The Encounters

It may be a futile wish to keep a few white spots on our maps, but human adventure, in its original sense, lost its meaning, became an issue for the Guinness Book of World Records. Scott and Amundsen were clearly early protagonists, and from there on it degenerated into absurd quests.

希望世界的地圖上能留下幾處空白，也許是個無謂的想法，但人類的探險早已失去了它的原意，只成了金氏世界紀錄裡的一筆紀錄。斯克特和阿蒙森當然是最初的探險家，但從此之後，一切都變成了荒誕的冒險。

—Werner Herzog, Encounters at the End of the World

──韋納．荷索，《在世界盡頭相遇》

Inspired by a section in Werner Herzog’s documentary, Encounters at the End of the World, where people go through training as a team to find missing persons in preparation for extreme high arctic weather, during my Arctic Circle Residency I invited nine program members from different parts of the world to participate in the project. With paper bags placed over their heads to constrict their sight and hearing and to simulate being out in a heavy Arctic blizzard, the participants then conducted a rescue performance, in which they relied on a piece of rope to communicate and survive. The performance came to a halt when one of the participants tripped over a glacier crevasse. Just like the training documented in the film, in which they had eventually lost their way and were unable to complete the rescue, the performance, juxtaposed with the conversation in the documentary, alluded to the potential absurdity behind “modern polar expeditions.”

2017年在北極圈駐村期間，我以韋納．荷索《在世界盡頭相遇》紀錄片中，協力搜尋失散夥伴的訓練片段作為啟發，邀請9位來自國際的同行團員，在頭部套上紙袋，模擬嚴酷極地大風雪中受限的視線和聽覺，於橡皮艇上和冰川邊緣，靠著一條繩索溝通、生存。這場表演以團員在冰川裂隙前跌跤作結，如同紀錄片裡的訓練，到底還是迷失了方向，沒有達成救援目的便告終。並利用紀錄片裡的訓練過程的部分對話，與極地表演片段對應呈現，意圖展示「現代極地探險」潛在的荒誕性。

The Encounters is in memory of Devra Freelander, an artist who held the rope with us while walking on the glacier, and unfortunately lost her life in an accident in July 2019. Still, I believe her enthusiastic and talented spirit must radiate in the night sky of the far North.

僅以此作品紀念 Devra Freelander，在冰川上與我們一同緊握繩索的藝術家, 她的生命在2019年7月殞落於一場意外，而無法和我們繼續前行。但我相信，她那炙熱且充滿才華的靈魂，一定還在遙遠北方的某處夜空裡，繼續發著光。