
“Even a minor event in the life of a child is an event of that child’s world and thus a world event.” –Gaston Bachelard
「即使是孩子生活中的一件小事,也是該孩子世界中的一件大事,因此也是一件世界事件。」——加斯頓·巴什拉
When Phillipe Aries wrote ‘Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life’(1960) it developed a notion that the concept of childhood was a modern development dating as late as the seventeenth century. Previously children were regarded as little adults, but what is clear, is that childhood as a category of being has undergone several distinct transformations over the modern period. The exhibition,Francis Alÿs:Ricochets, which begun life as a project in 1999 forms an archive or document that records a myriad of children’s game. Many of the games have existed for centuries, and around the upper section of the space there is the visual and diagrammatic evidence recorded in artefacts of these history of games.
1960年,菲利普·阿列斯在《童年的世紀:家庭生活的社會史》中提出了一個重要觀點:所謂「童年」作為一個概念,其實是晚至17世紀才誕生的現代產物。在此之前,孩子往往被視為「縮小版的成人」。然而,顯而易見的是,童年作為一種存在類別,隨著現代時期的發展經歷了數次顯著的變革與重構。
展覽《弗朗西斯·阿利斯:彈跳》(Francis Alÿs: Ricochets)最初於1999年啟動,作為一個藝術項目,逐漸發展為一份關於無數兒童遊戲的檔案與文獻記錄。這些遊戲中有許多已經流傳數百年之久。展覽空間的二楼展示區陳列了與這些遊戲相關的視覺與圖示化證據,透過文物記錄呈現它們的歷史軌跡,勾勒出兒童遊戲與文化傳承的悠久脈絡。
There is a self-evident anxiety attached to this project in that the memory systems that have served to sustain this culture of play is under threat, firstly through the advent of electronic media and the ubiquity of devices that support it but also the disintegration of stable patterns of life that affect large parts of the globe. This mixture of excessive over development and severe modes of under-development erode cultural continuity which enable tradition to be sustained. In this respect the work has both an ethical and aesthetic foundation.
這個項目無可避免地帶有一種焦慮,因為支撐這種遊戲文化的記憶系統正處於威脅之中。首先,電子媒體的普及以及相關設備的無所不在,使傳統的遊戲形式逐漸被取代;其次,全球範圍內穩定生活模式的瓦解,進一步削弱了文化的連續性。過度發展與極度欠發展的雙重困境交織,逐步侵蝕了支持傳統延續的基礎,令這些文化記憶變得脆弱而難以維繫。從這一視角看,這件作品不僅是藝術表達,更深刻地承載著倫理與美學的雙重意涵。

Untitled, 2016, by Francis Alÿs, oil and gold leaf on canvas.
There is a small painting at the entrance of the exhibition of eyes on a gilt background. These painted eyes derive from Yazidi children taken by the artist in a refugee camp in Iraq from multiple journeys to this region between 2016 and 2020. An optical condition is established in this work that establishes the play between looking into and being looked at demarking the division between vision and the gaze. In fact the paintings within the darked space of the exhibition serve to generate a curious form of after life within the space as at first glance they are not necessarily a part of the visual construction of the relationship of the visual experience on offer. There is one compelling example of this which a stage within a darkened space where all that is rendered visible is the threshold hint of illumination. The postcard size image is of a figure within a forest hide and seek. This is an example of the presentation of art at it most sparse.
