World Class City / 世界級城市
Director: Abdul Halik Azeez, 阿布都．哈里克．阿濟茲
Duration: 00:01:13; Aspect Ratio: 0.563:1; Hue: 18.422; Saturation: 0.057; Lightness: 0.393; Volume: 0.246; Cuts per Minute: 90.833
Summary: In World Class City Abdul Halik Azeez reflects on recent instances of divisive politics in Sri Lanka, including the Easter Bombings on which he reported as a journalist, against the backdrop of aspirations for development in the Western, capitalist tenor which has shaped the post-war political context and infrastructure in the country. Edited together from footage gathered through the artist’s practice of regularly capturing everyday sights and sounds as they unfold on his mobile phone, the work addresses the schisms and rifts between lived realities and projections of neo-liberal desire in a Debordian society of the spectacle.
在〈世界級城市〉中，阿布都．哈里克．阿濟茲反思斯里蘭卡近期在政治上的分歧，包括他負責採訪的斯里蘭卡復活節炸彈襲擊。作品背景為斯里蘭卡戰後受到西方與資本發展影響，政治與基礎建設中對於發展的渴慕。作品透過藝術家以手機紀錄的各種日常景象與聲響，探討德波「景觀社會」中，現實景觀與新自由主義想望之間的分與裂。
Originally commissioned by the International Center for Ethnic Studies.
Window to a supermarket in Colombo by Cargills, the largest chain of supermarkets in the country. The reflection on it is a traditional Sri Lankan greeting that says Ayeubowan (May you have long life).
Music: composed by the artist on Ableton and mixed with a field recording of a homeless man seeking alms, and talking about his experience being disabled, blind and without any help while addressing passersby as ‘Sreedevi’, a term of endearment. In the same recording, the background sound includes an authoritative voice screaming for someone named Pathirana, who might be a driver or a bodyguard to someone powerful who was probably near the mosque.
這是斯里蘭卡可倫坡最大連鎖超市嘉吉 (Cargills) 的窗口。窗戶上映著斯里蘭卡傳統的問候語
，上面寫著「Ayeubowan（願你長壽）」。
音樂：由藝術家在 Ableton 上創作，並
混合了一個遊民四處尋求施捨和談話的現場錄音，身有殘疾又眼盲的他一路稱呼路人為
「Sreedevi」（這是一個親切的稱呼），但並沒有得到任何協助。在同一個錄音中，能聽到背
景傳來一陣非常有權勢的聲音在呼喊著一位叫「Pathirana」的人，這個人可能是在清真寺附
近一個有權有勢的人的司機或保鏢。
2019 年 4 月 21 日復活節爆炸當晚，宵禁期間的可倫坡貝塔區。
Pettah, Colombo during curfew, on the evening of the Easter Bombings on 21 April 2019.
Another clip from Pettah on the evening of the Easter Bombing.
復活節爆炸當晚貝塔區的另外一段影片。
Artwork. Introduces a recurring motif in the work of people staring at television screens, signifying consumption of culture and late capitalist desire.
一件藝術作品。 人們盯著電視看的作品中，以一個反覆出現的圖像，象徵著文化消費和後期
資本主義慾望。
A man eating rice and curry at a restaurant across the road from the Colpetti Mosque during the attempted coup in 2018 and ensuing constitutional crisis. The President's residence is right next to the mosque.
在 2018 年未遂政變和隨之而來的憲法危機期間，有一名男子在科爾佩蒂清真寺馬路對面的餐
廳吃咖哩飯。 總統官邸就在清真寺旁邊。
A jigsaw puzzle on Slave Island (Colombo) that was part of a guided tour by a tourism company who commissioned artists to contribute to a tourism app.
這是一家旅行公司所出的可倫波奴隸島拼圖遊戲，屬於導覽行程的一部分。該公司委託藝術家
針對旅程量身打造設計。
Showering in the garden.
在花園中沐浴
GIF of air passing through the lungs, indicative of shouting.
一張示意空氣通過肺部的GIF圖檔，意圖表示大喊大叫。
We return to Pettah after the Easter Bombings.
在復活節爆炸事件後返回貝塔。
Madhumadhawa Aravinda, a singer turned politician. In the wake of the bombings he was supposed to apologise on behalf of the government. But the apology turned out to be Islamophobic and he had to eventually step down from the political party.
