Before the Fall Every Movement is Aerobics / 在崩塌前,一切行爲都是有氧運動
Director: Sikarnt Skoolisariyaporn, 席堪特.斯古理撒理雅彭
Duration: 00:08:19; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 120.903; Saturation: 0.014; Lightness: 0.269; Volume: 0.124; Cuts per Minute: 4.925; Words per Minute: 6.967
Summary: Sikarnt Skoolisariyaporn, in response to widely circulated footage of the spectacular demolition of the tallest building in China with explosives created the work
Before the Fall Every Movement is Aerobics and the hyperlink essay “
The Multiplying Sun".
The instantaneous ruination sets in motion shattered pieces in space creating hundreds of hypothetical solar systems, with their proxy ‘suns’ binding smaller particles around it through its gravitational force - as if they were hundreds of planets floating in space - creating a microcosm of the universe. This planetary logic of the destruction of what was once a testament to the industrial spoils of human inhabitation on Earth, reflects the neo-colonial desires for inter-planetary inhabitation that received impetus during the Cold War that followed the annihilatory anxieties of the Second World War and has accelerated its influence on popular imagination in the wake of compounding, self-inflicted civilizational crises, including but not limited to climate crisis.
“
The Multiplying Sun" is a parasitic essay written across the internet.
席堪特.斯古理撒理雅彭的〈在崩塌前,一切行爲都是有氧運動〉和超連結散文 “
〈倍增的太陽〉".創作靈感為一則網路廣傳的影片,影片呈現中國最高大樓的爆破場景。影片中瞬間毀滅的景象在周遭空間創造了無數個假想太陽系,而他們的替代「太陽」則藉著引力吸引更小粒子,彷彿在太空中漂浮的數百個星球,形成微小版的宇宙。作品以星系詮釋毀滅,隱喻人們在地球上的各種工業開伐,反應了二戰後高升的毀滅焦慮與冷戰期間佔領其他星球的新殖民想望。這些觀感在人們造成的各種文明傷害,例如氣候變遷危機等,都不斷加劇。
The green leaves are like suspended rubbles that have yet to hit the ground. The horizontally stretched cables are measuring the duration until the leaves are set adrift. The drifting rubbles are gazing at the leaves that have fallen to the ground amidst the noises, contemplating that artificially constructed trees are unable to even withstand the time marked by a mere few cables.
綠色的葉子是懸浮而不及地的瓦礫,橫越的電線計算著葉子漂浮的時間。這些漂浮的瓦礫凝視著那些在噪音中落地的葉子,想著人類築成的樹木,都耐不住幾根電線計算的時間。
The film opens with a shot that firmly establishes the conflict between plant life and construction activities, indicated by the fall of debris from an ongoing demolition of homes on the facade of the village facing the river that cuts through the municipality of Chongqing, in South West China. The other side of the river is occupied by the city centre, the newer, gentrified part of the city. Soon, the city centre and its huge buildings will mirror itself on the facade of the village, so that onlookers from the city need not confront the realities presented by the less developed conglomeration of housing structures and tea houses across the river. As the falling stones in this shot slowly turns into dust, we realise that the ceaseless redevelopment envelops the city in dense fog, consisting solely of micro-debris.
影片一開始便明顯的表現出植物與建設活動之間的對立,畫面呈現出位於中國西南方的城市重
慶,一座面朝著橫跨整座城市的河流的村莊,因為外圍的房屋拆除工程而塵土飛揚。 河的另一
端是市中心,一個新穎且縉紳化的區域。不久之後,市中心裡的高聳大樓也將被複製於位在另
外一頭的村莊外圍,如此一來,從城市望出去便可以不必直面現實,無需在意河對岸那些低度
開發的住房結構與茶樓。掉落的石塊慢慢的轉成塵土,使人意識到因為不停的重建,城市因此
籠罩在細小微粒所形成的厚重塵煙之中 。
secret
我在哪裡?
