An Uncertain Horizon / 不確定的地平線
Director: Karan Shrestha, 卡倫•席瑞斯塔
Duration: 00:07:39; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 350.838; Saturation: 0.004; Lightness: 0.307; Volume: 0.244; Cuts per Minute: 90.545
Summary: An Uncertain Horizon, takes as its premise the Kathmandu Valley, surrounded by mountains that mark the city with the absence of a horizon. Daily rotations in this land where the mountain demarcates the sky from land, give rise to a sense of entrapment. Different temporalities coexist in the city that is the centre of wealth, administrative power, technology and security, yet the claustrophobic entanglement between tradition and modernity, capitalist desire and indigeneity, as well as urban and rural present the uncertainties of the contemporary. The absence of a horizon - a motif and metaphor for centuries for limitless possibilities, especially with regard to colonial exploratory mechanisms - and the work extends the predicament of the valley of Kathmandu to the global condition where the future is more imminent than ever, collapsing upon us.
〈不確定的地平線〉的場景為四周被山脈環抱、看不到地平線的加德滿都谷地。谷地的天與地由山巒劃分,散發一種圍困感。加德滿都市是財富、行政、科技、防衛的中心,然而該市卻存在許多無常,而傳統與現代、資本導向的欲求與地域性、都會與鄉野的膠著,都展現了當代的各種不確定性。幾百年來,地平線一直是無限可能性的代表(從殖民擴張的角度而言更是),而加德滿都由於沒有地平線,未來顯得更為迫切。〈不確定的地平線〉透過加德滿都谷地的處境影射全球迫在眉睫的困境。
If seen from the perspective of a subjective lens, it appears as if a hesitant and defeated person is looking down on the city from the top of a building. The camera perspective also reminds one of the movie, Kaili Blues (2015).
Weightlessness
若以主觀鏡頭(subjective shooting)視之,則如一個正在樓頂俯瞰城鎮,而感到猶疑而沮喪的人。這樣的鏡頭也使人想到電影《路邊野餐》(Kaili Blues, 2015)
The film is informed by historical processes Newar civilization in Nepal may be traced back to the 10th and 11th century. There aren't many material remnants from this time except from certain structures and sculptures. Considered one of the indigenous people of the Kathmandu valley, the civilization flourished for around seven centuries, and were at par with the rest of the world in terms of architecture and development. They were attacked several times by the Gorkha Kings, who eventually took over in 1769 and the transformations began towards the country of Nepal as we know it today. Kathmandu is a layered city where material traces from different ruling powers endure, as they built themselves over each other. When the Kota Kings, the Shahs and the Ranas came to power, the country slipped into a backward state without any education policy or flourishing of cultures. As the acting Kings were not really doing much for the context, King Tribhuvan, visited the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1950, three years after Indian Independence, and with his support instituted a constitutional monarchy by overthrowing the Rana rulers. And it's only after 1951 that Nepal opens up, with the emergence of some schools and changes to the economy. The place itself is so layered and it's almost as if there are different frames of time within the valley of Kathmandu like many cities do. This circular motion of historical processes, of time and space in the valley is how power has always been constituted in the region.
"I took the circular motion as the central motif by building a rake that could mount the camera, just to actually be able to take into consideration the circular motion that one sees in the film."
The work begins not by immediately immersing us into motion, but the camera glides in from above, almost as if through a back door, entering the space of the city and the rhythm that it proposes, attuning the subjective gaze to this temporality. The film begins in old Kathmandu from the roof of an old Newar house, and then we move from the outskirts, over the bridge which has been constructed over what used to be a flowing river. Waiting is something that emerges repeatedly in the work, as if punctuating the rhythm of the film. This sequence ends with a shot of people waiting at a cancer hospital in Bhaktapur, one of the three main towns in the Kathmandu valley, questioning the implications of a ‘living’ city.