馬胡馬達瓦・阿拉敏達（Madhumadhawa Aravinda）是一位歌手，後來成為政治家。 在爆炸
事件發生後，他本應代表政府道歉。 但結果道歉卻是仇視伊斯蘭的內容，他最終不得不退出
政黨。
We see a mannequin from the inside of the face. The mannequin is wearing a shirt with a traditional Sri Lankan pattern, derivative of temple art.
我們從臉的內部看到了一個人體模型。 模型上是一件帶有傳統斯里蘭卡圖案的襯衫，這是寺
廟藝術的延伸商品。
Tik tok video made in a domestic setting in Colombo. The television is a prominent presence.
這是一段抖音影片是在斯里蘭卡境內可倫坡拍攝的的。 電視顯得十分搶眼。
St Peter's College, an esteemed old school in Colombo that has not allowed Muslim students to enrol for a few years now.
聖彼得學院是可倫坡一所受人尊敬的老學校，這幾年來禁止穆斯林學生入學。
Toy bullock cart made with recycled waste material. The cover is sourced from a banner with Tamil letters. An indigenous toy you rarely see anymore.
用回收廢料製成的玩具牛車。 頂篷印有泰米爾語。 是一種很少見的本土玩具。
Abdul Halik Azeez worked as a journalist for Al Jazeera after the bombings. Here we see the artist testing the camera. The footage was screen recorded during the editing process. After the bombings, the state implemented an emergency rule which gave police unconditional powers. The artist was jailed for several hours, a couple of days after making this video.
爆炸案發生後，阿布都．哈里克．阿濟茲 (Abdul Halik Azeez) 在半島電視台擔任記者。在這
裡，我們看到藝術家在測試相機，而在編輯過程中，他的影像片段也被側錄了。爆炸事件發生
後，國家實施了一項緊急規定，賦予警察至高的權力。在製作這段影片的幾天後，藝術家被判
入獄關了好幾個小時。
A friend's uplifting phone case matching her dress.
一位朋友令人振奮的手機殼與她的衣服相配。
Footage from a local TV channel interviewing Baron Marland, a British businessman and politician who visited the site of the Easter Bombings. The interview takes place outside one of the churches where the bombings happened.
當地電視頻道採訪巴倫·馬蘭德 (Baron Marland) 的鏡頭，他曾經訪問過復活節爆炸案現場的
英國商人和政治家。此採訪在發生爆炸的其中之一間教堂外面進行。
Reflection on the windscreen of the artist's car. We see a Buddhist flag, coconut tree, and a chain made out of sea shell—frequently sold to tourists—given to him by an old vendor who lives on Mount Lavina beach. He used to sell similar chains in the 1950s to tourists who travelled to Sri Lanka on steamboats.
藝術家汽車擋風玻璃上的倒影。我們看到一面佛旗、椰子樹和一條用貝殼製成的手鍊——通常
是賣給遊客的——是住在拉維納山（Mount Lavina）海灘的一位老的小販送給他的。 1950 年
代，他曾經向乘坐汽船前往斯里蘭卡的遊客出售類似的手鍊。
2018年10月至12月期間發生的一系列反政變抗議活動中的可倫坡莫凡彼酒店（Mövenpick
Hotel）屋頂。
The roof of the Mövenpick Hotel Colombo during an anti-coup protest—one among a series of them that took place between October-December 2018.
Janabalaya protests. This has since been understood to be part of a conspiracy by the current government when they were not in Power. It was an attempt at asserting themselves again prior to the coup. The man in the yellow t-shirt is screaming the slogan: "Who does this immense force belong to? It belongs to Mahinda Rajapaksa." People from outside the city were brought in on busses to protest in support of the Rajapaksa government.
賈納巴拉亞（Janabalaya）抗議。此後，這被認為是現任政府未掌權時的一部分陰謀，在政
變之前再次重申自己的企圖。穿黃色T恤的男人喊著口號：「這股巨大的力量屬於誰？它屬於
馬欣達・拉賈帕克薩（Mahinda Rajapaksa）。」城外的人被帶上公車前來抗議以支持拉賈帕
克薩政府。
Abdul Halik Azeez getting a shave at Lord Nelson's salon on Chattham Street, Pettah. The salon has interiors laden with colonial nostalgia and also has a picture of Lord Nelson, a prominent English sea captain besides clippings of newspaper articles.
