2019年1月1日，我拍了張自照，凝視間，突然很想比對一張我趁媽媽還清醒時擷取到的最近照--從1996開始遺忘到此刻，瘦骨嶙峋的母親面容透出奇異溫柔，現在抱著她我會流淚，她忘記了所有一切，包含最基礎的吃飯起坐程序。

而我，終於等到歲月過了六十，追隨母親步入老年--這個忘性當道、衰病纏身的最後一塊人生拼圖階段。

為什麼人生不能止於極盛，而需寂靜於枯槁？

“忘記”如一個手勢，預告即將潛行--一個界域，截然不同於其他人生階段，但同樣無可避免；故而最終不再想被動接受，反而慾望逆風地全力以赴活出未有，這當是“成全”之真義。

當計畫越是延展開走，我越是彷彿要遠離它的“形式”--不同的是我未曾或忘這位如影隨形了三十年的藝術老友--我打算以藝術最核心的創性，來問問這塊生命最後拼圖的究竟意義。從這個角度--這不是件“作品”，而是真實我的現在進行式。這也是關於任何一位如我之成忘老太太的現在進行式。它的殘酷清醒，它的質變煉金，它的一五一十不肯妥協，完全契合我對藝術最終極能量的叩問。

正因如此，接觸到這個計畫的所有過程（從2019到2020；從台北到高雄三個不同場地；從編寫劇本、尋找演員、排演到演出；從不認識到午茶濃情到寫一封信給成忘老太太...）無論擺盪在如何大幅真實人與事以及高度演釋結構之兩極，總是能有機而微妙地鎖住計畫的核心--當你相遇“成忘老太太”，請用創力握住“這位”尋常在你身邊、卻也極其值得以“藝術”對待的人物。

成忘老太太計畫，它不附庸於社會服務，也不是醫療教學，它直指人類心智的抽象轉換--來自藝術最終層次：對於忘記的成全猶如對於年老的成全、對逆境的成全，皆考驗人類面對異質心智符碼，其轉換演繹的可能創性。

成忘老太太計畫是為納受記憶的失去而生，也為每一剎那由年老生出的難題以創心去觀視而生，由重重衰敗哀傷中出現對生命究竟真相的體悟與感激。經由態度改組，找到生命之於每一階段、自與他相互成全的相處之徑。

那麼，無論是“作者”，是“成忘老太太”，是即將來臨的“年忘老太太”，甚至是具有如此“成忘”性格的人物，我們都因此而是--“成忘老太太”！

 

On the January 1^st of 2019, I took a selfie. Gazing at the photo, I suddenly had the urge to compare it to a recent photo that I took of my mother when she was lucid—from when she began forgetting things in 1996 until that very moment, her emaciated countenance has exuded a strange gentleness. My tears would fall when I hold her in my arms now. She has forgotten everything, including basic stuff, such as eating, getting up and sitting down.

I am now in my sixties and entering the stage of my twilight years, just like my mother—this is the final stage informed by forgetfulness and illness, the last puzzle to complete one’s life.

Why can’t one’s life stop at its prime but must wither into silence?

“Forgetting” is like a gesture that signals at one’s upcoming journey—a journey into a domain utterly different from other stages in life, though equally unavoidable. Eventually, I have become tired of passively accepting what is to come but desired to give all I could to live the days to come head-on. For me, this is the true meaning of “completion.”

As the project unfolded and continued, I seemed to have moved away from its “form” – the difference is that I have never forgotten art, my old friend for three decades – and planned to question and explore the ultimate meaning of the last puzzle of life through creativeness, which has been the core of art. From this perspective, the project is not a “a work of art” but the very reality of my present life. Also, it is about the present condition of any “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady” such as I myself. Its cruel lucidness, its utter transformation and sublimation, and its truth and irreconcilableness have all corresponded to my questioning of the ultimate energy of art.

For this very reason, no matter how every step of this project (from scripting, auditioning, rehearsing to performing; from being total strangers, having afternoon tea together to writing a letter to the “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady”; from Taipei to Kaohsiung, in three different venues; and from 2019 to 2020) oscillated between its extensively realistic elements and the highly interpretive structure, it has always organically and subtly revolved around the project’s core—when you encounter the “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady,” with your creativeness, please hold onto “this” figure around you in daily life who is worth being treated with “art.”

The Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady project is not adhered to social service or medical education; instead, it points to the abstract conversion of human intellect in the ultimate dimension of art: the completion of forgetting is similar to the completion of being senile and adversities, which tests human’s ability to face heterogenous mental codes as well as the potential creativeness resulting from such conversion and interpretation.

This project was born from the need to accept the loss of memory as well as for creatively coping with conundrums stemming from aging. From degradation and sorrow, understanding of and gratitude towards the truth of life is revealed. By changing one’s mindset, the way to make peace with every stage of life is uncovered, allowing mutual completion between oneself and others to become possible.

So, be it the “author,” the “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady,” the “forgetful old lady” or figures with a “forgetting” personality, we are all in a way “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady.”

 

湯皇珍  行動藝術家

生於中華民國台灣台北。進入師大美術系前已接觸劇場與電影，赴法後再於巴黎第八大學造型藝術系親炙當代藝術的理論與現況，行動藝術的共時性與互動的異質界面從此深入。

1991返台迄今，近三十寒暑，每年持續2至3件新計劃發表不綴，已完成五十餘件以《事件》計畫進行的創作。其作品複合行動藝術中行為、表演、文本、釋譯等互滲元素，跨接社會學、語言學領域，歷時既長，觸接厚碩，是國內少有專事行動藝術的創作者。 

早期作品（1991~1998），直入個體之於社會與環境的衝突。中期「我去旅行」創作大系（1999～2013），擇取二十一世紀人類最頻繁的行為現象作為其寓言擬態之所指，十五年間完成十件跨越地域與事件、行動與展演的繁複作品；2014~2015以「尤里西斯機器」為名，藉這位克服萬難終究堅持返抵人間溝通之門的英雄，總詰其「我去旅行」之於此無極喑啞世紀的行為思辨。後近作品（2010～），深探社會集體記憶及重塑語言敘述之界域。

我去旅行Ⅴ/一張風景名信片〈台灣篇〉2006獲第四屆台新藝術大獎〈視覺藝術類〉。我去旅行Ⅴ/一張風景名信片〈義大利篇〉2007應邀第52屆威尼斯雙年展─台灣館展出。

創作外，長期關注台灣藝術文化生態的締造。1997發動爭取、保留、更生「華山藝文特區」，2008發起「種植藝術」運動，2009籌組「藝術創作者職業工會」，2011催生「臺北市藝術創作者職業工會」。

 

TANG Huang-Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Before she entered the Department of Fine Arts, National Normal University, she had already been involved in the theater and cinema. After she went to France and attended the Department of Plastic Art, University Paris VIII, she became immerged in the theories and the development of contemporary art, fully immersed herself in the synchronicity and interactive heterogeneity of performance art.

She returned to Taiwan in 1991. For 30 years, she persisted in presenting two to three new works each year, and completed over 50 works in the form of “event-based” projects. Her work bridges sociology and linguistics, and combines the interrelated elements of performance art such as action, performance, text and translation. With such long-term, vast and intensive cultivation, Tang is viewed as one of the few artists dedicated to performance art in Taiwan.

Her early works (1991~1998) are direct revelation of the conflicts between individuals and society/environment. Starting in 1999 to 2013, her I Go Traveling has chosen the most frequent behavior and phenomenon in the 21st century of the human race as the target of her allegorical simulations; in the past fifteen years, she completed ten elaborate projects that had crossed geographical boundaries and integrated actions and performances at different locales. Her works after 2010 in particular explore the domains of collective social memory and linguist narrative reconstruction.

In addition to artistic creation, TANG has been lastingly involved in the development of the art/culture environment in Taiwan. In 1997, she launched the campaign for the request, preservation and renovation of Hua-shan Art District. In 2008, she initiated the “Plant Art Act” movement. In 2009, she organized Art Creator Trade Union, and helped expedite the establishment of Taipei Art Creator Trade Union in 2011.

TANG Huang-Chen Website/ www.hctang.net
Facebook/ Huang-Chen Tang 
https://www.facebook.com/TangUlyssesMachine/
https://ulysessmachine-tang.idv.tw/