冰雹一般的瓦礫
灰塵形成的霧
把城市遮蓋起來
現在幾點了?
As the film transitions from the village to the city side, the fog endures, and the artist shows us a combination of footage that she shot herself and that which was found online to present the cityscape through the curtain of dust suspended in the air. Life continues despite it, following civilizational desire to build taller and taller structures that can touch the sky and break into heaven. Growing up in Thailand, the artist's imagination of China was informed by television shows that aired in her home country. An enduring memory from these fictional accounts of China is the Mount Liang, symbolising the 108 stars of destiny—demons reincarnated as warriors fighting for justice. Found footage of people scaling the height of the mountain resembles our infrastructural ascent into what seems like outer space.
畫面從村莊轉至城市這一端,塵煙依舊瀰漫,藝術家將自己所拍攝的畫面與網路上找到的影像
片段結合,呈現出宛如懸掛在空氣中的塵埃帷幕裡的城市景觀。即便如此,生命依舊前行,隨
著文明的慾望,打造出的建築物越來越高,彷彿能觸及天際直闖天堂。成長於泰國的藝術家對
於中國的想像源自於在家鄉轉播的電視節目,其中中國傳奇的梁山令人印象深刻,那是一個象
徵著天上108顆星宿的凶神惡煞成為好漢起義造反的故事。現成的影像片段呈現著人們登峰的
畫面,呼應著不斷往上升,彷彿朝著外太空延伸而去的基礎建設。
Many creatures live in these artificial forests that will soon wither in a time that’s unknown. The mention of the word “live” already insinuates different durations with different values, and the longevity of these artificial forests is calculated.
Forest
insects
在這些不知何時就會迅速凋零的人為森林當中,有許多的生物在裡面過活。一提及「過活」,通常就已經蘊含著不等價的各種時間,一齊計算著這些人為森林的壽命。
一個垂直的城市
一個只在Y軸上通勤的地方
所有的意義清算上天
就好像城市在回覆那遙遠的、重力的、太陽的領域
Just like vines and ants
Just like vines and ants
Forest
insects
就像藤蔓與螞蟻
而不是地球
Creatures in an artificial forest would also move in an orderly manner, towards the vegetation located in lofty mountains. We often lament humanity’s insignificance and transience when we are surrounded by such towering vegetation. On the other hand, once surrounded by artificial vegetation, many people would once again lament the city’s fragility and comfort.
vegetation
在人為叢林中移動的生物,也會按序移動到崇山峻嶺中的植被之間。我們往往會在這種高聳的植被之間感嘆人類的渺小與短暫,相反的,一回到人為的植被中間,許多人又會感嘆城市的脆弱與舒適。
所以一切都顛倒了
The camera scales the mountain towards the sky before fading into found footage of an advertisement for a building from 2015 that was planned for construction in Chongqing, to be completed by 2018. This building is a replica of another that already exists in Singapore, gesturing towards the kind of future that Chongqing wants to manifest for itself. The text represents the number that viewers can call to acquire space in the skyscraper, while drawing attention to number eleven, the floor on which the artist was staying at the time in Chongqing, but also conveying an altered sense of time and space up in the air, in the layering of vertical space in the city’s skyline, as opposed to zero, the level of the village with empty homes and tea houses impending demolition.
鏡頭隨著山脈往天際移動, 然後淡入轉為一個現成的影像,一個2015年在重慶的建設計畫廣
告,預計於2018年完工。此建案是一棟新加坡建築物的翻版,象徵著重慶所預想的未來走向。
影片中出現的數字是可以打去下訂大樓物件的電話,其中「11」這個數字被特別突顯,藝術家
在重慶便是居住於11樓,同時也意指著懸浮在半空中的另類時空感,此城市天際線上的垂直
堆疊空間,與另一頭村莊裡即將被拆除的空屋與茶樓所代表的「0樓」產生對比。
朝向外太空
vegetation
Virtual beings laugh in a virtual way while surrounded by virtual artificial vegetation. Artificial vegetation, architecture in another word, is often perceived as project-oriented ideals. As long as these colossal artificial plants are not actually constructed, they will forever live in the imagination of people. They will always remain unadulterated. This kind of vegetation is often envisioned by the human mind.