藝術家在貝塔區查塔姆街的納爾遜勳爵沙龍（Lord Nelson's salon）裡刮鬍子。沙龍的室內裝
飾充滿了殖民地的懷舊氣息，除了報紙文章的剪報外，還有一張著名的英國船長納爾遜勳爵的
照片。
Tata acquired land belonging to the neighborhood Java Lane and put up this sign outside which informs the work title and its study of aspiration for neo-liberalism.
塔塔收購了屬於爪哇巷附近的土地，並在外面寫上了這個標語，這也是作品名稱的由來及其對
新自由主義的研究。
2018年Theertha表演藝術節。 B Ajay Sharma 的作品。
Theertha performance platform 2018. Work by B Ajay Sharma.
2018 年 8 月在加勒非綠地廣場（Galle Face Green）舉辦的風箏節，這是當時最大的風箏節
藝術家比薩吉・可德卡（Bhisaji Gadekar）所穿的T-shirt，上面寫著來自
Theertha表演藝術節的「藝術勞工（Art Labour）」。
Kite festival at Galle Face Green in August 2018, the largest kite festival at the time.
T-Shirt that reads 'Art Labour' from the Theertha Performance Platform worn by the artist Bhisaji Gadekar.
Sticker made by the artist as street art, drawing from Supreme and Barbara Kruger, pasted at Chattham Street.
由藝術家製作的街頭藝術貼紙，由Supreme和Barbara Kruger繪製，黏貼在查塔姆街。
Janabalaya protests. Same company that owns the supermarket in the first frame also owns the ice cream brand. Lotus tower, a post war monument to Colombo's greatness is visible in the background with its lotus imagery based on Buddhist symbolism establishing Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in the country.
賈納巴拉亞抗議。在第一幀中擁有超市的同一家公司也擁有這個冰淇淋品牌。蓮花塔是可倫坡
的戰後紀念碑，在背景中可以看到其蓮花圖像基於佛教象徵主義，在該國增強建立了僧伽羅佛
教民族主義。
T-shirt capturing the tediousness of late capitalism taken from instagram.
從Instagram上截取的T-shirt樣式，象徵後期資本主義的乏味。
Toy in Pettah which is battery powered.
貝塔街頭的電池玩具
T-shirt slogan.
T-shirt上的標語。
Ongoing construction in Slave Island of a high rise building.
一棟高樓正在奴隸島上進行中。
Advertisement of an employment agency announcing vacancies in Cypress.
職業介紹所的廣告，提供幾項位於賽普勒斯的職缺。
Aspirational t-shirt with an uplifting slogan, not unlike cell phone cover we saw earlier.
印有令人振奮的口號的勵志T-shirt，與我們之前看到的手機保護套不同。
Tourist doing yoga.
做瑜伽的遊客。
Lura music festival held in early 2019.
盧拉音樂節（Lura music festival）於 2019 年初舉行。
Bollywood dance class.
寶萊塢舞蹈課。
A workshop of a sculptor who makes Buddha statues in Matara. Lurking behind the buddha is a white man holding a pipe and wearing a hat.
在馬塔拉製作佛像的雕刻家的工作室。佛身後潛伏著一個拿著煙斗、戴著帽子的白人男子。
Discarded, dysfunctional television set in Maradana. It captures a reflection of the lotus tower on its screen.
馬拉達納廢棄的、功能失調的電視機，屏幕上顯示了蓮花塔的倒影。
Foreign journalists at the site of the Easter Bombings.
復活節爆炸案現場的外國記者。
Power-Money-Corruption. Protest posters from 2018-2019 that involved a lot more English speaking, left-liberal middle class from Colombo.
權力－金錢－腐敗。 2018-2019年的抗議海報針對更多來自可倫坡講英語的、自由左翼的中
產階級。
Head massage at a barber shop.
理髮店的頭部按摩。
Man at the beach, who is probably homeless, airing himself out to freshen up.
