Cultural Outposts With Views of Destruction at Home
觀照殘破家鄉的文化前哨站
By Farah Nayeri

VENICE – When Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, fell to the Islamic State in June, members of the Ruya Foundation, an Iraqi nonprofit that set up the country’s pavilion at the last Venice Biennale, considered scrapping all plans for this year’s exhibition. “With all this carnage and death and rape, how could you even think of culture?” said Tamara Chalabi, chairwoman of the foundation.
當伊拉克第二大城摩蘇爾去年6月陷入伊斯蘭國（IS）之手後，在上一屆威尼斯雙年展中規畫國家主題館的伊拉克非營利組織「盧亞基金會」成員，考慮放棄今年參展的所有計畫。基金會董事長塔瑪拉．恰拉比說：「發生這些屠殺、死亡與性侵後，怎麼可能還顧得了文化？」

In the end, the plans went forward because it was “a statement,” she said. “When there’s so much else being destroyed, this is also one way of trying to preserve culture.”
最後，計畫仍如期進行，因為這是「一項宣告」。她說：「當那裡有如此多其他事物被摧毀之際，這也是一種嘗試保存文化的方式。」

In the century since they first appeared, the national pavilions at the Venice Biennale here – today, there are about 90 of them – have acted as cultural outposts of the countries they represent. But what happens when those countries are in the middle of an armed conflict?
國家主題館出現在威尼斯雙年展已有百餘年，如今約有90個，形同代表各個國家的文化前哨站。若那些國家正處於武裝衝突中，又當如何？

The art often reflects the horrors at home: Artists and curators, who view portraying reality as a duty, illustrate it in a range of media, and Venice becomes a platform for geopolitical frictions.
藝術經常反映家鄉的恐懼，藝術家和策展人視描繪現實為己任，利用各種媒介說明，而威尼斯也成為地緣政治摩擦的表現平台。

Conflict is certainly visible this year in the pavilions of Iraq, Ukraine and Syria, which are all privately funded. Iraq and Ukraine tackle the hostilities directly: Iraq evokes the brutalities of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) in drawings, watercolors and photographs, while Ukraine illustrates its ordeal through painting, sculpture and an installation with artists who are on a hunger strike.
「衝突」在今年的伊拉克、烏克蘭及敘利亞展館顯而易見，這些館皆由私人贊助。伊拉克和烏克蘭館直接面對戰爭問題：伊拉克將伊斯蘭國（也稱作ISIS或ISIL）的殘暴表現在素描、水彩畫及照片中，烏克蘭則透過油畫、雕塑和藝術家進行絕食抗議的裝置藝術，刻畫國家的苦難。

“The Venice Biennale is revealing of the tensions in the world, and how nations want to present themselves,” said Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate museums.
英國泰特博物館館長尼可拉斯．塞洛塔說：「威尼斯雙年展揭露世界各地的緊張情勢，以及各個國家想要如何自我呈現。」

A major focus of the Iraqi pavilion this year (held at Ca’ Dandolo, a palazzo on the Grand Canal) is a set of drawings by adult Iraqi refugees who fled the Islamic State’s onslaught.
今年伊拉克國家館的主要焦點（該館位於大運河旁的丹多羅宮）是一組素描，由逃離伊斯蘭國殺戮的伊拉克成年難民所繪。

These depictions – a hooded militant shooting a mother and child, a bandaged man whose bleeding heart is shaped like Iraq – were produced when the Ruya Foundation took paper, pencils and crayons to refugees in three camps in northern Iraq.
這些繪畫－一名蒙面民兵射殺一對母子，一名綁著繃帶的男子狀似伊拉克的心臟正流著血－是盧亞基金會帶著紙、鉛筆及蠟筆到伊拉克北部的三處難民營造訪難民後，所產生的作品。

Of the five artists displayed at the exhibition, two have created works directly related to the Islamic State. Haider Jabbar, a young exile in Turkey, is showing expressionistic watercolors depicting a series of severed, bleeding heads, each with a case number (rather than a name) in the title. Akam Shex Hadi’s elegantly staged black-and-white photographs show isolated figures from communities under Islamic State attack standing with black fabric – representing the attackers’ flag – coiled around their feet.
展覽作品的5位作者中，2位的創作和伊斯蘭國有直接關聯。身在土耳其的年輕流亡者海德．賈巴爾用表現主義水彩畫，描繪一系列被砍下的血淋淋的頭顱，每一個都以案件編號（而非人名）作為畫作名稱。阿坎．薛克斯．哈迪精心呈現的黑白照片，顯示遭伊斯蘭國攻擊的社區內的孤立人物站在黑色布料旁，黑布象徵伊斯蘭國的旗幟，在他們的腳邊盤繞。