虛擬的生物在虛擬的人為植被當中虛擬地談笑。人為的植被——意即建築——經常會被視為是一種具計畫性的理想,這些巨大的人造植物只要不真正建築出來,就能夠永恆地活在人類的想像當中,而且一塵不染。人類的大腦經常想像著這種植被。
在十一樓,一個漂浮的島嶼
這個地方屬於沒有身體的天使
太陽的孩子藉由神秘的發光數字和我們溝通
來自未來的訊息
一個帶著時空鍊金術秘密的數學的謎題
六二八八三九九
In this sequence, the artist contemplates the recurrence of numbers across the city and how it manifests the desires and aspirations of its people, mobilized by advertising imagery. In the artist’s reading, the numbers take on multiple connotations, from the coordinates that locate a point in three dimensional space to her own personal identification number, and credit card numbers. The number five comes to be repeated as the sound associated with the number resembles the sound of laughter in Thai but in Chinese it sounds like a person crying, also unveiling the duality embedded in the city’s predicament.
在此段落, 藝術家思考著城市中重複出現的數字,以及數字如何透過廣告圖像的傳播表達人
們的慾望與期待。藝術家閱讀著具有多重含義的數字,從三維空間裡的單一座標延伸至個人識
別數字與信用卡卡號。「5」這個數字被重複著,泰文數字「5」的發音像笑聲,但是在華語卻像
嗚嗚哭泣聲,揭示著此城市中一體兩面的窘境。
code
Forest
在人為的森林當中,所有的號碼都是一種鳥鳴。如果我們按照這些號碼撥打電話,我們就會聽見不同的鳥叫聲。當然這些鳥叫聲也是人學的,學的時候,會用人類理想的聲音表達。字正腔圓,不講錯話,因為人類森林中的人為動物不會出錯。
All numbers in artificial forests are a kind of bird call. If we make a telephone call using these numbers, we would hear differing vocalizations of birds, and of course, these bird calls are made by people. When trying to mimic those sounds, people would use their ideal voices to express them. They would speak in the correct accent and use the right words, because artificial animals inside the forests of humans do not make mistakes.
一一二零零一四八
六三七九九五六零
八六零七五七五四
一三九八三六四五四六五
一五二二三零六七九一二
六七八九九七七七
零七三五二七八零二一
The video cuts to footage of construction by night that the artist filmed during a walk by the river that cuts the city in two. As these activities thrive at night by the light of a single lamp, the artist is reminded of Malevich’s Black Sun, and it’s associations with humankind’s supremacy over nature. She plots the lights that trace the city’s skyline at night as if each were a separate point in three dimensional space, capturing attitudes that treat the planet as if it were empty space which can be shaped to match capitalist desire.
影片切至藝術家在將城市一分為二的河岸邊散步時所拍攝的夜間施工影像。這些活動在一盞燈
光的照射下於夜晚如火如荼的進行著,使藝術家想起馬列維奇的作品《黑方塊》,以及作品所
表現的人類凌駕於大自然之上的聯想。藝術家數著在夜間串連著城市天際線的燈光,每一個都
宛如三維空間裡的一個獨立節點,呈現出將地球視為可被資本主義慾望所形塑的空白空間的態
度。
三二五零二六六零
五八九六二四七
五五五五五五五五五五五五五
There is a particularly strong type of creature that lives in these artificial forests, and it is the trap-jaw ant. These ants would use their clamping jaws to bite through the trunks of artificial trees.
