Astronesian Atlas

The Keyword Dictionary of Asian Contemporary Art is a transnational project launched in 2022, by TSAI Ping-Ju and LI Kuei-Pi in Taiwan, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which aims to re-organize and articulate the methodology of Asian contemporary art through three sets of keywords and workshops. This brings to mind the project launched by the No Man’s Land Residency and the Nusantara Archive Project, supported by the Digital Art Foundation (Taiwan), in which a bridge of collaboration was built for Malaysian photographer Jeffrey LIM and Taiwanese Amis (Pangcah) filmmaker Posak Jodian. In the project, the two artists helped each other to navigate the Pangcah community and the Malay indigenous culture of the Orang Asli on the Peninsula, and created video documentation of their work along the way. This time, for the Keyword Dictionary of Asian Contemporary Art, I have invited Angga Cipta (Acip) from Indonesia to pair with Posak, considering that both of them are from the Austronesian language family, and may therefore unfold a different scale of cultural exchange through their collaboration of keyword writing.

The Nusantara Archive uses the Nusantara (Malay Archipelago), where Malay is the lingua franca in the region, as our measure and methodology for defining artistic exchange. Under the framework of the project, we attempt to point out the “vernacular” element – something that has most often been over looked, but is the most important component in the exchange – in order to discuss artistic exchanges, and to survey (based on such exchanges) the multiple layers of mutual understanding at work in this culture. In this collaborative writing process, we have taken a step further. First of all, Posak’s writing adopts a pair of words – “kita/kami,” which is used by both the Taiwanese indigenous people and in Nusantara, to indicate the blurry boundary between a “we-group” and a “non we-group.” Such a boundary is sometimes flexible and adjusted, based on the situations of exchange. At the same time, Acip also points out Jakarta’s unique language milieu informed by post-colonial urbanism, which has rendered the concept of “origin” that we aim to explore more unstable.

In terms of the formation of our keywords, I initially suggest adopting reverse engineering, so as to reverse the approach of writing keywords, given the limited resources—this method is inspired by third-world new media artists, who often have to reverse engineer original designs in order to “hack,” modify, or appropriate electronic products of original specifications, due to lacking creative resources, i.e., the newest consumer electronic products. This instead allows local artists, who are subjected to disadvantages in relation to consumer capitalism, to demonstrate different forms of adaptability and creativity. What I mean is how Posak and Acip may reverse engineer the themes of their ongoing projects (e.g., Posak’s Lakec series and Acip’s The Sense of Greatness series), and thereby discover the appropriate and relevant keywords by dismantling their projects into smaller units. However, both artists are more ambitious than what I have suggested—they want to discover and interpret the new dimensions of contemporary Asia from their own (indigenous) cultures, which makes the task more challenging.

Through this transnational collaboration, Posak, Acip and I have come closer to the different cultural entities within the Nusantara framework, and have learned more about the limits of intercultural practice. These keywords enable us to see how different “vernacular situations,” being the interface allowing different groups to engage with one another and coexist, manifest the potential of their language milieu as a form of art practice. To conclude, I hope that this writing project will be the beginning of a series of deepening collaborations that will allow us to continue moving towards a future of co-prosperity for Asian contemporary art, in which similarities can be found and differences co-exist.



2022年「亞洲藝術關鍵字計畫」是由蔡秉儒、李奎壁在COVID疫情期間於臺灣展開的跨國計劃，通過三組關鍵字書寫及工作坊去重新組織認識亞洲當代藝術方法論。這使我想到從2017年至2019年間，數位藝術基金會支持的「『數位荒原』駐站暨群島資料庫（Nusantara Archive）計劃」，如何為馬來西亞藝術家林猷進和臺灣的阿美族藝術家Posak Jodian搭起合作的橋樑，他們在計劃期間成為彼此的領路人，帶領彼此深入認識阿美族（Pangcah）原鄉和馬來半島原住民（Orang Asli）的文化並以影像紀錄。這次在「亞洲當代藝術關鍵字辭典」中，我邀請了同樣是南島語族的印尼藝術家Angga Cipta（Acip）與Posak同一組，期望再通過關鍵字書寫的合作，打開另一種文化交流的尺度。

「群島資料庫」是以馬來語作為通用語的「馬來群島」（Nusantara）來界定藝術交流的尺度與方法論。在這個計劃倡議的框架裡，我們嘗試點出區域藝術交流裡最常被忽略、但也最重要的「口語」（vernacular）要素，來探討藝術交流與蠡測（通過交流而）彼此理解的多重層次。這次的書寫合作則更進一步，首先Posak的書寫通過臺灣原住民與馬來群島通用的一組字「kita／kami」（都譯為「我們」）來指向「我群」和「非我群」之間模糊的界線，這樣的界線時而隨著交流情境而有調整的彈性。同時，Acip也指出雅加達後殖民都會主義獨特的言說生態，這樣的生態也讓我們探索「起源」的概念變得更加地不缺定。

在形成關鍵字的方法上，我首先建議在有限資源框架下，以「逆向工程」（reverse engineering）來反轉「關鍵字」的書寫路徑——靈感來自第三世界的新媒體藝術家，在缺乏最新消費電子產品的創作資源下，經常藉由破解原始設計的逆向工程來「駭進」或改造、挪用原初規格的電子產品，使得在消費資本主義下處於弱勢的當地創作者，更展現不同的變通與創造力。在此我要說的是Posak與Acip如何從他們正在發展的計劃主題（像是Posak的《渡河》系列或Acip的《The Sense of Greatness》系列）反向推導，藉著將計劃為拆為更小單位而發現關鍵字。然而，兩位藝術家比我所建議的更具有野心，他們試圖從自身（部落）文化根源發現詮釋當代亞洲的新維度，因而增加了這次書寫的挑戰性。

通過這次的跨國合作，我、Posak、Acip更加親近馬來群島框架內部的不同文化實體，也更認識到在跨文化實踐的限制。這些關鍵字讓我們看見不同的「口語情境」作為不同群體接觸與共存的介面，如何體現了言說作為藝術實踐的潛力。最後，希望這次書寫只是一系列深化合作的開頭，讓我們得以繼續實現亞洲當代藝術求同存異的共榮未來。