澳門藝術博物館代館長
    陳浩星
 

Preface

 Of all art forms, performance art is the most straightforward medium through which the artist can express his or her views and feelings about human beings and objects.
 
 As human beings are employed as the subject as well as the object of this art form, artists tend to employ the most impactful way to express the purpose of their work. This is the reason that even artists have different understandings about performance art.
 
By means of words, writers explore the harsh life of Man to the deepest and widest boundaries; painters use their ‘miraculous brush’ to depict everything in this world, enriching the visual experience and memory of us all. But from a purely visual perspective, none is more clear-cut and straightforward than the performance art works that use Man as the performing subject and solid visual images as a means of recording. Literary works or traditional paintings are perhaps no match in this regard.

No matter how you view performance art, it was bound to assume an irreplaceable position from the day of its inception into the arena of art.

 In the works of this genre, viewers may see the subject of a work commit suicide with a gun, be bogged down in a state of faithlessness, lawless and lost in bewildering reality and in the magnetic field of power; and in some corner along the street waiting for the expected as well as the unexpected appearance of ‘you’. With one hundred bricks on his back, and luggage in hand, he heads to the railway station, leaving his hometown, fully loaded, for his unknown destiny - an experience we Chinese are most familiar with. The sorrowful National Experience is shared in a clinical manner … See the situation in the shoes of the subjects, where everything seems so ridiculous and yet at the same time not without reason - one does not know if one should cry or laugh. But at the same time one senses a kind of pleasure with this spiritual suffering. The fifty-fourth chapter of the Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu reads:

When applied to oneself, one’s virtues become real. To one’s family, they become abundant. To the community, extensive. To the nation, flourishing. To the world, universal. Therefore, one should view oneself from the perspective of oneself, and likewise the family from that of the family, the community from that of the community, the nation from that of the nation, and the world from that of the world.

Hence, the viewing of oneself from the perspective of oneself. There are different interpretations about the value and significance of life nowadays as well as in the past but when we look at today’s works of performance art from either side of the Strait via the language of the body we cannot fail to see the love and care embodied in the works for the family, the country and the world. The preaching of the ancient sages are still heeded!

In 2005, the exhibition entitled “Inward Gazes: Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art” was successfully hosted by the Macao Museum of Art and highly acclaimed by modern art circles. It contributed much to the promotion of behavioral art in the region. This year, the Museum will go further in continuing to promote performance art. This year’s exhibition will be extended to other Asian regions, which will be invaluable in encouraging the sharing of art, widening citizens’ cultural horizons and broadening multi-dimensional thinking, among other benefits.

In the eyes of ordinary people, some of the behaviour of performance art is not easily comprehended, and even appears unreasonable; however, the creators are determined not to be ordinary and choose to express their point of view and attitudes about art and life through new channels of expression. If the viewer seeks every explanation, he or she may sink deep into the folly of seeking explanation of Chinese calligraphy where in a work certain strokes might be missing, thereby missing the whole meaning. Maybe we should seek meaning in performance art through the philosophy of Lu Jiuyuan: reason lies within the heart.

 If you think you are in the same vein as these artists, you will naturally see the meaning in their works. Is it that important to have a uniform approach to explaining performance art? Why don’t we open our hearts and embrace performance art? Forget all the boundaries and enjoy ourselves. This, then, becomes another kind of taste in life.