[中][ENG]「楊箕田野」的一朵花——二高訪談 A flower from Yang Ji - Interview with Ergao
環亞舞略
Dance Curating in Asia
二高 Ergao / 照片由廣東時代美術館提供 Photo provided by Guangdong Times Museum
「楊箕田野」的一朵花——二高訪談
文：田湉、二高
編按：今期本欄邀請了廣州的二高來分享他最近策劃的「二高表演黃邊EA店」計劃（EA - Ephemeral Art瞬時藝術），而他就特地邀請了北京舞蹈學院副教授田湉以採訪的形式，幫助他一起整理計劃的來龍去脈。
田湉： 2019年，你獲得了瑞士文化基金國際駐留項目 ，2020年，也獲得廣東時代美術館、日本AIT及Bethel House藝術家駐留計劃，分別開始了在蘇黎世、日本駐地創作計劃。駐地期間都經歷了甚麽，做了哪些創造性的事情？
二高： 2020年疫情前我到日本開始這個駐地，之前2019年也去了蘇黎世。我把這個駐地看成是一種身體經驗的採集和尋找，通過遇到不同國家的人感受不同的文化，形成一個鏡像式的自我反思。在日本我和一個療養院合作，這其中尺度拿捏很重要，要避免把項目變成某種舞蹈「治療」，避免產生「冒犯」。療養院的人精神狀況是不同的，精神病的程度也不同，我跟他們一起跳舞，而不是「教」他們跳舞；我們圍繞故鄉記憶中的美好食物，通過「提問」帶出一些關於日本的民俗話題。他們很喜歡這個能夠調動他們記憶的環節，我一度感到自己做成了「旅遊節目」，讓這些有精神問題的朋友傾訴背景和個人經驗，相互感覺到彼此的美好，喚起大家的鄉愁或者似曾相識的通感的東西。在這個過程中，我們發掘了藝術的更多可能性，它更輕便、更自由，是沒有門檻的。做藝術從來都不是以一種方式來實現。
田湉：我常常覺得，在廣州，樂隊有「五條人」[1]，舞蹈有「二高」，你們都洋溢著奇特又濃烈的廣東地域文化特徵，俗而不土。作為「二高表演」的創立人，你是如何定義自己的工作室方向的？
二高：你說的這個「俗」，大概跟個人經歷有關。小時候在小城市長大，以前的家也是很土的，很老舊。現在這些東西都被「濾鏡化」了，但其實還是那些。我身體裡的DNA，關於美好的東西就是這些似乎很「low」的、土的、艷俗的。艷俗也會很拉近我和不同人的距離。
二高表演2014年創立。它很像一個物質，撞擊到其他地方就會發酵成別的東西。比如前段時間做的隱形劇場，進入了城中村社區；而去到歐洲，又有了《這是一個雞場》的不同版本。工作室除了作品創作也有培訓項目，我希望它是輕便的。怎樣將「二高表演」的功能放到最大，也是我們一直在探索和思考的。
「二高表演黃邊EA店」/ 攝：里脊
田湉：去年年底到今年年初，你在廣州黃邊村做了「隱形劇場週」，吸引了我的注意力。你在做一件有意思的了不起的事情。舞蹈「嵌入」到城中村，這個嵌入是深度的，是人的，社區的；通過表演這件事，你們真真實實地與社會、與現實發生了聯繫。
二高：這是廣州時代美術館社區藝術節的一個子項目，我選擇了一個城中村在裡面開一間「瞬時」舞蹈工作室，宗旨是「發生在這裡，生活在這裡」。
2020年12月21至23日，我們派了三天傳單，買了簡單的物料裝修這個空間，配合村子裡的色調和美學；12月24日，在這個看起來和村子有點衝突的西方平安夜，宣布工作室開業；並決定在31日宣布倒閉，重新迎接新的一年。
第一天的「開幕剪綵」，我們帶來賓一起遊城中村；第三天的「文藝匯演」被我們稱為「舞蹈小風暴」。我們聯繫了黃邊村舞蹈隊，主動邀約了當地阿姨，隔壁村鶴邊村阿姨也來了。我們溝通的方式是我們教阿姨跳一支舞，阿姨教我們跳一支舞，有點battle的感覺。最有意思的是我們選了一個馬路來進行匯演，這樣觀眾和舞台隔著一個馬路。也就是觀眾在觀賞時會不斷有電瓶車、自行車和來來去去的車輛穿梭而過。我特別喜歡這個場景。這令匯演成為了發生在這裡的一個藝術事件，人們能夠感受到生活和表演的密切關聯。
第四到六天是我們原本準備好的計劃活動和私教課程，可私教課只有一個人報名，免費親子課沒有人報名。但我們用聊天、一起按摩、喝涼茶、剪頭髮、去寵物店的方式和居民成了朋友，我們生活在其中。後來在黃邊村的「露天電影院」首映了《恭喜發財》，並在長沙半山舞人、山西布衣舞社樓下的羊肉湯館三地同時直播，我們和三地觀眾交流，紀錄收集觀眾的反饋。很開心的是一個觀眾說，她被這個氛圍喚起了童年記憶，身體有一些感動，她一直落淚。任何事件不是賣藝術家理念，不是項目理念，而是想辦法把它融化掉。
田湉：在這個項目，我看到的是一個個有血有肉的在這裡「活」過的人。未來創作有甚麼計劃？
二高：我們都變成了後疫情時代的藝術家，藝術家作品的流通、創作方式都跟以前是不同的。對我來說，以前出國是將作品在國際上流通的常見方式，現在我轉向了鄉村，鄉村的質樸、智慧和歐洲很多城市是一樣的。在淳樸的地方，大家才能產生互相的力量。我們的計劃仍是想盡一切辦法去村莊、去希望小學，並不是要用藝術改變他們，而是他們在改變和塑造著我。
[1] 編注：「五條人」是廣東省海豐縣的一支二人民謠樂隊。
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二高
獨立藝術家，常居中國廣州，2014年創立二高表演，位於廣州市楊箕地鐵站附近。
A flower from Yang Ji - Interview with Ergao
Original text: Tian Tian, Ergao
Translator: Scarlet Yu
Editor’s note: We have invited Ergao from Guangzhou to share with us his recently curated project – Ergao Performance Huangbian EA Store (EA stands for Ephemeral Art). He asked Tian Tian, Associate Professor at the Beijing Dance Academy, to help illustrate the project in detail in the form of an interview.
