The solo exhibition of Chou Yu-Cheng, “1 Manager with 3 Artists + 3 Companies”, features 6 projects between 2010 and 2014, in which the Taipei-based conceptual artist positions himself as an intermediary (or a “manager”), who mediates and negotiates among different individuals, institutions, companies, etc. Chou has been interested in the functioning and the functioning of the art system. Instead of creating artworks of exhibition, he aims at triggering an alternative type
of resources flow in the economy of art, one that is more fluid, multi-directional, and mutually beneficial, through the strategies of what he coins as “tricks of design”. Thus in the three projects involving companies (TOA Lighting, Rainbow Paint and TEMCO), the role of the artist consists in going between a corporation and a museum, convincing the former to become the sponsor and the latter to accept the sponsored manufactured products (fifty T5 fluorescent lamps, the paint) as the sole content of the exhibition. In the more recent works, Chou has furthered to mediate the life experiences of three “artists” (Geoff Molyneux, Yan Yi-Cheng and Lu Chieh-te) appropriates and re-interprets their works in his unique way. Through conducting interviews with these unknown people on their life courses, Chou contributes to put the spotlight on them, and to safeguard the history and memories of an older generation. His personal engagement and close collaboration with the “authors” whose works he appropriates also gives a new turn to the “postmodern” questioning of appropriation, reproduction, copyright and so on.
周育正個展《一位經理與三位藝術家+
三家企業》,展出藝術家2010-2014年間實現
的六件作品。在這些計劃裡,這位長駐台北的
觀念藝術家將自己定位為“中介者”(抑或
“經理”),在不同個人、機構、企業、角色
等等之間調解和斡旋。周育正向來對藝術體
制運作深感興趣。他不滿足於創造直接放在展
覽場地展示的藝術品,而是透過他稱之為“設
計詭計”的策略,引發另一種資源流動更加流
暢、多方向、而且相互受惠的藝術經濟模式。
在三件與私人企業合作的計劃中(《東亞照
明》、《虹牌油漆》和《TEMCO》),藝術
家的角色主要是穿梭於企業和美術館之間的中
介,說服前者成為贊助商,並讓後者接受贊助
商品(50只日光燈、油漆)乃是展覽的唯一
內容。在較近期的創作裡,周育正進一步將斡
旋對象擴展為三位“藝術家”(莫里諾、顏貽
成和盧皆得)的“生命經驗”,以個人獨特的
方式對他們的作品進行挪用和重新詮釋。周育
正透過與這些不知名人物進行訪談,讓他們的
生命歷程成為聚光燈焦點,同時守護了老一輩
的歷史和記憶。他個人對這幾位他挪用作品的
“作者”的用心以及與他們密切合作,代表了
挪用、再生產、著作權等議題的“後現代”提
問的一個轉折。