Search Gallery >> ------------------------------------------------ 2008_03 ------------------------------------------------ 2007_11 2007_10 2007_07 2007_05 2007_04 2007_03 2007_01 ------------------------------------------------ 2006_12 2006_08 2006_07 Ex-ception Life Date: 2007/11/15 Creator / HUANG Chien-Hung The 'exceptional condition' of Taiwan was determined not only by its international situation, but also by its own intentional choices. Furthermore, it is currently facing the problem of being 'not exceptional enough'. To represent the 'exceptional condition' with 'homo sacer' is a way of 'defolding' it, meaning that it spreads the fold of democracy, which is linked to one's own identity and power, in order to reveal clear as day the way identity and power have been separated (though not completely severed: the rights of a natural person remain). This problem is unavoidably laid bare again and again in political discussions in Taiwan. The second kind of 'self-determined' exceptional condition has never been connected to the judged condition. If we use some derivative terms to describe this condition, it is the general phenomena of being unconcerned with politics in Taiwan. In other words, this 'self-determined' exception is a kind of escapism adopted by the people as they are confronted with the pale predestination of defolding, leading to a life that lacks context. However, people now have to face another forth-coming exceptional condition, one that already possesses economic potential output value and will be affecting the territory of art. This condition doesn't have political properties anymore, but is a creative method of manifestation. Therefore, the exception has its ouside boundaries and produces the possibility for acceptance, thus making it a way of intervention that keeps all differences inside itself. 'E-era' is often used as a general reference to our times, corresponding roughly to the term 'Internet Age'. But the term seems to have not been further deepened by human's experience. Coincidentally, inbetween the 'ex' (meaning 'out') and the '-ception' (meaning 'accept') of the word 'exception', just at the point of disconnection and connection, there is a '-sept-', the sound that combines the prefix and suffix. It is an attitude of suspicion, neither affirmative nor negative. If we transform the E-era to the 'skeptic - (yi-, 疑) era', this will express a state of suspended judgment for the new generation in Taiwan. Nevertheless, it still paradoxically signifies 'out', as well as 'was accepted'. Consequently, this attitude, full of suspicion and isolated from society, was necessarily accepted as an absolute 'exception': in other words, refolding occurs. The 'exception' conducted by Taiwan's suspicious generation of artists (the e-generation that doubted everything) caused an 'undulation' on the non-pleated blank space (for the purpose of escape). The difference between this and the other two 'exceptions' is that it is a folding act resulting in a final figuration. Attempting to live in this pale island and bring about an aimless energetic fold is just what I have in mind when I speak of 'exceptional living'. [1] This kind of fold can't represent any position, but shows a kind of 'differential state', like the 'differentiation' concept in calculus, that becomes the energy-quality that makes the slope change. Hence, 'exceptional living' reveals the 'creative exception', its paradox lying in the subjectivity of the escape implied by the 'ex = exclude' that then moves toward the different viewpoints of of various political groups: ex→ception. Therefore, the artists who took part in this exhibition, in spite of their individual differences, shared a fundamental key in their work: there existed a pale background which served to reveal reality, which in turn would move people's hearts. So, this property of refolding was sustained by the search for meaning and self-transformation. This may have been caused by the empty feeling remained after Taiwan's long-term internal conflict (civil war), or perhaps by the predicament caused by the lack of international concern for Taiwan's situation. Regardless, at least one thing is certain: this predicament is no longer an exception with regard to Western international authority, but is a fold appearing in the exceptional condition itself. As such, the exception is really just a kind of fiction, nothing more than a seeking after new ways of thinking. [1] The Chinese title of this online exhibition could be translated into two different meanings: 'Exceptional Living' and 'Exception Life'. The later one emphasizes the special condition of the noun 'life'. Both are preserved here to demonstrate how varied meaning one word could be, and each makes its linguistic context changed. 　　《When I look at the moon》 　WANG Ya-Hui / poetical ex→ception; She always tries to percept the intrinsic elan of trans-dimension in a chink of the real space. 　　《沒有起始的地方 24 1-5》 　HSIEH Muchi / surveying ex→ception; His measurement becomes a vision of traces folded; implicate the beginning point of describing the histories. 　　《Airport》　 　CHEN Wan-Jen / travelling ex→ception; With many fin folds of the different instants, he makes the river-like smooth time-space as an image of impossible. 　　《Thus have I "Ah~"》 　WANG Chun-Kun / sonic ex→ception; He operates the simulation of sonic sublime by the daily sound, and folds this sonic perception to a inadequate image. 　　《Identify a type fine to touch to press to feel》 　SU Yu-Hsien/ qualitative ex→ception; He looks for in the images the physical fold that can produce the sensorial vibrations, one kind of eutectic of flesh and material. 　　《Father's tongue》 　JAO Chia-En/ linguistic ex→ception; He can extend one scene of missing and incommunicable, by folding the voice and the rencontre of life. 　　《Nollywood》 　Nollywood/ field ex→ception; Disguising the directors, they become the personages in a dramatic field by folding the audiovisual spatial perceptions to the real space. (Translated by Hsia-Yang, Lou) Type:JPG Size:0K