海灘上的男人，可能是無家可歸的人，吹著海風清爽一下。
You can only wash hands at restaurants. Speaks to a lot of restrictions in the city on behaviour and movement exerted by the moral authority of the state, and also refers to ongoing policing of the body of the citizen in public space, which was amplified by the pandemic.
只能在餐廳洗手。談到國家以道德權威對都市內許多行為和行動施加限制，也指涉公共場所對
公民身體的持續監管，也被大眾更加放大了。
Abdul Halik Azeez collects soft toys, which to him often resemble discarded bodies. Here it appears as if the woman is holding it by the neck, strangling it, even when she might be absent-mindedly carrying it for a child.
藝術家收集毛絨玩具，對他來說，這些玩具常常像是被丟棄的屍體。在這裡，似乎女人正握著
它的脖子，扼殺牠，即使她可能只是心不在焉地替孩子拿著而已。
Advertisement for a play that is a satire on politicians in Sri Lanka.
一則戲劇中諷刺斯里蘭卡政客的廣告。
With the artist's cat thambi (means little brother but could also be a mildly derogatory term for muslims).
與藝術家的貓坦比（thambi）（意思是「小兄弟」，但也可能是對穆斯林溫和的貶義詞）。
Sinhalese banners at protests. Sinhala banners as opposed to English carried by people brought in from outside the city for the anti-coup protests.
抗議活動中的僧伽羅語手幅。僧伽羅語手幅相對於由城外反政變抗議者所攜帶的英語橫幅。
2019 年斯里蘭卡獨立日。在獨立廣場慶祝僧伽羅民族主義。
Sri Lankan Independence day in 2019. Celebration of Sinhala nationalism at Independence Square.
Square
Book covers on display at a book store in the Pettah Railway Station. Left to right: Sinhala translation of a romance novel; A book on Rohana Wijeyaweera who led the Sinhala youth during the JVP Insurrection. Even though he was labelled a terrorist at the time by the ruling regime, he is openly celebrated Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil resistance movement; books that indicate fascination with Fascism.
在貝塔火車站的一家書店展出的書籍封面。從左到右：翻譯為僧伽羅語的浪漫小說；一本關於
在JVP起義期間領導僧伽羅青年的羅漢納・維傑維拉（Rohana Wijeweera）的書。儘管當時
他被執政政權貼上了恐怖分子的標籤，但他卻被泰米爾抵抗運動領袖普拉巴卡蘭
（Prabhakaran）公開讚揚；下面的書則是對法西斯主義的著迷。
Bollywood dance class.
寶萊塢舞蹈課
Imperial builders is a construction firm of Pakistani origin who took over a neighbourhood in Slave Island called Station Passage to convert into a shopping mall. The project has now been stalled because the firm ran out of money. This is an image of the protests in early 2020 led by people who were promised housing in lieu of the land that was taken from them to build the mall. The firm also employed migrant labour from China and Bangladesh.
帝國建設（Imperial builders）是一家來自巴基斯坦的建築公司，他們接管了奴隸島的一個名
為Station Passage的社區，將其改造成一個購物中心。由於公司資金耗盡，該項目現已停止
。這是2020年初抗議活動的圖像，抗議的群眾當初被承諾若提供土地則會得到相對的住宅，
但現在則被用於建造購物中心。該公司還僱傭了來自中國和孟加拉國的農民工。
A Hotel by ITC being built on Galle Face Road, across the road from a Chinese operated port.
ITC 的一家酒店正在加勒菲斯路建造，與中國經營的港口隔著馬路相望。
Muslim man trying on new sneakers at a store on the second cross street in Pettah where they usually sell stolen or refurbished shoes.
穆斯林男子在貝塔第二個十字路口的一家商店試穿新運動鞋。那裡通常出售被盜或舊翻新的鞋
子。
Tik tok video of Lotus Tower.
蓮花塔於抖音上的影像。
Popular cricket player Kumar Sangakkara speaking at a product launch for a brand her endorses at a mall in Colombo.
受歡迎的板球運動員庫瑪・桑卡拉（Kumar Sangakkara）在可倫坡一家購物中心為她所代言
品牌的產品發布會上講話。
Ornate greeting card.
