在兒童樂園相遇
作者：湯皇珍
計畫：
那一天，長大了的一天，我們相約在台北兒童樂園見面。
相約的時間接近時手機響起，
你問我：你在哪裡？
我說：我在兒童樂園。
你問：你在兒童樂園的哪裡？
我說：面對著摩天輪，正坐在鱷魚的背上。
你又問：什麼是摩天輪？
我說：高高像一朵花，星星一樣的一朵花吊著上升的雙人座，後面有水濂洞似的假山，我坐在旁邊樹蔭下、鱷魚一樣的椅子上。
我惶惑這樣的描述有沒有更加清楚的說明了「什麼是摩天輪」指出了「我在兒童樂園的哪裡」？過了一段時間我終於望見你，由摩天輪後方的通道遠遠的出現了。
你笑著，卻沒有說明你是聽懂我的描述才找到摩天輪還是怎麼回事？。

在兒童樂園相遇是不容易的。每一個遊樂器繞著隱密的遊戲原型，每一個前往遊樂園的日子繞著睡不著覺的期待以及落空的承諾。在這裡──台北兒童樂園，我有一個記憶的空洞。因為我從未在小時候來過台北兒童樂園。

我的計畫是尋找和我一樣有這個記憶空洞的老人，相約在200611/18這一天一起重回台北兒童樂園，就像小時後那個睡不著覺的期待終於成真，那個落空的承諾終於兌現，我們──在兒童樂園相遇。

尋人行動

演出牌

演出者名單

2006 "Encounter at the Amusement Park" of Tang Huang-Chen
by Jo Hsiao (curator)
湯皇珍的在兒童樂園相遇 文/策展人蕭淑文

One day, When we’ve grown up , we meet each other at the Amusement World.
You ask me : Were are you?
I say: I’m at the amusement park.
You ask: where are you in the amusement park ?
I say: In front of the ferris wheel, sitting on the back of the crocodile
And then you ask :what’s a ferris wheel?
I say: It’s tall, like a flower. A flower that looks like a star, hung with seats for two people rising upward.
Behind it is a fake mountain like a cave veiled by a waterfall. I am sitting in the shade of tree next to it, on a seat that’s like crocodile.
那一天，長大了的一天，我們相約在台北兒童樂園見面。
相約的時間接近時手機響起，
你問我：你在哪裡？
我說：我在兒童樂園。
你問：你在兒童樂園的哪裡？
我說：面對著摩天輪，正坐在鱷魚的背上。
你又問：什麼是摩天輪？
我說：高高像一朵花，星星一樣的一朵花，吊著上升的雙人座，後面有水濂洞似的假山，我坐在旁邊樹蔭下、鱷魚一樣的椅子上。
我惶惑這樣的描述有沒有更加清楚的說明了「什麼是摩天輪」，指出了「我在兒童樂園的哪裡」？一段時間過後，我終於望見你由摩天輪後方的通道遠遠的出現了。

“Here- in the Amusement World, at the Taipei Children’s Recreation Center -I have a blank spot in my memory. That’s because I never came here as a Child.”
在這裡──台北兒童樂園，我有一個記憶的空洞。因為我從未在小時候來過台北兒童樂園。

Tang Huang-Chen make a bold yet “ belated” entrance into this place of childhood dreams-as amusement park that she longed to visit as a child, but never had the chance. Through the artist’s childhood experiences, “Encounter at the Amusement Park” is an examination, either conscious or unconscious, of individual isolation. Through its two stages of activities-recruiting participants and performance in the park-the artist has sought out people with the same blank spot in their memories, who through their “collective participation” break through their own conundrum of isolation. At the same time, human behavior is achieved within the parameters of art.
湯皇珍「遲到的」闖入兒時的夢想之地—兒時期待卻從未成真的兒童樂園。《在兒童樂園相遇》以藝術家的兒時經驗，其意識與潛意識裡多少鑒於自己的孤立，藉由「尋人」與「遊園」的行動，找尋一樣有這個記憶空洞的人，藉他們的「集體參與」，打破自己孤立的困境。同時，人的行為也在藝術的範圍裡得到滿足。

