I'd like for you to take a moment to imagine this with me. You're a little girl of five years old. Sitting in front of a mirror, you ask yourself, "Do I exist?" In this space, there is very little context, and so you move into a different one, one filled with people. Surely, now you know you're not a figment of your own imagination. You breathe their air. You see them, so they must see you. And yet, you still can't help but wonder: Do I only exist when people speak to me?
我想請各位花點時間和我一起想像。 你是個五歲的小女孩, 坐在一面鏡子前, 問自己: 「我存在嗎?」 這個空間中的情境太少, 所以你移到另一個不同的空間, 一個滿滿是人的空間中。 當然,現在你知道你不是 自己想像出來的虛構人物。 你呼吸著他們的空氣。 你看見他們, 所以他們一定也看見了你。 但是,你忍不住會想: 只有當人們對我說話時, 我才存在嗎?
Pretty heavy thoughts for a child, right? But through various artworks that reflect upon our society, I came to understand how a young black girl can grow up feeling as if she's not seen, and perhaps she doesn't exist. You see, if young people don't have positive images of themselves and all that remains are negative stereotypes, this affects their self-image. But it also affects the way that the rest of society treats them.
對孩子而言,這些想法挺沉重吧? 但是透過反映我們社會的 各種藝術作品, 我開始了解到, 年輕的黑人女孩在成長過程中 會覺得她彷彿被視而不見, 甚至或許不存在。 要知道,如果年輕人 沒有正面的自我印象, 只剩下負面的刻板印象, 會影響到他們的自我形象, 也會影響社會上其他人 對待他們的方式。
I discovered this having lived in Cape Town for about five years at the time. I felt a deep sense of dislocation and invisibility. I couldn't see myself represented. I couldn't see the women who've raised me, the ones who've influenced me, and the ones that have made South Africa what it is today. I decided to do something about it.
我會發現這一點, 是因為當時在開普敦住了約五年, 深深感受到混亂和隱形。 我看不見自己呈現出來, 看不見養育我的婦女, 那些影響我的人, 以及那些讓南非有了今日樣貌的人。 我決定要做點什麼。
What do you think when you see this? If you were a black girl, how would it make you feel? Walking down the street, what does the city you live in say to you? What symbols are present? Which histories are celebrated? And on the other hand, which ones are omitted?
看見這個,使你想到什麼? 如果你是個黑人女孩, 這會讓你有什麼感覺? 沿著街道走著, 你所居住的城市對你說了些什麼? 呈現了哪些象徵? 哪些歷史被頌揚? 而另一方面, 哪些被忽略了?
You see, public spaces are hardly ever as neutral as they may seem. I discovered this when I made this performance in 2013 on Heritage Day. Cape Town is teeming with masculine architecture, monuments and statues, such as Louis Botha in that photograph. This overt presence of white colonial and Afrikaner nationalist men not only echoes a social, gender and racial divide, but it also continues to affect the way that women -- and the way, particularly, black women -- see themselves in relation to dominant male figures in public spaces. For this reason, among others, I don't believe that we need statues. The preservation of history and the act of remembering can be achieved in more memorable and effective ways.
要知道,公共場所一點也不像 表面看來那麼中立。 我在 2013 年的文化遺產日 表演時發現到這一點。 開普敦充滿了男子氣概的建築、 紀念古蹟和雕像, 就像那張照片中的路易斯博塔。 這樣公開地展現白人殖民 和荷裔南非民族主義男子, 不僅呼應社會、性別和種族的分裂, 還持續地影響女性── 特別是黑人女性── 相對於主宰的男性, 在公共場所看待她們自己的方式。 因為這個和其他的理由, 我不認為我們需要雕像。 保存歷史和緬懷歷史的行動, 可以用更難忘、更有效的方式。
As part of a year-long public holiday series, I use performance art as a form of social commentary to draw people's attention to certain issues, as well as addressing the absence of the black female body in memorialized public spaces, especially on public holidays. Women's Day was coming up. I looked at what the day means -- the Women's March to the union buildings in 1956, petitioning against the pass laws. Juxtaposed with the hypocrisy of how women are treated, especially in public spaces today, I decided to do something about it.
做為長達一年 公定假日系列的一部分, 我把表演藝術當作一種 評論社會的形式, 來吸引人們注意某些議題, 以及處理在公共紀念場所裡 沒有黑人女性身影的問題, 特別是在公定假日裡。 婦女節快到了。 我查了這個日子的意義── 1956 年女性朝著聯邦大樓遊行, 請願反對那限制黑人 自由遷徙的法律。 對照女性如何被對待的偽善現況, 尤其是在現今的公共場所裡, 我決定要做點什麼。
Headline:
標題:
[Women in miniskirt attacked at taxi rank]
【穿迷你裙的婦女 在計程車等候站受到攻擊】
How do I comment on such polar opposites? In the guise of my great-grandmother, I performed bare-breasted, close to the taxi rank in KwaLanga. This space is also called Freedom Square, where women were a part of demonstrations against apartheid laws. I was not comfortable with women being seen as only victims in society. You might wonder how people reacted to this.
