魏澤 Ze WEI
ZE WEI bases her art projects on her obsession with the reciprocal effect between the contemporary world and its historical context. She uses images as a tool to develop her perception of historical and social events, trying to answer questions aroused by the global status quo. Her projects revolve around the concept of “national territories / boundaries", such as globalization, human migration, diaspora and differentiation etc.
For example, Ilha Fromosa, her video work in 2014, was inspired by an exile story. Mazargues Anonymous, another project began in 2013, is concerned with a military cemetery for foreign soldiers located in south Marseille. Négraille, a project which was collaborated with and exhibited in Marseille History Museum, explores the gaze across social classes by juxtaposing images of postcards from International Colonial Exhibitions in France and the words of Martinique poet Aimé Césaire.
In late 2013, ZE WEI visited the Department of Graphic Arts of Anadolu University in Turkey for a five-month exchange program with scholarships from the European Union and also from the Marseille Academy of Fine Arts. In late 2014 and again in early 2016, she traveled to Eastern provinces in Turkey and visited Ani, an ancient Armenian capital now in the Turkish territory. From then on, she has been working on Ani, an art project consists of archival research and image creations.
ZE WEI is one of the selected artists as Bamboo Curtain Studio International Residency Program in 2016. She is now looking forward to her two-month residency program at Sàn Art Studio in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from August to October. During her visit there, she will complete her art project Hồ Xuân Hương Biography- Vietnamese Female Intellectuals Images. This program is also one of the selected proposals for Bamboo studio Booboo notebook exchange program in 2015. Via close Investigations into the eighteenth-century Vietnamese poetess Hồ Xuân Hương and her Chu Nom poems, along with visual documents and historical data, Ze WEI attempts to unveil the alternative facets of Vietnamese Women that are absent in the mainstream discourse in Taiwan.
Links
Collaborative Organization
Sàn Art Studio：http://san-art.org/
Works in residency
2016《春香列傳-越南女性知識份子群像拍攝計畫》@「社˙藝˙流」
由自己在法國生活的經驗，深深體會到主流媒體對特定族群藉由論述塑造的偏見，如何影響收受資訊者對此「他者」族群的看法。我在法國社會屬於外來的他者，西方社會對「亞洲女性」的偏見和輕視在日常生活中如影隨形。即使擁有高學歷也受過良好的教育，我的東方人臉孔，黃皮膚，女性特徵總在許多方面與媒體給予的負面形象連結在一起。有時感受自己生活在無形的牢籠中，創作者崇尚自由的心境更想擺脫這加諸在身上的桎梏。
此一生活經驗讓我開始以同理的觀點，思考在台灣被稱為「新住民」的族群如何面對加諸在其身上的「他者」眼光。台灣社會對於來自東南亞的配偶或勞工仍有一定的偏見和誤解。即使來自同一國家，每個移工或配偶都有獨特的家庭背景和個人歷史，其中更不乏受過教育者，懷抱到異鄉打拼的勇氣，對未來同樣有著夢想抱負。然而台灣社會的主流論社會述和研究，仍偏向以問題化，他者化這些移工和配偶進行，使一論述背景不自覺地以一種自認優越眼光去審視這個擁有諸多差異的族群。主流論述所揭示的種種問題，例如貧富差距，文化差異，階級等問題確實存在，但除了這些觀點之外，一定還存在這不同的敘事可能性。因此，我試著從不同的觀點去探討，嘗試在這個創作計畫中擺脫主流論述加諸於外來移工和配偶的枷鎖，以另一種眼光去撰寫「不單一故事」。
選擇以越南女性作為主題，一方面是因為越南新娘在台灣總與人口販賣的潛在負面形象畫上等號。這些嫁來台灣的越南配偶不乏受過教育，或相當有能力才幹者，過去台灣社會經常以偏概全，將越南配偶與貧窮，沒受過教育，為了錢才嫁來台灣一概劃上等號，這是以優越的眼光貶低他者的看法。一般人或許想像不到，此一對「他者」的羞辱，嫁到國外的台灣女性也從來沒少受過。選擇越南女性作為主題，一方面也因為在法國同樣有著大量的越南移民及其後裔，且歷史更為悠久。雖然歷史因素和風土民情不盡相同，但觀察越南移民在法國社會的融入情況，所遇到的問題，以及政府和社會的因應之道，都可以為台灣提供借鏡。法國殖民時期對越南社會的建設和影響，以及身為亞洲人在法國的生活經驗，也能幫助我在前往越南拍攝時，對現代化過程造成的社會現象有更深一層的體悟。將「他者」悅納到「我」之中，不該是單向吞併和同化的過程，而應是經由不斷地溝通和交流，達到彼此了解且能設身處地互為對方設想的境界。探索越南女性知識份子的生活和創作，觀察女性在越南社會中的形象和地位，或許能在過程中發掘出目前主流論述缺乏的新觀點。
時間：2016.05.14-2016.06.16
