「表象之城」為義大利藝術家賈科莫・札加內利於台北當代藝術館的首次個展。賈科莫同時具有策展人的雙重身分,關注的領域包括藝術、建築、公共空間、自然環境、歷史考古…等。他擅長引用傳統文化元素,結合特定空間與場域進行創作,藉此反映社會現狀,發展古今對話,並重新審視當代生活諸多的矛盾與衝突現象。
賈科莫來自文藝復興之城佛羅倫斯,隨著觀光產業的蓬勃發展,大批遊客湧入,占據當地的知名景點。儘管美景當前,這群遊客的注意力多放在手機或個人電子通訊產品上,城裡的百年歷史建築與雕塑則淪為群眾拍照、打卡的配角。此外,當地的古蹟建築在閉關整修之際,常會在工地圍檔及鷹架上掛飾印有建築外觀的輸出帆布,遊客見到了這些「景觀的贗品」,竟也不減拍照的興致。對賈科莫來說,整座城市似乎已被改造為迎合大眾口味的大型劇場造景,其中競相拍照與被拍的民眾,更像是一班失序的馬戲團,既滑稽又詭異。
法國哲學家居伊•德博在《景觀社會》中指出:「偽造現實的景觀不過是現實的真正產物,反之,現實生活在很大的程度上也被景觀所侵蝕。」本展提示的「表象之城」並非指向傳統浪漫的古都印象,而是揭示虛擬景觀已成功主宰現代人的感知生活。本次的展出,賈科莫不僅運用館內的展間呈現一系列駐臺創作之錄像及裝置作品,更規劃將展演空間延伸到館前廣場,讓觀眾能更直接地感受到其衝擊。
Superficially is Giacomo Zaganelli’s first solo exhibition at MoCA, Taipei. As an artist and a curator, Giacomo Zaganelli’s practice activated a potent dialogue between sculpture, video, and site-responsive installation. His works draw in a vast array of cultural, architecture, landscape, environment, and historical archaeology. By introducing traditional elements from the local community, and combining specific sites or space, his projects tend to reflect the social milieu of the time, create a dialogue between old and new, and to reexamine the contradictory situation in our modern times.
Giacomo Zaganelli comes from Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance, where the local thriving tourism has ushered in a large influx of tourists taking over the area’s renowned destinations. Surrounded by magnificent sceneries, the attention of the tourists are, however, fixed on their phones or personal electronic devices, with the city’s centuries-old historical architectures and sculptures falling to supporting roles in people’s photographs or where they “check-in” online. Moreover, tarps with the façades of the sites printed on them are placed on barricades and scaffoldings when the area’s architectural heritage sites are closed for renovation; however, the tourists’ desires for photo taking don’t seem to be deterred by these “counterfeit spectacles”. Giacomo Zaganelli thinks the entire city seems to have turned into a large theatrical set designed to accommodate the preference of the general public, and the people scrambling over each other in order to take photos or have photos taken of them appear like a circus in disarray, looking quite ridiculous and peculiar.
French philosopher Guy Debord proposed in The Society of the Spectacle, “…the spectacle, though it turns reality on its head, is itself a product of real activity. Likewise, lived reality suffers the material assaults of the spectacle's mechanisms of contemplation…” The “Superficially” examined in this exhibition does not point at ancient city’s traditional and romantic impression but exposes how virtual landscapes have successfully dominated modern people’s perceptual life. Working with the exhibition space inside the museum, Giacomo Zaganelli presents in this exhibition a series of videos and installations he has created in Taiwan, with the exhibition further extended outwards to the museum’s outdoor plaza, allowing the audience to experience his impactful art in a more direct manner.