尼泊爾的尼瓦爾文明可以追溯至11世紀。除了一些建築和雕塑外,這個時代的遺跡並不多。
加德滿都谷的原住民興盛繁榮了大約七個世紀,在建築和文化發展方面與世界其他地區不相上
下。他們多次遭到廓爾喀國王的襲擊,最終在 1769 年被征服,並逐漸形成我們今天所知的國
家,尼泊爾。加德滿都是一個層次豐富的城市,不同政權的物質遺產在不同朝代之間被承繼,
並被保留至今。當哥打國王、沙阿和拉納斯上台時,這個國家陷入了一個沒有任何教育政策、
文化貧乏的落後狀態。由於當時的代理國王並沒有真正為當時的情況做出改變,特里布萬國王
便在印度獨立三年後的 1950 年拜訪了印度總理賈瓦哈拉爾.尼赫魯,並在他的支持下推翻了
拉納王朝,建立了君主立憲的制度。尼泊爾直到 1951 年才開放,開始設立學校,經濟也開始
出現變化。正如許多城市一樣,由於尼泊爾本身的層次如此豐富,加德滿都山谷內彷彿鑲嵌了
各種不同的時間軸。這種歷史進程、時間和空間在山谷中的迴圈運動,是這個區域一直以來的
權力構成方式。「我把迴圈當成創作的母題,做了一個可以安裝相機的耙子,好讓觀者在觀看
這部影片時,能真正感受到那種迴圈與循環的過程。」這部作品並不讓觀者從一開始便立即沉
浸在迴圈運動的狀態裡,而是將鏡頭彷如穿過捷徑般從上方滑入,進入城市空間和它獨有的節
奏,將主觀凝視與這種時間性進行同步。影片從古老的加德滿都裡的一座尼瓦爾式的屋頂開始
,再從郊區移動至一座曾橫跨河流的橋上。「等待」是作品中反復出現的場景,讓電影產生節
奏。影片起始的鏡頭結束在巴克塔普爾——加德滿都谷的三個主要城鎮之一——的一家癌症醫
院前等候的人群,藉此質疑所謂「生/活」城市的含義。
The filming begins with the camera shaking intensely, which turns into “spinning” in a counterclockwise or clockwise direction. The spinning makes the viewers feel like they are in a state of weightlessness inside a spaceship.
Weightlessness
鏡頭開始從劇烈的震蕩變成逆時針或順時針方向的「旋轉」。這種旋轉使觀眾感到自己處於太空艙中的失重狀態。
The city is constantly reinventing itself, through processes of deconstruction and construction. Culture is always in transition no matter what time you live in. What we see are old cement factories that are being torn down and taken up by industrialists. The cement factories were an important landmark in the city and now they are not there anymore. The brick factories have history dating back to the Newar civilization when technology was quite advanced for the time. Because of the red mud in the region the brick factories are important to this day.
這座城市透過解構和建構的過程不斷地再造自身;而無論你生活在哪個時代,文化總是在變遷
。我們看到的,是工業大亨正在拆除與接手老舊的水泥廠。這些水泥廠是這座城市的重要地標
,但現已不復存在。而磚廠的歷史可以追溯到當時科技相當先進的紐瓦爾文明;由於該地區產
赤泥,磚廠直到今日仍相當重要。
Sites where traditional rituals and modernity confront each other spin like a Buddhist prayer wheel. Faith is a driving force in every city or culture. Kathmandu is especially filled with various manifestations of faith dating back to the Newars who followed the mystical knowledge of the tantrics. Faith and precariousness lean on each other. From the lamps in a Buddhist temple we move to the Hindu cremation grounds in the Pashupati Ghats, which have for the longest time been a site for mass cremations. Hinduism and Buddhism have coexisted in the valley since the Newars. The circular motion of the camera here acquires notions of the cycle of life and death. All rituals and practices are built around the idea that the dead are never actually dead. They are always living. This has an interesting relationship with historicity as it presents itself in the region.
傳統儀式與現代性在場所中的相互對峙,就像佛教的轉經輪一樣旋轉。信仰是每個城市或文化
的驅力。加德滿都更是充滿了各種歷史悠久的信仰形式,甚至可以往前追溯到信仰密宗的尼瓦
爾人。信仰和危險相互依存。我們從佛寺的燈火轉換到了印度教的帕蘇帕蒂納火葬場,這裡長
久以來都是個大規模的火葬場。自有尼瓦爾人以來,印度教和佛教就在這個山谷中共存。鏡頭
的迴圈在這裡有著生死循環的寓意。所有的儀式和實踐都建立在死者永遠不會真正死去的想法
上——他們永遠活著。這種想法與該地區的歷史性有著奇妙的關係。
The rapidly spinning city lights form a rotating star trail on the celestial sphere. Concentric circles, like the ones from long exposure shots, are visually perceived.