Forest
insects
人為森林當中,其中一種極為強壯的生物,就是大顎螞蟻。這種螞蟻使用上下開闔的大顎去咬破人為樹木的樹幹。
班法披,太陽的轉世
夜晚的太陽計劃著將光的節點
投射到時間的格網
地球的食屍鬼在夜晚吃著土壤
一點一點的光連結成線
從線到面
製造出全像的風景的膨脹
光的領域導致了我們暫時的失明狀態
太陽的增殖在太空中製造了
數百個假設的太陽能系統
每一個假設的地球在其中反叛
磁性的反應在每個太陽之間脈動
製造了一個反常的太陽引力
讓我們困在無止盡的玻璃迷宮裡
gods' eye
There is a Sumerian cuneiform star-shaped ideogram that is pronounced as “an” and means the “sky”. It can also be pronounced as “digir” and means “a god”. This word has different pronunciations and describes two transcendental existences that are located in the same area. The gods in the sky are using their eyes to gauge the superficial measurements of the limited humans. In other words, these measurements are used to prevent humans from manifesting in the human form or in the form of different transcendental data.
有一個蘇美的楔形文字,字面外觀像星星,發音是 an, 指「天空」,或者也可以讀作 digir,指「神祇」。同一個字不同的讀音,描述了兩個會位在同一區域的超越性存在。天上的(諸)神睜著眼睛,量測著有限的人類外觀上的所有尺寸。或者說,運用這些尺寸,使人不能以人的形式,而是以各種超越性的數據的形式呈現。
We cut to the Sun in outer space. Reminded of an essay by Anton Vidokle titled “The Communist Revolution was caused by the Sun”, the artist locates the contradictions in Chinese political history, within the cycles of revolutions around the sun, visually constructing a metaphor for historical materialism. Here she also references Kiluanji Kia Henda’s work about Icarus 13, a space mission to the sun led by Angola, indicating a dystopian premise for cold- war era space race, and the continuation of such legacy in anthropogenic activity, including construction. She locates neo-colonial aspirations for space travel within the construction activities that she witnesses in Chongqing.
As we see more found footage of the sun, a sound whirs alongside, as if we could listen to electricity itself travelling across the city’s skyline powering its light.
接著切至位於外太空的太陽。藝術家聯想起安東・維多克的文章《共產主義運動是由太陽引發
的》,藉著圍繞著太陽運轉的循環,構建出歷史唯物主義的視覺隱喻,指出中國政治史上的矛
盾,並且引用基洛吉・起亞・亨達所創作的關於伊卡洛斯13號的作品,以冷戰時期太空競賽的
反烏托邦情境為背景,描繪安哥拉所主導的前進太陽的太空計劃,以及包括建設工程的人類活
動遺產的傳承。藝術家在此指出她在重慶所目睹的建設活動中對於前往太空的新殖民主義的想
望。
在看著更多關於太陽的現成影像的同時,一個聲音在一旁呼嘯著,彷彿是電流劃過城市天際線
,將城市裡的燈全都點燃。
essay1
As the mythology of Icarus and the destiny of Icarus 13 would predicate, an astronaut flies too close to the sun only to fall back to earth, trapped in a tesseract finally floating against a backdrop of city lights, reminiscent of stars in the night sky. The artist firmly roots all desire for space exploration right here on earth, and its relationship with capitalism that identifies no end to what one human activity and materialism can accomplish. Here the artist’s interest in time travel also emerges, drawing from the Hollywood movie Interstellar where, at the heart of a blackhole, gravity is so intense that it freezes time. This desire to travel back to the past to rewrite our present also emerges in the irony presented by science fictions of the 1960s and 70s that envisioned a highly advanced existence for humanity in the 2000s, unable to identify limits to scientific advancement, whereas we are now trapped in the detritus of such ambition.
