About

From jongleurs to 說書人 Pingshu artists, storytellers throughout history have played a critical role in elucidating key facets of the human experience, making sense of our past and navigating our present. The stories they tell reveal profound truths about our reality, the shaping of identity, and human behavior. Both personal and political, some stories have insidiously perpetuated segregation, racism and sexism, whilst others offer visions of equitable futures through imagining and building worlds anew. Stories are inherently spiritual phenomena, often perceived as having a touch of magic, with their ability to manifest substance, texture, characters, and worlds. There is the gift of space, time and knowledge in stories.

The exhibition, Walking Stories, contemplates the storied nature of human behavior and how individuals may be perceived as embodied “walking stories”. Carried within the storyteller, passed down through generations are countless stories shared, given, received, and exchanged. Far from being fixed, stories are fluid in essence, constantly evolving as they are expanded on, abbreviated, and adapted per circumstance, context and audience. As such, how do we carry, gift, receive, exchange stories? What is said and intentionally left unsaid? How might we tell the untold stories of those who do not have capacity or reveal that which is not yet uncovered? In what ways do stories shape human connection, cross-generationally, personally and collectively?

Artists Alice Wu, Dohee Lee, Farhana Sobhan, Katie Quan, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Hana Luna Her, Manon Wada, Mia Nakano, Miko Lee, Related Tactics, Trần Châu Hà and Tsim Nuj Vang explore these questions in their multimedia practice and collaborative exhibition, Walking Stories. Ranging from interactive installations, video, performance, photography, zines to conceptual potluck, the artists interrogate prevailing stories and their ramifications and prioritize stories that cultivate interconnectedness, empathy and invested involvement in the world around us. As individual and collective ‘walking stories’, every story we create, creates us. After all, we are shaped by our shaping of the world, which is perpetually shaped again in turn.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Edge on the Square.

《行走故事》

從歐洲的流浪雜耍伶人，到中國街頭說書人，歷史上一眾說故事者對闡明人類經驗的重要面向扮演著關鍵角色，幫助我們理解過去、梳理當下。他們口中的故事，揭示關於現實、身份的塑造和人類行為種種奧妙高深的真相。故事既是個人的，也是政治的；有的暗地延續隔離主張、種族主義和性別主義，有的卻透過想像，重新建立新世界，前瞻各式各樣更為平等的未來。故事本質上是靈性現象，常被視為帶有某種魔力，能夠表現物質、質感、人物和大千世界。故事本身就是空間、時間和知識的禮物。

《行走故事》展覽反思人類行為中宣揚傳說的天性，以及個人如何能夠成為「行走的故事」。說書人自己身懷故事之餘，同時讓無數故事隨著分享、傳承、交換，流傳後世。故事從來不是鐵板一塊，本質是流動的，恆常地被延伸、撮寫，亦因應時勢、環境和觀眾而改編，不斷演變。如此說來，我們是如何保留、饋贈、接收和交流故事的呢？說了什麼，又有什麼故意略去？我們可以怎樣講述那些因能力被而忽略的人，他們未被言說的故事，又或揭示未曾顯露的事物？故事如何形塑人與人之間的連繫，無論是跨代的、個人的，還是集體的？

一眾藝術家，包括  Alice Wu、Dohee Lee、Farhana Sobhan、 Katie Quan、Hana Luna Her、Lydia Nakashima Degarrod、Manon Wada、Mia Nakano、Miko Lee、Related Tactics 、Trần Châu Hà和 Tsim Nuj Vang 將以多媒體創作叩問以上種種問題，呈獻共同協作的展覽《行走故事》。由互動裝置、錄像、表演、攝影、獨立書誌，到一人一道菜的概念百樂餐，藝術家詰問流存已久的故事及其衍生的後果，優先選取促進相互連結、同理心，以及鼓勵投入我們身處的世界的故事。你我作為個人和集體的「行走故事」，創作的每一個話本，同時創造了我們。我們塑造世界是何模樣，自己也同被塑造，如此循環往復──變幻原是永恆。

本展覽承蒙亞裔 Edge on the Square 合作舉辦。