Atemschaukel—A Joined Exhibition of Liu Xia and Tsai Hai-Ru from March 30 to May 26, 2019. The exhibition features artworks created by these two female artists who are both family members to victims of political persecution, including Liu Xia’s twenty-six photographs and poetry as well as Tsai Hai-ru’s installation. Liu Xia, born and raised in Beijing, is a poet, an artist, and the wife of Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo. Being a political prisoner’s wife, she was illegally put under house arrest for nearly a decade. Liu Xia used to bear a terrifying life of isolation informed by her husband’s two years of imprisonment due to his alleged role in the Tiananmen Square protests, his three years of labor camp and another eleven years of imprisonment for the accusation of inciting subversion of state power; however, her life under constant surveillance filled with fear, solitude, distress and helplessness as a wife was an even larger prison. Tsai Hai-Ru comes from a family broken by the White Terror in Taiwan. During the 60s and 70s, her father, who attempted to rescue her incriminated grandfather in the February 28 Incident, was arrested and imprisoned for fourteen years as a political criminal after joining a book club and activities of the underground political party. Later, her father was involved in an espionage incident and was again imprisoned for ten years. Tsai Hai Ru’s life underwent a fundamental, qualitative change after discovering newspaper clippings about her father’s alleged espionage.



All family members of political victims live like a different kind of prisoners because their hearts are always with those in prison. In their everyday life, they have to bear incessant searches of police and security agencies, suffer collateral influences, undergo sneers of classmates, continuously lie to their children, or witness the painful scenes of children not recognizing their fathers. Being socially ostracized, their world gradually fade into darkness. However, the soul of an artist can usher in another world, stealthily bypassing the solid external world and forming a non-directional, indescribable existence of something that should have been impossible to exist; and it is incredibly powerful. Consequently, a different world unfolds and expands the vision of mankind. The hardships in life are transformed into artistic achievements. While the writings of Czesław Miłosz and Herta Müller express the extreme absurdities and sufferings the writers have endured, readers also perceive how they have comprehended and transcended their hardships to find the anchor in life and regain freedom, dignity and a unique sense of poetry. Their works, in truth, are splendid validations of their inner struggle and ultimate victory.



In her doll photography series, Liu Xia wrote in a poem called The Power of Silence to describe her mental state:

Living together with the dolls,

Surrounded by the power of silence

The world open around us

…

As Tsai Hai-ru herself wrote:

I’m a butterfly with giant wings.

You cannot see

I have forced my way through her forehead

flying above

…

The exhibition title, Atemschaukel (literally “Breath Swing”), is borrowed from the title of the prize-winning work by the Romanian laureate of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature, Herta Müller. In a highly poetic way, Müller delineates her mother’s personal experience and the daily scenes in a post-WWII Soviet Union labor camp, where terror permeates and arrests, tortures and murders could happen anytime. In a state of constant and fierce hunger, the act and steady rhythm of breathing subjects the human body and life a sense of existence and keeps one feeling alive—hence the title, Atemschaukel.