十方展覽｜《欲哭欲笑哭笑不得Oscillations》Sam Alekksandra（馬耳他）個人駐留作品展

■ ■ 策展人前言 ■ ■

Curator’s Foreword

痛苦（pain）與快樂（pleasure）相伴相生且循環往復。我們的內心如同過山車一樣上上下下，留戀著過去，期待著未來。所欲而所得即喜，所欲而所不得則惡。

藝術家Sam一邊將極致的情感通過裝置及影像呈現出來，其中模糊處理的情緒是喜極而泣？或是悲痛欲絕？還是皆為遊戲？另一邊藝術家拿起筆墨在黑白之間書寫繪畫，體悟一念一想之間何為真實？東西方價值在Sam的作品中輕輕碰觸，卻也餘音嫋嫋。

正如藝術家所關注的，根本或許在於絕望與狂喜之間的模糊地帶。好比樹木生長，順應四季變化，但求中正，不蔓不枝，才能立於天地之間。於人而言亦是此理，行事不慌不忙，內心不卑不亢，判斷不偏不倚，處處都在強調一個“中”字。

奈何總起心動念，處處皆喜怒哀樂，但春秋仍然，天地依舊，是謂“天地不仁”。對於這次展覽而言，“欲哭欲笑哭笑不得”這個名字也實有一種自嘲的意味。

——牛琦瑋

Pain and pleasure are intertwined, constantly cycling and recurring. Our inner selves are like a roller coaster, moving up and down, with nostalgic for the past and anticipating the future. What we desire and obtain brings joy, while what we desire but cannot attain brings suffering.

Artist presents extreme emotions through installations and images, where the blurred emotions might be tears of joy, agony, or merely part of the game. On the other hand, Sam uses brush and ink to explore what is real between black and white. The values of East and West gently touch upon each other in Sam’s works, leaving a lingering resonance.

As the artist observes, the essence may lie in the blurred zone between despair and ecstasy. Just like trees grow, adapting to the changes of the seasons, seeking balance and avoiding excess, they stand between heaven and earth. For humans, the same principle applies: acting with composure, maintaining inner balance, and making judgments impartially all emphasize the concept of “be in the middle.”

When our heart and mind start, they leads us to joy and sorrow. Yet spring and autumn continue, and heaven and earth remain, as the saying from Tao Teh King says “Heaven and earth are unkind”. For this exhibition, the name “欲哭欲笑哭笑不得” indeed carries a sense of self-mockery.

——Niu Qiwei

■ ■ 藝術家自述 ■ ■

Artist’s Statement

《Oscillations》是我對痛苦和快樂的個人探索，源自我所在的西方世界及我在中國遇到的東方的哲學價值的冰山一角。

這種痛苦與快樂的二元性常常需要積極主動地去尋求超越，意味著在狂喜或絕望中失去對自我的控制。在這次展覽中，我試圖捕捉這兩個領域之間的模糊地帶，探索在絕望與狂喜之間的混沌領土，以我的身體作為知識的來源，並結合重慶的精神架構進行表達。

我將自己的身體作為材料，運用墨水、物件和裝置來反思當代極端個體化的意識形態。在當今這個時代，無論苦樂也無論好壞,每個人都承擔著對自身人性的唯一的且決定人生的責任。作品試圖調解痛苦與快樂之間的中間狀態，同時去認識狂喜既不是幸福的至高點，也不是絕望的深淵，而是一種通過對極端的無差別結合來實現的超越現象。

早期的西方思想家，如亞裏士多德，認為在快樂與痛苦之間存在對抗性的關係，他說：“快樂是一種運動，一種使整個靈魂自覺地回到其正常狀態的運動；而痛苦則是相反的。”因此，人類不斷地在減少痛苦和增加快樂之間搖擺，利用悲劇藝術等手法來鼓勵對不可避免的痛苦的忍耐。

然而，早期的中國思想家們則尋找一個更深層次的基礎，以便將美與禮儀（樂，長期愉悅）以及身體愉悅（喜，短期快樂）結合起來。對於孟子和楊朱這樣的思想家來說,快樂不是與痛苦對立，而是與焦慮或不安（“憂”或“不安”）對立。“人性在不安的情境中無法感受到愉悅，同時從不享受的事物中也無法獲得任何益處。”

因此，生活可能是無數痛苦與快樂總和的簡單旅程，而人的目標不是在極端中超越它們，而是在穩定自己無法避免的起起伏伏。豐都的地獄形象與大足的天國塑像作為文明的提示影響了我的創作，這些華麗的物件代表了人在生命中起起伏伏的兩個極點。

——薩姆-亞曆山德拉

Oscillations is a personal exploration of pain and pleasure, drawing on certain tips of philosophical icebergs of a Western world in which I am from and the Eastern one that I encountered in China.