“Did you go to the Amusement World when you were a child? I didn’t go when I was a child. I want to invite ‘old folks” in their 40s and 50s who, like me, didn’t go to the Amusement World as a kid, to go there on November 18(2006)”. In the process of recruiting participants, Tang Huang-Chen, like an evangelist engaging in a ritual of salvation, made this request to people over and over again on the street and in the market. Very obviously, in this action, Tang Huang-Chen played the role of missionary, transforming her artistic perspective into the behavior of everyday life, or expanding it into an “event” legitimizing artistic action. “What kind of amusement ride does everyone want to take? What do you want to do? Today, We’re going to encounter our own childhoods!” The artist released a “Statement for the Amusement Park Action,” as an adult reinterpreting this locale that is the “realm of children” and using the conditioning of “collective action” to place viewers in certain states. Every viewer is also an actor, acting out scenes according to the artist’s directions and becoming part of the work. From riding the Flying Chairs the Carousel and the Coffee Cups to doing “swim” in swimming suits to playing ball, the action of the participants might very well be seen as a genuine exercise “doing” a real action through the method of play.
「小時候去過兒童樂園嗎？」我小時候沒有去過，想邀請四、五十歲和我一樣沒有去過的『老人』，十月十八日一起去兒童樂園。」湯皇珍像一個「佈道者」在「尋人活動」的過程裡，如進行一種救贖的儀式，在街道，市集，不斷的和人重複這項邀請。很明顯的，湯皇珍在其行動演出裡，扮演佈道者，把藝術觀念轉化為日常生活行為，或者擴張為「事件」，正當化藝術的行動。「大家想玩什麼遊戲器？想要做什麼？今天我們在這裡和自己的小時候碰面！」藝術家發表「遊園行動宣言」，成人的她重新詮釋這片屬於「兒童領地」的場域，並用「集體行動」的制約，把觀眾放到某種狀態裡，每個參與者也是演員，依照藝術家所構思的事件演出，並成為作品的一部份。從飛行椅、旋轉木馬、咖啡杯、著泳衣做游泳動作或踢足球，參與者的行動毋寧是一種真實的操練，以嬉戲方式「做」真實的行動。

Performance artist Tang Huang-Chen makes use of real-life experiences to construct ritualized bodily action. In certain situation, Tang Huang-Chen’s performances are achieved by living her art, by “ratifying” reality, and bringing it to a final climax in a single action. In this ritual of transformation, art cleaves very closely to reality, with an objective. Yet at the level of societal function , even if thoroughly subverting art’s reliance on autonomy, it expresses a system of diverse values. Ultimately, it is more declarative than substantive. Certainly, expressing certain concepts or issues through art action breaks down the barrier between art and life to limited degree, because it only involves a small group of participants, and occurs within the territory of art. Compared to real life, it is still a kind of “alienation”14 Nevertheless, Tang Huang-Chen’s art action attained a resonance with its participants, who shared with one another the life experiences of middle-aged people, so that this “ people -to- people” encounter hovered somewhere in between reality and artifice. Middle-aged bodies intruded upon a place of childhood infatuation, creating a fictitious encounter with their childhood selves. And in a filled –in swimming pool (where they did exercises of swimming) and a disused roof-stop (where they played ball), game-playing in these two forgotten spaces strongly intimated the distressing state of middle-aged lives, with twilight in the offing, thus pulling their own statuses back to the state of reality. And if one might observe that the artist controlled the form of performance, she also transformed the participant’s reaction into action fulfilling their expectations!
行為藝術家湯皇珍慣以用生活經驗，建構儀式化的身體行動，就某種狀況而言，湯皇珍的行為把藝術當作生活來實現，把真實美學化，最後的高潮在一次的行動裡告終。藝術在轉化的儀式中，更貼近真實的生活，它具目的性；但在社會功能的層面上，即使徹底顛覆藝術自主性的依歸，呈現出多元價值體系，宣示性仍然大於實質性。確實，透過藝術行動表達某些概念或議題，有限的解除「藝術與生活」的隔離，因為它只涉及一小撮參與者、發生在藝術領域裡；較之真實生活，仍是一種「異化」14。但湯皇珍的藝術行動，和參與者之間建立一種共鳴，彼此分享「中年人」的生命經驗，讓「人」與「人」的相遇游移在真實和虛構之間。中年人的身體闖入兒時憧憬之地，虛構和兒時的自己相遇的場景。而在已填平的游泳池〈作游泳姿勢〉及荒廢的天台〈踢足球〉這兩個被遺忘的空間嬉戲，強烈地暗示著中年生命近黃昏的窘態，於是又將自己的「身份」拉回真實的狀態。與其說藝術家操控表演的形式，她也把參與者的反應轉為行動，滿足他們的期待！