都市燈光的高速旋轉,變成了天球(Celestial sphere)上面旋轉的星星軌道,並且在視覺中產生了猶如長時間曝光鏡頭而產生的同心圓。
This is the outskirts of the valley, where we get to through the ring road. This is where most of the migrant population lives. The darkness of the night, and the lights cutting through it add sheen to the desires and aspirations that lay latent in the cityscape, unlike the harsh realities we confronted in the earlier sequences.
這是通過環狀路抵達的山谷外圍,也是多數移民居住的地方。與我們在影片開頭面臨的嚴酷現
實不同,夜晚的黑暗,以及從中橫越的燈光,為城市景觀中潛伏的慾望和想望增添了光澤。
From the fields we move to the markets. Until about 20-30 years back, most communities in Nepal lived in small houses with a garden where the food they required for themselves was cultivated. In the last few decades large markets have cropped up like mushrooms, altering ways of living and patterns of consumption. Nepal is still primarily an agrarian context. The first of the modern roads appeared in 1956, 11 years after the Second World War. But it has been pushed into the throes of modernity with development aid coming in from different parts of the world and while keeping up with the criteria that comes with such integration into the world economy. Each generation wants to crave a space for itself, be it through the influence of cinema or music without fully understanding the consequences. The hippie culture that arrived in the 70s also left an imprint. Nepal still functions based on the logic of community-living, which remains in conflict with individuality proposed by modernity. This is a jarring presence in the city of Kathmandu.
接著,我們從田地轉向市場。直到大約20至30年前,多數尼泊爾的社群都住在帶花園的小房
子裡,在那裡種植自己所需的食物。在過去的幾十年裡,大型市場如雨後春筍般出現,改變了
生活方式與消費模式,但尼泊爾仍然以農業為主。第一條現代道路出現在 1956 年,也就是二
戰結束的十一年後。但隨著世界各地發展援助的湧入,以及為了努力融入世界經濟的標準,這
條道路也將尼泊爾推入現代性的陣痛之中。無論是電影還是音樂,每一代人都在不甚理解後果
的狀態下希冀為自己創造一個空間。七零年代嬉皮文化的到來也留下了印記。尼泊爾仍然基於
社區生活的邏輯運作,並持續與現代性所強調的個體性彼此衝突,而這便是加德滿都市內不協
調的存在。
The extended period of rapid spinning makes the viewers feel like they are inside a spaceship and also evokes a feeling of falling. Just like when jumping out of an aircraft with a parachute or running through a parkour course, falling from a height of more than 3 stories or 10 meters, it will also induce this spinning visual sensation.
Repeated rapid spinning is shown with the tight editing, which reminds one of Matsumoto Toshio’s work. When the audience’s eyes slowly adjust and become used to the spinning, they then start to realize the video is swirling, and there is a bottomless abyss in the middle of this swirling vortex. The abyss doesn’t really appear, but in the audience’s process of “falling”, it would vaguely flash and show up in the midst of the endlessly repetitive labor and life.
Weightlessness
長時間的高速選轉,除了使觀眾像是待在太空艙之外,也引起了一種墜落的感受。意即,當我們從高空的飛機背著跳傘下落,又或者是在跑酷的過程中,從超過三層樓或 10 公尺的高度墜落時,也會在視覺中引起這種旋轉。密集剪輯而重複出現的高速旋轉,也使人想起松本俊夫(Matsumoto Toshio)的作品。等到觀眾的眼睛逐步適應這種旋轉後,開始會發現畫面呈現漩渦的型態,而在這漩渦的中間,猶如一種無底的深淵。但這深淵並未真的出現,而是在觀眾「墜落」的過程當中,隱約地閃現在無盡重複的勞動與生活當中。
Neo-liberal desire and identity construction go hand in hand. For some reason there are so many shops for clothes that keep cropping up. And then you have the malls that don't really take care of its base or the river. The river is filled with garbage. Then you have daily wage labourers who are waiting to be picked up and taken to the sites where they work. It could include skilled labour such as plumbing or electrical work and other work in construction. Waiting also recurs in the lines people form for water.
新自由主義的欲望和身份建構是相互牽引的。琳瑯滿目的服飾店不知為何不斷湧現,但那些商
場不關心腳下的土地,也不在意河川。河裡滿是垃圾。然後還有每天等著被接走並運送到工作
地點的零工們;這些零工可能包括技術性的勞動力,例如管道、電氣工作,以及其他建築工作
等。等待的場景也在人們排隊取水時反覆出現。
We cut to another shot of people waiting inside what seems like a bureaucratic building, which is the government office for land related motions, where acts of corruption, legitimization of illegal land etc. might occur.