我要如何評論這樣的兩極對立? 我裝扮成曾祖母的樣子, 以袒露胸部的方式, 在關拉加的計程車等候站附近表演。 這個場所也稱為自由廣場, 是婦女參與示威 抗議種族隔離政策的地方。 我不太能接受婦女在社會裡 只被視為受害者。 或許你們會好奇 人們對這表演如何反應。
(Video) Woman: (Cheering)
(影片)女子甲:(歡呼)
Woman 2 (offscreen): Yes!
女子乙(畫面外):好啊!
Sethembile Msezane: Pretty cool, huh?
西珊比勒梅詹妮:很酷,是吧?
(Applause)
(掌聲)
So I realized that through my performances, I've been able to make regular people reflect upon their society, looking at the past as well as the current democracy.
我了解到,透過我的表演, 能使一般人思考反省他們的社會, 審視過去以及目前的民主。
(Video) Man (offscreen): She's been there since three o'clock.
(影片)男子甲(畫面外): 她自三點起就一直站在那裡了。
Man 2 (offscreen): Just before three. About an hour still?
男子乙(畫面外): 比三點早一點。約站了一小時吧?
Man 1: Yeah. It's just a really hot day.
男子甲:是啊。只是今天好熱。
Man 1: It's very interesting. It's very powerful. I think it's cool. I think a lot of people are quick to join a group that's a movement towards something, but not many people are ready to do something as an individual.
男子甲:非常有意思。 非常強而有力。 我覺得很酷。 我想有很多人很快地加入一個團體, 關注某樣議題的運動, 但沒有多少人已準備好 要以個人身分盡一份力。
Man 2: So it's the individual versus the collective.
男子乙:這是個人對上集體。
Man 1: Yeah. So I think her pushing her own individual message in performance ... it's powerful. Yeah, I think it's quite powerful that she's doing it on her own. I'd be interested to know why she's using hair extensions as wings, or whatever those things are meant to be. They are wings, yes?
男子甲:是啊。 我認為她把自己個人的訊息 置入她的表演中 …… 強而有力。 是啊,她靠自己做這件事, 這一點真的是強而有力。 我會想要知道 為什麼她將頭髮延伸為翅膀, 不論那些是什麼,我想知道。 是翅膀,對吧?
Woman 3: With her standing there right now, I think it's just my interpretation that we are bringing the statue down and bringing up something that's supposed to represent African pride, I think. Or something like that. Something should stand while Rhodes falls, I think that's what it's saying. Yeah. Yes. Thank you.
女子丙:現在她站在那裡, 我想,這只是我自己的詮釋, 我們要拆除這座雕像, 換成其他東西, 我想是換成能代表非洲自豪 或類似的東西吧。 取下羅德斯,原地應要擺個什麼。 我想這是它所要表達的。對。 是的,謝謝你。
Man 3: What is behind me represents the African culture. We can't have the colonialist law, so we need to remove all these colonial statues. We have have our own statues now, our African leaders -- Bhambatha, Moshoeshoe, Kwame Nkrumah -- all those who paid their lives for our liberation. We can't continue in the 21st century, and after 21 years of democracy, have the colonizers in our own country. They belong somewhere. Maybe in a museum; not here. I mean learning institutions, places where young people, young minds are being shaped. So we cannot continue to have Louis Botha, Rhodes, all these people, because they're representing the colonialism.
男子丙:在我身後的是 非洲文化的象徵。 我們不能有殖民主義法律, 所以我們得要移除 所有這些殖民主義的雕像。 現在我們有自己的雕像了, 我們的非洲領袖──班巴薩、 莫舒舒、夸梅恩克魯瑪── 所有為解放我們 而付出生命的那些人。 進入 21 世紀, 有了 21 年民主之後, 我國不應持續有著殖民主義者。 他們可以被擺在某處, 也許博物館,但不是這裡。 我指的是學習機構, 那些培育年輕人、年輕才子的地方。 所以我們不能繼續保有路昜斯博塔、 羅德斯、所有這類的人, 因為他們代表殖民主義。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Sethembile Msezane: On April 9, 2015, the Cecil John Rhodes statue was scheduled to be removed after a month of debates for and against its removal by various stakeholders. This caused a widespread interest in statues in South Africa. Opinions varied, but the media focused on problematizing the removal of statues. On that -- well, that year, I had just begun my master's at the University of Cape Town. During the time of the debate of the statue, I had been having reoccurring dreams about a bird. And so I started conjuring her mentally, spiritually and through dress. On that day, I happened to be having a meeting with my supervisors, and they told me that the statue was going to fall on that day. I told them that I'd explain later, but we had to postpone the meeting because I was going to perform her as the statue came down.
