Becoming the Other: On Silence, Voice, and Ethics of Representation
MACA 2025.06.07 15:00 – 17:00
Yun Feng, Yang Yunchang, He Yining
As MACA’s current exhibition “Dan’er: Yaxim/Sizhi” enters its final week, we invite artist Yun Feng, anthropologist Yang Yunchang, and researcher-curator He Yining for a public dialogue on Saturday, June 7th afternoon. Together, they will explore a question that extends from the exhibition: How can artistic creation respond to the “Other”?
We appear to inhabit a world where everything can be rendered “other”—different ethnicities, territories, human and non-human entities. The boundaries of the “Other” are continuously eroded until we confront a fundamental dilemma: can or should one individual represent another?
While subtly different from contemporary art’s “anthropological turn,” artists do not always engage with a clearly defined “field,” nor do their practices necessarily pursue social engagement within relational aesthetics’ interactive framework. Between creators’ self-expression and their representation of the “Other” lies an ambiguous terrain that makes ethical concerns around “identity politics” and “cultural appropriation” increasingly pressing and inescapable.
Moving beyond individual artistic experiences and private expressions, we seek to examine the question of the “Other” at a more public level: Do exhibition and dissemination mechanisms amplify existing power imbalances? Does creating and displaying work about the “Other” enhance visibility or monopolize interpretation?
Perhaps when confronting structural silence and voicelessness, any “diverse” voice originating from outside may be perceived as suppressing “internal” voices—simply by virtue of its audibility or privileged transmission position. Yet at the most basic level, none of us can entirely escape being othered. Can we transcend the binary of “self” and “Other” to connect as fellow “bare life”?
Through this dialogue, our three speakers will draw upon their own fluid identity experiences to reconsider the efficacy of the “Other” and identity politics, unveiling power structures concealed behind “visibility.” They will explore how “indigenous knowledge” might be understood as living intellectual resources rather than appropriable cultural symbols, while seeking possibilities for reshaping cultural imagination through both action and expression.
何以为“ta”——沉默、发声及其限度
值MACA当前展览“旦儿：雅克西姆/斯孜”最后一周之际，6月7日下午，MACA邀请艺术家云峰、人类学学者杨云鬯、研究者与策展人何伊宁，围绕着由展览延伸出的话题展开对谈——艺术创作何以回应“他者”？
我们似乎正身处于一切皆可被他者化的世界：不同民族、疆域、人与非人——“他者”的轮廓不断被稀释，直至我们面临这样一种困境：个体能否或应不应当表述另一个个体？
微妙地区别于当代艺术的“人类学转向”，艺术家并不总是面对一片“田野”，其创作也并非总是以社会参与为目的，进入关系美学的互动范畴之中。创作者的自我表达与对“他者”的表述之间存在一片模糊地带，使得“身份政治”“文化挪用”等伦理问题变得愈发紧迫且难以回避。
在艺术家的个体经验与私人表达之外，我们希望在更具公共性的层面讨论“他者”的问题——展览与传播机制是否放大了本就失衡的权力关系？关于“他者”的创作与展示，究竟是在增加其可见性，还是在垄断对“他者”的阐释？
或许，面对结构性的沉默与失语，任何一种并非来自“内部”的“多元”声音，都可能因其音高或易于被听见的传播位置，而被体认为一种对“内部”声音的抑制。然而，在最基本的层面上，我们每个人都无法完全免于被他者化的命运。我们能否超越“自我”与“他者”的二元对立，作为共同生活的“赤裸生命”相联结？
在本次对谈中，三位嘉宾将结合自身流动的身份经验，重新思考“他者”与身份政治的有效性，揭示“可见性”背后隐匿的权力结构；探讨如何将“本土知识”视为一种活的思想资源，而非可被挪用的文化符号；并进一步寻求在行动与表达中重塑自身文化想象的可能性。
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