我們切到另一個畫面,人們在一個看起來像是在一個公家機關內等待。這是土地相關議題的官
方辦公室,而賄賂、讓非法土地合法化等行為,都可能在這裡上演。
00:03:57.786
We cut to an eye hospital in Kathmandu and its patients, followed by the devastation from the earthquake of 2015. The ground and the people live precariously.
我們再切換到加德滿都的一家眼科醫院與病人,接著是 2015 年地震造成的破壞。地面和人們
的生活都岌岌可危。
We once again witness the interconnectedness of life and death, faith and precariousness. Scenes of destruction caused by the earthquake give way to religious sites and monuments. We see a Buddhist Stupa and a Newar temple in conjunction, reflecting the harmonious coexistence between both communities since the medieval period. The monkey is significant to both faiths. We also see a courtyard where men gather to play games. All civilisations, their making and unmaking, are a sport for men. Then we cut to a mural of the Buddhist stages of life indicating, divine and semi-divine stages of existence. Hell has been an important symbolism in all faiths to show people what to be afraid of, to control them and to maintain the status quo. For instance, when we think of Tibetan Buddhism which places an emphasis on hell, we rarely remember how entrenched the aristocracy was in the context. Even as Dalai Lamas were identified through a seemingly random process, they were always from the same clan. And then we switch to a political poster by the labour party calling for a meeting. Nepal was one of the few contexts to elect a Maoist party. When we think about this in relation to the People's war, it determines another attempt by the regime to retain power and control.
我們再次見證了生與死、信仰與危險的內在關聯。地震造成的破壞場景被宗教場所和紀念碑所
代替。我們看到一座佛塔和一座尼瓦爾神廟,反映了自中世紀以來兩個宗教社群之間的和諧共
處。猴子對兩種信仰都很重要。我們也看到一個庭院,男人們聚在一起玩遊戲。所有文明,它
們的形成和消亡,都是屬於男人的角力。然後我們切換到一幅佛教中生命階段的壁畫,指出「
存在」的神聖和半神聖階段。而地獄則一直是所有信仰中的重要像徵,它向人們展示要害怕什
麼,才能控制人們並維持社會現狀。例如,當我們想到強調地獄的藏傳佛教時,我們很少記得
貴族政治在其文化脈絡中是多麼根深蒂固。儘管達賴喇嘛是通過看似隨機的過程確定的,但他
們始終來自同一宗族。然後我們再切換到工黨呼籲召開會議的宣傳海報。尼泊爾是少數幾個選
出毛主義政黨的地區之一,當我們思考其與「人民戰爭」的關係時,便能看出政權為了維護權
力和控制所進行的嘗試。
Repetition is significant to culture and tradition in Nepal across faiths. The ring road demarcates the valley and defines the city from the suburbs. The prayer wheels, the construction and demolition, all form a narrative of circularity which is the gaze that is established by the film as well. The film returns to themes that were also considered earlier, repeating itself.
「重複」對尼泊爾不同信仰的文化和傳統很關鍵。環形公路劃定了山谷,並從郊區定義了城市
。轉經筒、建造和拆除,共同形成了一種循環的敘事,而這也是影片所建立的凝視焦點。影片
在此處又回到了之前提過的主題,重複了自身。
Motifs repeat but they are never the same. Something shifts. This articulates itself in the mechanised loom, which is often operated by disenfranchised women from Buddhist communities.
母題儘管重複,但內容卻永遠不會相同,總是有什麼會產生變化。這個變化體現於機械化織布
機上,而種織布機則通常由佛教社群裡被褫奪公權的婦女進行操作。
Passing through the construction sites, markets, factories, farms, nightclubs, shops, rural streets in the city of Kathmandu, Karan Shrestha’s constantly rotating camera movements destabilizes the rationalization in the optical consensus. For more than 7 minutes, this destabilization would easily trigger blurred sights, dizziness, even nauseous. In an attempt to illustrate the real situations of activities ranging from labor to entertainment in Kathmandu, Shrestha abandons a straightforward representation of the city and deploys the camera in an untamed method.