華麗的賀卡。
The video clips that Azeez collected for the work depict a city that desires to be wealthy and highly developed but at the same time encounters the dilemma of domestic division in politics. Many slogans printed on the stickers and T-shirts show the collective subconscious with irony, for example: “Progress,” “Just for you,” “I’m not tired,” “Yuck You,” “World Class … Coming soon.”
The experience of watching Abdul Halik Azeez’s less than two-minute-long video is like flipping through the pages of a book quickly because the bookstore is about the close. Different from the texts though, the details in the video clips can represent the scenarios vividly so that what is actually happening can sometimes be grasped by the viewers in no more than a few seconds. These are the visual perceptions cultivated by the aesthetic of “stories” that are massively popular on social media right now. Since the first attempt that the social media platform Snapchat invented, the mode of restricted upload of a video (no longer than 10 seconds) and withdrawal from the site after twenty-four hours, this new format of image exchange has caught on rapidly. Quick clicks, quick reactions, quick dismissals, and quick destruction, shapes the contemporary version of “burn after reading.”
藝術家阿濟茲作品中收集的影像片段描繪了一個渴望富裕和高度發展，但同時遭遇國內政治分裂困境的城市，許多印在貼紙和T恤上的標語都帶著諷刺意味，彷彿集體潛意識的呢喃，例如：「進步」、「只為你」、「我不累」、「你好」、「世界級…即將到來」 。
觀看阿布都．哈里克．阿濟茲不到兩分鐘的影片就像是在書店快關門時快速翻閱一本書，與文字不同的是影像片段中的細節可生動地呈現場景，因此有時觀眾能在幾秒鐘內掌握實際發生的事情，這是如今大量內建於社群媒體的「限時動態」設計所培養的視覺感知，自從社群媒體 Snapchat 首次嘗試設定上傳影片限制（不超過 10 秒），並在二十四小時後自動刪除內容的社群模式以來，圖像交換的新型態已迅速到來，快速點擊、快速反應、快速解散、快速銷毀，塑造了當代版本「即刻毀滅」。
Cost of cigarettes are rapidly rising and more people smoke the local alternative, beedis.
捲菸成本迅速上升，越來越多的人吸食當地製造的替代品「beedis」。
Pro-Rajapaksa protest, before the political party came back to power.
在政黨重新掌權之前，支持拉賈帕克薩的群眾抗議。
Statue of the Buddha in Kandy with crows circling his head. This associates with the story of Joseph from the Quran (12: 36-41) where a man dreams that he was carrying bread on his head and birds were eating from it, as a sign of impending crucifixion.
烏鴉盤旋在其頭上的康提佛像。這與《古蘭經》（12：36-41）中約瑟夫的故事有關，其中一
個人夢見自己頭上頂著麵包，而鳥兒正在吃麵包，這是即將被釘十字架的跡象。
Sign on a bridge in Pettah. The Sinhala sign reads 'leg/foot' as a warning to people about an exposed in the bridge which is very old.
在貝塔的一座橋上簽名。僧伽羅語標誌上寫著「腿／腳」，警告人們留意橋上非常老舊的部分
。
This is an image of another work of street art by Abdul Halik Azeez. Sleep is perhaps the only refuge from late capitalism and attempts to keep seizing that from us is ongoing from the screen to also labour. The sign could also refer to sleep walking as it is put up on a sing that usually reads walk. The artist is also raising questions about the use of language, and proposing sleep as a contrapuntal position to 'woke,' the slang for well-informed.
這是藝術家的另一幅街頭創作的圖像。「睡眠」可能是後期資本主義的唯一避難所，從螢幕使
用到勞動付出，我們都不斷地被剝奪睡眠。該標誌也可能指夢遊，因為它被放置在通常會標示
「走」的位置上。這位藝術家還提出了有關語言使用的問題，並提議將睡眠作為「醒來」的對
位姿勢，這是「消息靈通」的俚語。
From the roof of the Mövenpick Hotel Colombo, which is a city hotel built after the war, it is possible to see protestors marching against the coup from the town hall to the President's residence, which we saw from a different perspective at 11 secs.
從戰後建成的可倫坡莫凡彼酒店的屋頂，可以看到反對政變的抗議者從市政廳遊行到總統官邸
，可以在影片1分11 秒左右從不同的角度看到了這一點。
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