正如伊卡洛斯的神話和伊卡洛斯 13 號的命運所預言,一名太空人飛離太陽太近,結果墜回地
球,受困在宇宙立方之中,最終載浮於一片看起來宛如夜間星盤的城市燈海裡。藝術家將對於
太空探勘的所有慾望深植於地球,以及透過其中與資本主義的關係,指出人類個別活動與唯物
主義所追求的目標是無極限的。藝術家對於時光旅行的興趣也在此浮現,參考著好萊塢電影《
星際效應》,在黑洞的核心,地心引力強烈到凍結了時間。藉由六零與七零年代的科幻小說對
於2000年代人類高度先進的存在的描寫,呈現出對於回到過去改寫現在的慾望的反諷性表現
,當時對於科學持著無發展極限的態度,而我們現在則是被困在這種野心的殘骸中。
We return to Chongqing at night and the city’s skyline, where LED lights countdown to zero, referring to both ground zero—a foreshadow of the demolition we see at the end of the film— and also at the same time, the countdown the marks the launch of a rocket into outer space.
畫面回到夜晚的重慶與這座城市的天際線,LED燈正倒數著,預告著影片最後將呈現的拆除現
場的歸零,同時倒數著一個將發射至外太空的火箭。
eleven\\十一
ten\\十
nine\\九
eight\\八
seven\\七
six\\六
five\\五
four\\四
three\\三
two\\二
one\\一
Humans use countless lights to mimic eyes of gods. The brightness of the lights can’t even compare with the mere blink of the eyes of gods; consequently, we put up tens of thousands of them. And within these forged eyes, there are dead people who are mimicking the way that eternally joyful gods dance. But humans are just imitating, and a human life is shorter than the lifespan of a human gesture. Trees constructed by humans wither sooner than actual trees. For this, humans lament, but this lamentation is more short-lived than the life of a single particle of dust.
revelation
人類以數千盞燈模仿神的眼睛,每一盞燈的照度,還不及神瞇上的眼睛。於是我們設了數萬顆,並且在這些仿造的眼睛中間,有死的人仿造常樂的神的姿態跳舞。但人畢竟只是仿造,人的生命短於人的姿態的生命,人建築的樹比樹更早凋零,人為此感嘆,這感嘆的短暫甚至不及一顆塵埃的時間。
activity
While the film was being made, everyday outside the museum where the work was first shown, elderly women would gather for aerobics lessons. The artist includes this in the film to identify passive complicity of the city’s residents in its developmental aspirations and rapid gentrification. Their exercises are set to a World War II era Russian song called Katyusha, a song about a girl picking apples, which coincidentally was appropriated by the Chinese for military marches. The spectacular buildings and skyscrapers that emerge are also contextualized within war infrastructure and the sweat of human flesh through this song.
製作此影片的當下,在此作品首映的美術館前每天都聚集著一群前來做有氧運動的年長女性。
藝術家將此活動也納入於影片中,呈現出城市的居民對於發展與快速的縉紳化有如被動的共犯
的表現。她們運動時播放的歌曲的旋律源自於二戰時期的俄羅斯民謠《喀秋莎》,這首關於少
女採蘋果的歌曲在中國被改編成行軍曲。藉由這首歌,透過戰爭基礎建設和揮汗的人體將所浮
現的壯觀建築和摩天大樓進行脈絡化。
The film ends with footage of demolition that went viral on the internet in 2015. From the demolition, intense clusters of micro-debris that raised the fog in the opening sequence of the film also creates millions of hypothetical solar systems right here on earth, creating inter-gravitational forces in relation to each other generated by the energy released in the demolition. Aspirations for space exploration and humankind’s dreams of becoming an interplanetary species are located in the mess that we have manifested right here on earth.
影片的結尾呈現出一段於2015年在網路被瘋傳的拆除影像。拆除工程產生一團團厚重的懸浮
微粒,這同時也是片頭所看見的那片塵煙,地球上產生了數百萬的假設太陽能系統,因為拆除
過程中所釋放的能量產生引力相互作用。人類對於太空探索的想望以及成為星際物種的夢想,
都存留於我們在地球上所造成的混亂之中。
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