“ISIS comes just to kill,” said Mr. Hadi, an Iraqi Kurd, adding that the flag was “like a snake” twisting around its victims.
伊拉克庫德族人哈迪說：「ISIS就為了殺人而來。」他接著又說，黑旗「像條蛇」環繞著受害者扭動。

All of the works in the Ukrainian pavilion, a glass box parked along the Grand Canal, represent the strife in Ukraine in one way or another. Inside, the Open Group collective is presenting a young artist on hunger strike, sitting at a table with a water jug and a glass and staring at nine live video feeds showing the homes of Ukrainian soldiers who have been drafted. Whenever a soldier returns from the front, the artist ends his hunger strike and another takes over.
停佇在大運河旁的玻璃建築是烏克蘭館，所有作品皆以某種方式呈現烏克蘭衝突。在館內，開放群組的集體創作展示一名正在絕食的年輕藝術家，坐在放了水壺和玻璃杯的桌子旁，注視著9個即時影片轉播，畫面顯示被徵召的烏克蘭士兵的住家。每當一名士兵從前線歸來，這位藝術家便結束絕食，由另一人接棒。

Outside the pavilion is an encased outdoor sculpture by the Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan, made of damaged items from eastern Ukraine. They include concrete chunks from an apartment block that had been bombed and teacups melted into the glass shelf they once rested on.
館外是一件被圍起的戶外雕塑，由烏克蘭藝術家尼基塔．卡丹所作，以來自烏東的毀損物品製成，包含一個街區內被轟炸公寓的水泥塊，以及被融進玻璃層板的茶杯，那裡曾是它們棲息之所。

The Syrian pavilion is the least overt in representing conflict. It was funded by non-Syrian (mainly Italian) sponsors and displays a mix of Syrian and European art.
敘利亞館在表現衝突方面最不明顯，由非敘利亞贊助商（主要是義大利人）提供資金，展示內容混合了敘利亞和歐洲的作品。

“Syria is a country that’s going through a difficult period,” said Duccio Trombadori of Italy, the curator. “The intention here is to show that while politics and history are divisive, art is not.”
義大利籍策展人杜奇歐．托姆巴多里說：「敘利亞是個正經歷艱困時期的國家，此館用意在於展示，政治和歷史會導致分歧，藝術卻不會。」

One work, by Ehsan Alar, shows a suite of sculpted feet in a trail of sand; according to Mr. Trombadori, it represents the migration of people. Another set, by Nassouh Zaghlouleh, are dim black-and-white photographs of window views and courtyards with no clear signs of war.
艾山．阿拉爾的作品展示在一灘沙子中的腳形雕塑，杜奇歐．托姆巴多里說這代表人們移居的軌跡。另一組納蘇．札格魯勒的作品是昏暗的黑白窗景和庭院照，沒有明顯的戰爭痕跡。

The pavilion also shows an unrelated selection of European pop-art collages and cityscapes, and, floating in the lagoon, a stainless-steel iceberg sculpture by the Italian-Albanian artist Helidon Xhixha that denounces global warming.
這個展館也展示一批彼此不相關的作品，包括歐洲普普藝術拼貼和都市景觀，以及由義大利－阿爾巴尼亞藝術家海力登．西夏所創作，漂浮在潟湖之上的一座不銹鋼冰山雕塑，譴責全球暖化。

A more slicing view of Syria is provided in the opening film by the Abounaddara group. In it, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria solemnly walking down a red carpet past a military formation. Suddenly, the screen goes blank and reads: “Sorry for this technical failure. Please keep enjoying the spectacle.”
關於敘利亞的更片面觀點由Abounaddara的開幕影片提供，片中敘利亞總統巴夏爾．阿塞德嚴肅地走在紅毯上，經過一列軍隊。突然間螢幕一片空白，寫著：「很抱歉發生技術性故障，請繼續欣賞這個場面。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/arts/design/venice-biennale-pavilions-for-iraq-ukraine-and-syria-reflect-strife-at-home.html

2015-06-02聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 莊蕙嘉譯 原文參見紐時週報十二版上