This binary of pain and pleasure is often engaged in an active hunt to transcend it, in the throes of ecstasy, that is, the self losing control of the self. In this exhibition, I look to capture a certain blurriness between the two realms, a muddled territory between despair and exaltation using my own body as a source of knowledge, and the spiritual architecture in Chongqing.

I use my own body as material, ink, objects and installation to reflect on the ideology of extreme individualization in contemporary times, where each person bares the sole, life-defining responsibility of their own humanity, in pain and in pleasure, for better or for worse. The works mediate on the in-betweenness in pain and pleasure, as well as an understanding that ecstasy is not the supreme heights of happiness nor the violent depths of despondency, but rather the phenomenon of transcendence, often through an indiscriminate combination of extremes.

Occidental thinkers as early as Aristotle claimed an antagonistic relationship in oscillation between the pleasure and pain, in that “Pleasure is a movement, a movement by which the soul as a whole is consciously brought into its normal state of being; and that Pain is the opposite.” Humans, therefore, are in constant motion to lessen pain and grow pleasure, using instruments like tragic art to encourage an endurance of inevitable suffering.

Early Chinese thinkers, however, were looking for a deeper foundation on which beauty and decorum, on the one hand, and physical pleasure, on the other, might be grounded, and is well captured between two concepts: le (long-term pleasure) and xi (short-term delight). The shades of pleasure for those like Mencius and Yang Zhu constantly oppose pleasure not to pain, but to anxiety or insecurity (yōu 憂, or bù’ān 不安 in classical Chinese). “Human nature is incapable of feeling pleasure in an insecure situation, yet one cannot gain any benefit from what one does not take pleasure in.”

Life, then, can be a simple journey of the multitudes of pain and pleasure, the aim not to transcend them in extremities, but to stabilise the highs and lows that are inescapable to every human. The figures of hell in Fengdu to the heavenly sculptures carved into rock in Dazu inform the work as civil reminders of this, ornate objects that represent the two points in which we oscillate between during our lifetimes.

——Sam Alekksandra

■ ■ 展覽信息 ■ ■

Exhibition Information

《欲哭欲笑哭笑不得》

Oscillations

Sam Alekksandra（MT）Solo Resident Exhibition

Sam Alekksandra（馬耳他）個人駐留作品展

展覽開幕 Opening：2024.8.18 19:00

展覽時間 Exhibition Period：

2024.8.18-9.1 14:00-18:00

（每週五至週日｜Every Fri. to Sun.）

展覽地點 Venue：

重慶十方藝術中心 A展廳

Exhibition Hall A, Dimensions Art Center, Chongqing, China

藝術總監｜Art Director：曾途 Zeng Tu

展覽策劃｜Curator：牛琦瑋 Niu Qiwei

執行統籌｜Coordination：劉暢 Liu Chang

展覽協助｜Assistance：劉春利 Liu Chunli 胡克 Ben

駐留藝術家簡歷︱Resume of Artist：

薩姆-亞曆山德拉是一位來自馬爾他的多學科詩人。在她的創作實踐中，她希望通過物品、表演、詩歌和視頻等多渠道來傳遞文本，從而建立一種當代的、直接的、充滿記憶的、固有的碎片化和原始的個人哲學。她曾在法國、德國、馬爾他和中國舉辦過展覽。Sam Alekksandra is a multidisciplinary poet from Malta. In her practice she looks to deliver text through a multi-channel of objects, performance, poetry and video, to build a personal philosophy that is contemporary, immediate, memory-fuelled, inherently fragmented, and raw. She has exhibited in France, Germany, Malta and China.

近期作品包括2024年7月，與她的藝術團體在上海朱家角舉辦的展覽；2024年5月，在柏林/慕尼克舉行的多城市表演；以及2024年3月，為馬爾他首屆雙年展創作的詩意表演和裝置藝術。

Recent works include a solo show in Zhujiajiao, Shanghai with her art collective (July, 2024), a multi-city performance called LET YOUR MOVE BE RESISTANCE, (Berlin/Munich, May 2024) and HESITATIONS, a poetic performance and installation for Malta’s first biennale (March 2024).

