Home: Records of the Hongmaogang Village Relocation
Hongmaogan Village (1624-2008), a historic village in the southwest of Taiwan, was wiped off the map by a government relocation scheme. This relocation project had taken the longest time (38 years from planning to completion), involving the largest scale of households (11,237), affecting the highest number of people (20,931), and costing the hugest amount of governmental expenditure (32.9 billion) in the history of Taiwan. In this case, Taiwan government had adopted the ideology of “high modernity” and conjured up the regulations and plan in the name of economic development. In other words, the government regarded Hongmaogang village as a laggard, underdeveloped, and hopeless community. This mindset not only justified the government policy of prohibiting the villagers from expanding their houses, but also facilitated the implementation of relocation.
This solo exhibition “Home: Records of the Hongmaogang Village Relocation” presents the images from the artist’s works which focus on the ruins and remains left of the villagers’houses in the demolition between 2007 and 2008. The contents of these images include the remained objects originally belonged to the villagers, the traces of the objects left in the space after being removed, and the industrial landscapes viewed through the broken windows.
These remains are the evidences that allow us to peer into the history of the villagers’life. The photographic collections include the appearances of these houses and the ruins, after the houses being abandoned in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and after 2000; of which cover 40 years time scale. As a result, the collections truly represent the villagers’life history. It is critical to be selective of the photographs, which represent the objects and parts of the houses, to be exhibited and to contemplate the way of transforming the sites of the ruins into a bright theater of objects. The purpose of the object theater is to highlight the social and historical values of Hongmaogang village, ignored by the development plan in the name of National Developmentalism. In these images, the traces left by the removed objects serve as memorial supplements, and the layers of the interweaving imprints on the walls depict the sequence of lives buried in the villagers’ memories deeply. If the remains represent a frozen scene of the villagers’ lives in a specific time and space, then the traces enable us to read the villagers’ experiences. The views through the broken windows represent the villagers’ deep affection to the land. However, Hongmaogang village was wiped off the map due to industrial expansion. The impressions of the landscapes are reproduced repeatedly in the villagers’ memories, while the window views become discrete fragments of the topography of Hongmaogang village.
The photographs in this exhibition not only convey a wave of nostalgia for the vanished fishing village, but also point out the necessity of reconsidering a more prudent way that allows us to properly deal with the values of local history and culture, in the process of urban planning and act as a remedy for the deficiency on ignoring local history and culture caused by the national developmentalist ideology.
紅毛港遷村實錄–家
紅毛港是已經消失在地圖上的聚落(1624年~2008年)，從規劃到執行完成是台灣有史以來歷時最久(38年)、規模最大(11237戶)、影響人數最多(20931人)以及花費最多政府預算(329億元)的遷村案。在紅毛港遷村這個個案中政府採取高度現代性(High Modernity)的意識形態以經濟發展為名制定遷村計畫與條例，將紅毛港視為落後、不發展與沒有未來的社區，進而合理化禁止增建居民房屋以及拆遷的惡性循環中。
紅毛港遷村實錄則是針對2007年到2008年的紅毛港拆除工程對居民遷出後廢棄家屋的影像創作，在這影像計畫中包含了家屋內遺留的物件、物件缺席後在空間裡的痕跡以及透過殘破窗櫺向外凝視工業環伺的景觀。
遺留是生活史的考察，採樣的對象包含70年代、80年代、90年代以及2000年之後才遷出廢棄的家屋，所以其中的物件橫跨了近40年的歷史，因此保留哪些東西、擷取哪個牆面以及如何將現場轉化成明亮的物件劇場成為再現生活史的思考。對於編寫的物件劇場則是關注國家發展主義的開發計畫中忽略的紅毛港在地社會歷史的價值。痕跡是對缺席物件的記憶補遺，透過牆上層層交織的印痕勾勒深埋在記憶裡事件序列，如果遺留是凍結某時空的生活現場，那痕跡就是閱讀生活事件的歷程。窗景是聯繫人對土地景觀情感的開口，隨著工業的擴張，迫使紅毛港聚落消逝，居民記憶裡的土地印象一再的重製，而窗景卻只能成為紅毛港地誌裡不連續的片段。
紅毛港遷村實錄的作品中並非只是對於消逝於台灣的漁村進行一種緬懷，而是透過攝影文件來思考土地開發的過程中如何更謹慎的面對在地歷史人文的價值，平衡國家發展意識形態中無視在地歷史社會的缺點。
Born in 1972 in Chiayi, Chen Po-I received his master degree in Ocean Engineering at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan.
As a photographer, Chen’s works concern the humanities and social aspects of Taiwan, using his lens to connect himself with the greater context of Taiwanese society. With this, his photographs have the power to express the collective memories of Taiwan.
His photographic works are frequently invited for exhibitions, recently include Into Society: Critical Realism in Taiwanese Photographic Arts since 1990 (Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts; 2012), Crossroads‧Another Dimension—A Cross-Strait Four-Regions Artistic Exchange Project 2013(He Xiangning Art Museum, 2013), Records of the Relocation of Hongmaogang Village( Knaudo Museum of Fine Arts, 2013), and Voices Travel: Conversation Between Two Harbours (Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts; 2014), The Pioneers of Taiwanese Artists, 1971-1980(The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, 2014). His works came into public notice internationally when they were shown at the Phnom Penh International Festival of Contemporary Photography in Cambodia in 2013. In 2015, he participates an art and cultural research project Rebirth of Doom – Regional Exchange and Dialogue Between Taiwan and Macau.
陳伯義(Chen, Po-I)
陳伯義，1972年生於台灣嘉義，1999年成功大學水利及海洋工程研究所畢業，曾參加2012年「出社會—1990年代之後的台灣批判寫實攝影藝術」在高雄市立美術館、2013年「交叉口‧異空間—兩岸四地藝術交流計劃展」深圳何香凝美術館與「紅毛港遷村實錄－家」關渡美術館、2014年「聲語遶境：兩個港口的對話─ 臺灣與北愛爾蘭交流展」高雄市立美術館和「台灣美術家『刺客列傳』；1971~1980—六年級生」國立台灣美術館…等展覽，在2013年受邀參加金邊國際攝影節，同時在2015年參加「末日再生−台灣・澳門區域性的交流與對話」的創作計畫，也曾從事過攝影教學及策展等工作，專長為攝影及海洋工程，作品曾被國立台灣美術館、高雄市立美術館、日本清里攝影美術館及私人單位典藏。目前就讀於國立成功大學水利及海洋工程研究所博士班。
