A rental car is running
렌터카는 달린다어느 외딴곳, 황무지 같은 풍경. 렌터카는 달린다.
때로 삶에서 가장 낯선 곳으로 향한 여행은 매우 예민한 감각을 깨어나게 합니다. 보고, 듣고, 느낀 순간, 그 기억들 가운데 가장 인상적인 장면은 두뇌에 저장된 디스크의 한 조각을 구성하고 있습니다. 북미 지역의 대초원이 펼쳐진 곳. 이름 없는 외딴곳에 대한 기억을 소환해 수작업 애니메이션, 드로잉, 포스터, 시, 오브제 등으로 구성한 공간 설치에서 관객은 흩어진 퍼즐 조각을 맞추듯 작업을 읽어 나가게 됩니다.
인생에서 어딘가 낯선 곳으로 갑자기 떠나게 되는 경험을 상상해 봅니다. 그곳에서 예기치 못한 일들을 겪게 되고, 우리는 자신과의 ‘거리두기’를 통해 사유의 폭이 확장되는 경험을 하게 됩니다. 깨어있는 감각, 예리한 시선과 예민한 반응, 이런 경험에서 파생된 집중력과 되새김을 바탕으로 나의 영토는 어디인가? 연작은 이어지고 있습니다.
초원의 거인 — 대형곡물창고(The Prairie Giant — The Grain Elevator)는 첫 번째 에피소드로 제작한 렌터카는 달린다(A rental car is running) 설치에 등장하는 영상작품입니다. 2019년 대만 타이베이 디지털 아트센터(Taipei Digital Arts Center)에서 개최된 後亡國(After Our Dear Country Failed) 전시를 위한 레지던시 수행 기간, 여러 수작업 드로잉과 시퀀스들을 제작했습니다. 컬러감을 더해 후속 작업으로 제작한 애니메이션은 도로 위 무너지는 건물 장면을 시적인 터치로 묘사하고 있습니다.
황량한 들판이 끝없이 펼쳐진 외딴 마을의 도로 위를 렌터카를 타고 달리고 있었고, 무언가 차를 멈추게 하는 사건이 벌어진 듯합니다. 잠시 주행을 멈추고 앞을 바라보니 굉음과 함께 무너지는 거대한 건물이 보입니다. 그것은 한때 농업으로 번성했던 초원의 상징이었지만, 기찻길이 끊긴 후 오랜 시간 유령처럼 방치된 곡물저장창고가 먼지 속으로 가라앉는 풍경이었습니다.
In a remote, desolate landscape, a rental car is running.
Journeys to the most unfamiliar places in life often awaken acute senses. Moments of seeing, hearing, and feeling become fragments stored in the brain's disk. This particular memory summons recollections of an unnamed remote location, presented through a space installation comprising handcrafted animations, drawings, posters, poetry, and objects. As spectators piece together scattered puzzle fragments, they unravel the narrative.
Imagine suddenly embarking on a journey to somewhere entirely unfamiliar. Amidst unexpected events, we undergo an expansion of thought through self-distancing. Sharp senses, keen observation, and sensitive reactions emerge from this experience, forming the basis for reflection on one's territory. A series of works unfolds from these experiences.
“The Prairie Giant — The Grain Elevator” is a video artwork featured in the first episode of the installation “A rental car is running.” During a residency period for the “After Our Dear Country Failed” exhibition at the Taipei Digital Arts Center in Taiwan, in 2019, various hand-drawn sequences and poems were produced. Adding color to subsequent works, animations depict scenes of collapsing buildings on roads with poetic touches.
Driving along a road in a remote village where desolate fields stretch endlessly, something seems to halt the car. Pausing for a moment and gazing ahead, a deafening noise accompanies the sight of a massive collapsing building. Once a symbol of prosperity in the prairie's agricultural heyday, the grain elevator, abandoned like a ghost after the railroad was severed, sinks into the dust.
後亡國 After Our Dear Country Failed
“Failed state” remains a real but also unreal experience of the Taiwanese due to the odd situation in the international politics and complex historical settings of Taiwan. The reality lies in the experience of Taiwanese people, from different generations, going through various historical events that pushed the state to the edge of collapse. On the other hand, these events coincidentally helped Taiwan have narrow escapes from the doom of failure, and the close calls brought a sense of unreality of the unsteady nation. From the tension of being on alert all the time to the state of being numbed and detached under the long-lasting oppression, how the collective mental states shape the unique social spectacle? After Our Dear Country Failed traced the aesthetics of digital technology and political control technology to interpret the local social context. We brought a line-up of international artists to present an imaginative space of “failed state” via illustrating the current issues and crises around the globe, employing mechanical installations, and projecting visions toward the future, and to figure out what lies in the present, as it has become a picture of dystopia.
The Korean artist group, Bang & Lee, teamed up by Jayoung Bang and Yunjun Lee focuses on satirizing the absurdity of contemporary living situations by hiring multimedia and digital tools. Through the campaigns and intervention projects on the metropolises across the globe, they have developed a series of highly interactive plans on urban space. Bang & Lee will be taking the opportunity of artist-in-residence and launching a workshop to establish a unique project for Taipei.
Nobuo Takamori, Curator (Taipei Digital Arts Center, 2019)