As the history of visuality had already revealed, the critiques of the establishment of perspectival space and on the distinction between figure and ground were vibrantly experimented by the avant-garde art. Since the invention of cinema, there had also been cinematic explorations that challenge the linear time frame that serves the optical coherences. Yet, the “occularcentric,” as theorist Martin Jay noted, still forms the main parts of art and visual history. It was until recent decades that artists and researchers begin to probe into the diversity of human senses such as haptic and olfactory.
Based on the aforementioned inquiry, it would be interesting to see Shrestha’s film from a sensory aspect. The French director Philippe Grandrieux’s Sombre contributed to the opening of the film theorist Martine Beugnet’s book Cinema and Sensation: French Film and the Art of Transgression. In Sombre, there is a sequence that takes place in total darkness with children’s almost invisible movements and expressions, it demonstrates how the sense of fear can become perceivable through cinema. A similar viewing experience can be applied to Shrestha’s film. All the factual knowledge about Nepal, Kathmandu, and inequality in multiple aspects is soaked by the senses of dazed and confused.
藝術家卡倫•席瑞斯塔用持續旋轉的影像,帶領觀者走過加德滿都市的工地、市場、工廠、農田、夜店、商店、鄉野街道,這個超過7分鐘的鏡頭運動顛覆光學理性的共同語言,且易引發模糊、昏眩,甚至噁心。席瑞斯塔以此失控的方式部署攝影機,試圖描述加德滿都從勞動到娛樂活動的真實景況,而非簡明地展現這座城市。
如同視覺文化的歷史所揭示,前衛藝術團體已透過持續地實驗去批判透視空間與人像、背景的顯著分界,而攝影機從被發明以來,許多對於影像的探索也試圖挑戰光學概念所產生的線性時間框架。雖然理論家馬丁傑曾表示「視覺中心」仍然建構了藝術史與視覺文化的絕大部分,不過近數十年,漸有藝術家與研究者開始探究人類感官的多樣性,好比觸覺和嗅覺。
根基於前述的查究,從感官角度去檢視席瑞斯塔的影片或許是個有趣的切入點。電影理論家瑪丁•比格內著作《影像與感覺:法國電影及逾越的藝術》開頭提及了法國導演菲利普•貢迪厄的電影《陰影》,片中一組全然黑暗且幾乎無法辨識當中孩童動作、表情的鏡頭,展現了恐懼感如何透過攝影機而被感知。此觀看經驗可類比至席瑞斯塔的影片,即尼泊爾加德滿都的實際情況及其各層面間的不均等皆已浸透於暈眩與困惑之中。
During the reign of the Newar kings, society was divided based on a point system, which was somewhat flexible. Once the Gorlkha kings arrived, this was absorbed into a highly coded caste system. Only the Newars with point 6 ranking were pardoned and integrated. The others were disenfranchised and many communities still have not been able to rise out of the circumstances they were thrown into without access to infrastructure, education or money. This is palpable in city spaces.
在尼瓦爾王朝的統治時期,社會是根據積分制劃分的,算是相對靈活的制度。廓爾喀國王到來
後,這個制度被吸納進規範嚴格的種姓制度中,只有排名第 6 的尼瓦爾人能被赦免和納入這
個新社會。其他人被剝奪了公民權,而許多人仍然因為缺乏使用基礎設施、教育或資金的管道
,而無法擺脫困境。這點在城市空間中相當顯而易見。
Bright Lights neon lights shine, showing spaces for music, modern social spaces frequented by younger people, alongside traditional dances by women. Mostly women dancing for men, indicating the patriarchy that the influx of modernity is also entrenched in.
Bright Lights 霓虹燈閃耀,照亮了音樂空間、年輕人經常光顧的現代社交空間,以及女性的傳
統舞蹈。大多數女性是為了男性跳舞,顯示出父權意識形態如何隨著現代性的湧入紮根於社會
中。
The daily rotation. Constant passing of buses, bringing people from all over the country into the valley and taking them out of the city as they return home. We also catch a glimpse of the old Newar house where Karan Shrestha's grandmother passed away, ending on a personal note, and identifying the artist's own lineage.
每日輪替。巴士不斷穿梭,把全國各地的人帶進山谷,再帶他們出城回家。我們還瞥見了 藝
術家卡倫•席瑞斯塔(Karan Shrestha)的祖母逝世時住的舊尼瓦爾房子。影片最終以個人的
情感結尾,找到了藝術家自己的身世血統。
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