Ergao Performance Huangbian EA Store
T: In 2019, you were selected for the Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council artist in residence programme in Zurich and in 2020 received similar awards from Guangdong Times Museum, Arts Initiative Tokyo and Bethel House. Can you describe your experience and what you created, particularly in Zurich and Japan, during your residencies?
E: I went to Japan to start my residency before the 2020 pandemic and went to Zurich in 2019. I see residency programmes as a way to gather and search physical experience, constructing a mirror-like self-reflectivity through meeting different people from different countries and getting a feel for different cultures. In Japan I collaborated with a nursing home, and it was important to maintain a fine balance between avoiding turning the project into some kind of dance “therapy” while also avoiding offending people. Each resident of the nursing home had different levels of mental condition, and we danced together with them instead of “teaching” them to dance. We drew on memories of good food from home to bring out folklore topics about Japan by “asking questions”. They liked the way this was able to mobilize their memory. I felt that I had made a “travel programme”, enabling these friends with mental problems to talk about their background and personal experience, to feel each other’s beauty and evoke everyone’s nostalgia for home or a sense of déjà vu. Through this process, we discovered wider possibilities of art, which were lighter, more free, and had no threshold. Art can always be created in more than one way.
T: I often think that in Guangzhou, there is Wǔtiáo rén[1] for bands and Ergao for dance, both of which overflow with the specific, strong cultural characteristics of the Guangdong region, gaudy but not old fashioned. As the founder of Ergao Dance Production Group, how did you define the direction of your studio?
E: I think this gaudy quality you mentioned is probably related to my personal experience. I grew up in a small city, my home was very rustic and old. Now all of that has been filtered, yet in fact it is still part of me. The DNA in my body and the beautiful things are also these seemingly “low”, old fashioned and gaudy. Gaudy brings me closer to different kinds of people.
The studio was founded in 2014, it is very much like a substance that will ferment into something else when it hits other places. For example, when we did the Invisible Theatre Week some time ago, we entered the urban village community, and when we went to Europe, we did a different version of This is A Chicken Co-op. In addition to creating artwork, we also have education programmes and I hope we can apply these more widely. We have been exploring and thinking about how to maximize the function of the studio.
Ergao Performance Huangbian EA Store
T: From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, you did the Invisible Theatre Week at Huangbian village in Guangzhou which caught my attention. What you were doing was incredibly meaningful. The dance was embedded in an urban village, and this embedding was deep, human and community-based. You really connected with society and reality through this performance.
E: This was a project for a community arts festival by Times Museum in Guangzhou. I chose to open an ephemeral dance studio in an urban village, the theme was “happening is here, living is here”. For three days from 21 to 23 December 2020, we handed out leaflets, then brought some simple materials to set up the space in coordination with the colour scheme and aesthetic of the village. On 24 December, Western Christmas Eve, which seems a bit at variance with the location, the studio announced its opening; we then decided to announce its closure on 31 December to welcome the new year.
On the first day of the event, we held a “ribbon-cutting ceremony”, we brought guests to visit the village, and on the third day of the event, there was an art performance called Dance Storm. We contacted the Huangbian village dance team and invited the local ‘aunties’ - the aunties from the neighbouring village, Hebian, also came along. The way we communicated was that we taught these ladies a dance and they taught us a dance, so there was a kind of dance battle. The most interesting thing was that we chose to hold the performance outside with the audience and the stage separated by a road. So while the audience was watching, there were motorcycles, bicycles and cars coming and going between us and them. I especially liked this setting. It made that performance an artistic event that really happened in that place and allowed people to feel the close connection between life and performance.
Days four through six we had prepared some planned activities and private lessons, but only one person signed up for the private lessons and no-one signed up for the free parenting classes. However, we became friends with the locals by doing things with them - talking, having massages, drinking herbal tea, getting haircuts, and going to the pet store, so we lived there too. Later we premiered Gong Hei Fat Choy at the open air cinema in Huangbian with a simultaneous broadcast at the Changsha BanShan Dancers and the lamb soup restaurant under the Buyi Dance Club in Shanxi. We talked to the audiences in all three locations and recorded their feedback. One audience member said she was very happy because the atmosphere brought back her childhood memories - she was physically moved and kept crying. An event is not about selling the artist’s concept, or the concept of a project, but about finding ways to [dissolve] absorb the concept.
T: In this project, I saw real people who had “lived” in a real place. What are your plans for future creations?
E: We have all become artists in the post-pandemic era, and the way we circulate and create artwork will be different from before. For me, going abroad used to be a common way to circulate my work internationally. Now I am turning to the countryside, which has the same simplicity and wisdom as that of many European cities. Only in a simple place can we generate mutual strength. Our plan is still to do everything we can to go to the villages and to Hope Primary School. I am not trying to change these people and places with art, rather they are changing and shaping me.
[1] Editor’s note: Wǔtiáo rén is a duo band based in Haifeng county, Canton.
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Ergao
An independent artist living in Guangzhou, China, founded Ergao Dance Production Group in 2014, located near Yang Ji metro station.
