The Artists Archive (ongoing)

This is an on-going personal and digital archive whose artistic research dwells into issues of border-crossing, artists-as-tourists, and etc. 

Barthélémy Toguo, Transit I, 1996

以下的翻译来自Marcus Verhagen在Camden Arts Centre讲谈被录制的其中一部分，原稿是英文：

Barthélémy Toguo 特意一次在法国转机时雕了3个以木塑造成的行李箱，法国警官们为此安检了2个小时。Marcus Verhagen 认为作品中幽默地对应了艺术家天然粗杂性地创造出这些木质行李箱，和那采用不同的科技精细般检验的警官之间不成正比的一个行为比较。而在警官无从发现任何可疑的情况下, 观众从艺术家幽默的举动微微沾上一些道德理念上的满足感。同时，这作品更大地围绕着“失去”和“约束” (lost and constraint) 的议题，好似象征在许多案例中移民者‘装载’的技术在抵达另一个国家后找不着符合标准性合适的工作。而 Toguo 举动中那3个无用之处的行李箱，让边境安检出现错位的逻辑 (dislocating logic of border control)， 但也拟态性地反映出国家移民政策以国籍考量在先而承保移民者应有的权利问题；旅游专利也被出生的地方来断定。Toguo 在那一刻把边境转变成一个被错误知觉性充满的地方，随而引出今天的边界本身已是自相矛盾的一个状态。“边界”在限制和维持着国家主权理念上以保障和分配公民权权利的同时，却例示性克制和拒绝持其他国籍护照者的权力。

"The humor of this piece for me rests largely on the disproportion between the crude means employed by the artists in making these suitcases, and the immensely sophisticated resources brought to bear by the border control authorities in examining the suitcases. ...Toguo turns the border into site ruled by error and misperception. Or rather he (Toguo) suggests that today’s borders are always already paradoxical sites, since they delimit and maintain the nation state which guarantees the rights of citizenship, but instantiate the denial of rights to the holders of other passports." - Marcus Verhagen

Félix González-Torres, Untitled (Passport #11), 1993

Félix Gonzáles-Torres早期的作品“无名：护照#11”，是一叠叠观众随手可取走的小本子，画面上是鸟儿和飞机飞翔的照片。 这些小本子让人联想人群可像小鸟自由移动的世界，这个移动／迁移不被拘束，更不是一个需要被赐予，或被操练的； 乃是一个从自身发出，自然的恩赐。Verhagen 认为这些小本子也可以设想为让人无止境飞行的护照本。Gonzáles-Torres 的作品像是暗喻这护照本身同时又是那么的累赘多余，自由活动的世界里并不需要护照，随手可弃。在创作这件作品时，因当时的边境法律规定，他没法从美国飞回古巴自己的故乡。因为狗儿们可以持护照，Verhagen反思这些本字是否也可作为小鸟的护照。“边界”垂直延伸的极限又在哪里？

"The booklets invite us to imagine a world in which people can move freely as birds, in which 'freedom of movement' is not a right to be exercised or to be won, but a gift that precedes naturally from the body.... We are bound to wonder, "Are they passports for birds?" Dogs have them. And how high do borders extend vertically?" - Marcus Verhagen

Mircea Cantor, Rainbow, 2010

Mircea Cantor 创作的“彩虹”。在一面透视的玻璃片上，Cantor将七彩颜色用手指指纹勾出半圆的彩虹。“彩虹”既是一个超负荷的象征意义，尤其在同性恋游行，国际和平运动等等都常常挂着彩虹旗代表希望。近看这作品亦像是铁丝网，远看时那不规则分叉的线条像是夜晚的星星标志，半圆的星星也让作者联想到欧洲联盟旗子上的星星排列。铁丝网的概念牵涉到历史性纳粹党围困着犹太人的集中营，直到今天许多国家地理边界上都筑起类似的铁丝网。

这作品里的“彩虹”，隐喻着团结和包容性，同时又被暴力, 阻碍和局限的迹象覆盖。而它们之间的拉扯和张力可以从“指纹”的运用去诠释。指纹不仅体现隐私，亲密和身体接触， 也是普遍性用于过境关卡的识别检查。指纹的运用和那片玻璃一样，同时是一面窗，又是一片屏障，开放给一群人但同时又封闭不允许另一组人过境。

"The rainbow is a very loaded motif, it's a motif that we may associate with expressions of collective hope...from a distance the barbed looked a little like stars.The rainbow in this work metaphors solidarity and inclusiveness, are overlay with signs of violence and obstruction, and confinement.  And the tension between them is underline by the use of the fingerprint, which suggests proximity, intimacy, and bodily contact. But at the same time it points to the increasing use of finger printing in other biometric check at borders The glass support here plays on the same tension.  Since it acts as both a window and a barrier, it’s another reference to some border which is close for some and open to others." - Marcus Verhagen

Source:
"Marcus Verhagen Talk on Borders in Contemporary Art, 2017." SoundCloud. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2017.