2023年12月，她在馬爾他的Rosa Kwir畫廊推出了自己的首部實驗電影《如果你確定我想》，此前她還獲得了馬爾他國家青年藝術家獎。

She released her debut experimental film “If You’re Sure I Want To” in December 2023, at Rosa Kwir gallery in Malta, after winning a National award for promising young artists.

近年參展 / 演出：

Select Exhibitions / Performances

[ANONYMOUS COLLECTIVE] solo exhibition, Shanghai, 2024

LET YOUR MOVE BE RESISTANCE, performance, Berlin/Munich, May/June 2024

I can’t write these kinds of poems, performance, Council of Europe, May 2024

OUTERPOETRY, installation, Valletta, Malta, April 2024

HESITATIONS, site-specific installation, Malta Biennale, March 2024

IF YOU’RE SURE I WANT TO, film debut, Rosa Kwir, December 2023

XQXS, Rosa Kwir, Malta, group exhibition, November 2023

IN SERVITUDE OF NOTHING, AHS Hasinheide Berlin, group exhibition, September 2023

FAR REACH, MaHalla Berlin, Berlin Art Week, September 2023 Beehive, Oikos Logia, R Gallery, group exhibition, April 2023

JA! JA! JA! poetic performance, R Gallery, July 2023

The first time I kissed a girl I thought I was a boy, Teatru Tal-Miskin, group exhibition, Valletta, October 2022

Politics of touch, chapbook of poetry, Ede Books, December 2022

Princess wonderful ft. heartsbeatingintime, Storeroom, June 2021

Princess wonderful, Bewyld festival, October 2018

Princess wonderful, Rock the South Festival, May 2017

藝術家以往作品︱Previous works of the artist：

《回答我》

RE:ME

90x200cm

焦木，線（100米），鋁

charred wood, thread (100m), aluminum

– 2023 –

《回答我》是我持續創作的一系列詩意物件的一部分，這些作品巧妙地融合了線、金屬、鏡子和木頭等材質。這件作品曾在Rosa Kwir畫廊的一次群展中展出，其中突出了以錯落有致的圖案反復出現的急切語句“KEEP ME FROM MY THOUGHTS”（讓我遠離我的思緒），這反映了在思維漩渦中所感受到的無力感和停滯狀態。

RE:ME forms part of an on-going body of work of poetic objects made with thread, metal, mirror and wood. Re:Me was featured in a group exhibition at Rosa Kwir, and features the frantic words KEEP ME FROM MY THOUGHTS in disjuncted patterns throughout, reflecting the paralysis felt during thought spirals.

《蜂巢》

BEEHIVE

詩意之物

poetic object

61.5×98.6cm

金屬，木材，線（150米）

metal, wood, thread (150m)

– 2023 –

OIKOS LOGIA，R畫廊，馬爾他，2023年4月

OIKOS LOGIA, R Gallery, Malta, April 2023

《蜂巢》這件作品以交織的詩意手法融合了有機與無機材質，引發深思：我們如何能逆轉那些看似不可逆的損害？面對生態的不和諧，我們如何能夠正視自我，而不只是自責？又如何能使已失去生機之物重煥活力？這些問題構成了作品的核心思考。此作品作為OIKOS LOGIA群展的一部分，在2023年4月展出，這是一個由10位藝術家共同參與的展覽，旨在探索人類與其棲息環境之間功能失調的關係。

BEEHIVE combines organic and inorganic material in threaded poetics: how do we reverse the irreversible? How do we look at ourselves to gaze at this ecological dissonance without beating our backs? How do you bring back to life what is deadened? The work shows part of group show OIKOS LOGIA, a 10-artist exhibition exploring the dysfunctional relationship between humans and their habitat, in April 2023.

《無物之役》

IN SERVITUDE OF NOTHING

特定場地作品 + 裝置

site-specific work + installation

紙、木炭、口紅、拾得物（20米）

paper, charcoal, lipstick, found objects (20m)

– 2023 –

《無物之役》

IN SERVITUDE OF NOTHING

《無物之役》是一個特定場地的裝置與表演藝術作品，它通過在尋獲物品上以意識流的方式書寫來實現。這件作品是展覽HOMO LUDENS的一部分，該展覽彙集了3位藝術家，各自展現了他們對所謂遊戲世界及其影響的3種不同視角。

IN SERVITUDE OF NOTHING is a site-specific installation and performance, through the act of stream-of-consciousness written with and on found objects. It formed part of show HOMO LUDENS, three artists with three visions of the world of supposed playfulness and its consequences.