西珊比勒梅詹妮: 2015 年 4 月 9 日, 預定要移除塞西爾 羅德斯雕像的那一天, 在各利害關係人辯論了一個月 是否要移除之後。 這事件引起南非各界 對雕像的廣泛興趣。 各種意見都有,但媒體卻著重在 把移除雕像一事問題化。 關於那點──嗯, 那年我剛開始在開普頓大學 攻讀碩士學位。 在辯論雕像的那段期間, 我反覆做同樣的夢, 與一隻鳥有關。 所以我開始召喚她, 心靈上、靈性上,以及透過服裝。 那一天, 我正好與主管開會, 他們說雕像將會在那天被取下。 我告訴他們隨後我將會解釋, 但現在必須要延後會議, 因為在雕像被移下時我要扮演她。
Her name was Chapungu. She was a soapstone bird that was looted from Great Zimbabwe in the late 1800s, and is still currently housed in Cecil John Rhodes's estate in Cape Town. On that day, I embodied her existence using my body, while standing in the blazing sun for nearly four hours. As the time came, the crane came alive. The people did, too -- shouting, screaming, clenching their fists and taking pictures of the moment on their phones and cameras. Chapungu's wings, along with the crane, rose to declare the fall of Cecil John Rhodes.
她的名字叫查蓬古, 是一隻皂石鳥, 於十九世紀末從大辛巴威被劫走, 目前仍被放在開普頓的 塞西爾羅德斯地產上。 那天, 我用自己的身體將她的存在具體化, 在烈日下站了將近四個小時。 時候到了, 起重機動起來了。 人們也動起來了── 他們大叫、 尖叫、 緊握拳頭、 用手機和相機拍照記錄下那個時刻。 查蓬古的翅膀 和起重機一起升起, 宣告塞西爾羅德斯的殞落。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Euphoria filled the air as he became absent from his base, while she remained still, very present, half an hour after his removal.
空氣中充滿了狂喜, 他不再站立在基座上, 而她屹立不搖, 一直在現場, 他被移除後半小時她還在。
Twenty-three years after apartheid, a new generation of radicals has arisen in South Africa. The story of Chapungu and Rhodes in the same space and time asks important questions related to gender, power, self-representation, history making and repatriation. From then on, I realized that my spiritual beliefs and dreams texture my material reality. But for me, Chapungu's story felt incomplete. This soapstone bird, a spiritual medium and messenger of God and the ancestors, needed me to continue her story. And so I dabbled in the dream space a little bit more, and this is how "Falling" was born.
種族隔離政策後 23 年, 南非出現了激進的新世代。 查蓬古和羅德斯 出現在同一時空的故事 帶出一個重要問題, 這問題與性別、 權力、 自我表徵、 創造歷史, 以及遣送回國有關。 從那時開始, 我明白 是我的靈性信仰以及夢想 構成了我的物質現實。 但對我而言,查蓬古的故事 似乎並不完整。 這隻皂石鳥, 靈性的媒介,神祇與祖先的信差, 需要我來繼續她的故事。 因此我又再涉入夢想空間一點點, 「殞落」就是這樣誕生的。
[A film by Sethembile Msezane]
【影片製作:西珊比勒梅詹妮】
(Video) (A capella singing)
(影片)(清唱)
[FALLING]
【殞落】
(Applause)
(掌聲)
In the film, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Germany share a common story about the soapstone birds that were looted from Great Zimbabwe. After Zimbabwe gained its independence, all the birds except for one were returned to the monument. "Falling" explores the mythological belief that there will be unrest until the final bird is returned.
在這部影片中, 辛巴威、南非、德國 都有個共同的故事, 關於皂石鳥從大辛巴威 被掠劫走的故事。 在辛巴威獨立之後, 除一隻外,所有的鳥兒 都回到紀念碑原址。 「殞落」探討一個神話信仰: 動盪將會持續不止, 直到最後一隻鳥兒返巢。
Through my work, I have realized a lot about the world around me: how we move through spaces, who we choose to celebrate and who we remember. Now I look in the mirror and not only see an image of myself, but of the women who have made me who I am today. I stand tall in my work, celebrating women's histories, in the hope that perhaps one day, no little black girl has to ever feel like she doesn't exist.
透過我的作品, 我對周遭的世界瞭解了很多: 我們如何在空間裡移動、 我們選擇去讚頌誰, 以及我們紀念誰。 現在我看向鏡子, 不只看見自己的影像, 也看見讓我成為今日之我的女人。 我挺立在我的作品中, 讚頌女性的歷史, 希望也許有一天, 不再有任何一個黑人小女孩 會覺得她似乎並不存在。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)