在展覽入口處,有一幅小型畫作描繪了无数雙眼睛,背景為鍍金色。這些眼睛的形象來自雅茲迪族的孩子,藝術家在2016年至2020年間多次前往伊拉克的難民營,記錄並轉化了他們的身影。在這件作品中,視覺經驗被塑造成一場「凝視與被凝視」之間的遊戲,微妙地劃分出觀看(vision)與凝視(gaze)之間的邊界,令觀者在目光的交會中感受到一種對峙與共鳴。
展廳內昏暗空間中的畫作進一步加深了這種體驗,產生了一種獨特的「餘生」效應。這些作品乍看之下似乎並非展覽的核心結構,但它們以極其微妙的方式嵌入了觀者與空間的視覺關係之中。一個令人印象深刻的例子是展廳內一個處於陰影中的舞台,唯一可見的是一縷微光,暗示著邊界的存在。在那裡,展示著一幅明信片大小的圖像,描繪了一個在森林中玩捉迷藏的身影。這幅作品以極簡的方式表現了藝術的精髓,將展示推向了最稀疏、最凝練的形式,卻在這簡約中激發出深遠的力量與情感。

Francis Alÿs, Hide and Seek.
As a journey is made from screen to screen, an exposure to the different cultural frameworks, or worlds, become evident. There are enough episodes for it not to be too thin in its presentation nor too many for it to become repetitive. As an archive of sorts it suggests a historical record of existing games, whilst providing evidence as well of the conditions of life out of which these episodes emerge. On the upper part of the exhibition there are several animations in starkly defined graphically in black and white graphical notations. These schematic drawings show a sensitive rendering of the gestural economy at the root of much of the structure of games.
隨著觀者從一個屏幕走向下一個屏幕,不同文化框架與世界的樣貌逐步展開。展覽中的片段安排得恰到好處,既不顯單薄,也不因數量過多而顯得冗長重複。作為一種檔案形式,它不僅暗示了對現存遊戲的歷史記錄,也深入揭示了這些遊戲片段背後所依存的生活條件與文化脈絡。
在二层展覽空間有幾個以黑白符號清晰呈現的動畫作品。這些簡潔的示意性繪圖敏銳地捕捉了遊戲結構中「手勢經濟」的本質。它們通過極簡的形式,展現了遊戲背後的動態基礎,將人類行為的細微之處與遊戲的核心框架緊密結合,展現出非凡的敏感度與洞察力。這種視覺表現不僅捕捉了遊戲的精髓,也讓觀者重新認識日常行為中所蘊藏的深層秩序與節奏。
So, what are the skills and attributes of this presentation? It might be claimed that they are multiple in that they combine research models, documentation skills, animation, painting, participation structures, art history and conceptual framing, but the sense of these differences are themselves subsumed into a compelling totality which resides in art itself. What shines forth though, is a consistent ethics of care throughout the manifestation. The question of not only childhood games, but the vulnerability of children to forces that appear as paradigms of a culture of forgetting. There is a subtle mixing of fascination of actual games played, with an after dread that we might be witnesses the partial disintegration of what gives rise to this fascination.
那麼,這種呈現方式究竟具備哪些技能與特質呢?可以說,它是一種多元的綜合體,結合了研究模型、文獻記錄的能力、動畫創作、繪畫技藝、參與式結構、藝術史視角以及概念框架的構建。然而,這些看似獨立的要素最終被融入一種具有高度說服力的整體性之中,而這種整體性,便是藝術本身的力量所在。
更為突出的是,在整個展覽中始終貫穿著一種一致性的「關懷倫理」。它不僅關注於童年遊戲的再現,更深入探討了兒童面對脆弱處境時的無助與危機——那些力量正在瓦解支撐他們文化記憶的基礎,形成一種「遺忘文化」的典範。在這樣的呈現中,對遊戲的迷戀與一種潛在的隱憂交織在一起。隱憂在於,我們或許正在目睹,那些引發我們迷戀的傳統與記憶,正部分地走向瓦解。
這種微妙而深刻的混合,讓作品不僅僅是引人入勝的視覺體驗,更充滿了文化與情感的深度。它將記憶與遺忘之間的緊張關係置於舞台之上,讓觀者感受到傳統如何在時間的沖刷中掙扎求存,並邀請我們思考如何重新理解這些逐漸消逝的文化遺產。
Francis Alÿs : Ricochets
Barbican Art Gallery
27 June – 1 September 2024
Text by Jonathan Miles
Edited by Michelle Yu