top of page
南榕的二三事

Historie(s) of Nylon

書寫公廠 X 鄭南榕基金會・紀念館

Writing FACTory X Nylon Cheng Memorial Museum

2018-08-04 ~ 2018-10-21 ​

MOCA Taipei and

Nylon Cheng Memorial Museum

Mixed media installation

Dimensions variable

入口形象區以美術館與學校之間分界共有的過道門窗,貼覆一張鄭南榕辦公室經燒毀後的照片輸出,以及兩側鏡牆和五組活動文件櫃,形構一個鄭南榕史料文件區。

鄭南榕(1947-1989)向來被以「象徵性」正義的詮釋被大家所認識,然而,「象徵性」正義的價值在當今呈現多元的混淆甚或各種簡化,如同我們置身歷史的各個節點皆是相互交織而成的生態紋理,無法以二分法、「簡化主義」得視全貌。

 

時值臺灣解嚴31年,我們將鄭南榕為人熟知的名言:「剩下就是你們的事」。由表意客體的第二人稱指向,專注在關涉鄭南榕「我自己的事」的面向上,因此在作為場域物件主體的活動文件櫃,透過左右鏡像的反射,文字與文件櫃呈現無數地擴展與空間延伸,以此寓示鄭南榕個體的一種創造力以及生命政治的能動性,其文件內容分為:

一、關於策略:
展示鄭南榕作為「行動思想家」的行動策略、思考策略及實踐的方法論基礎—對於身份定位與對媒體的策略等。

二、關於教育:
展示鄭南榕思索如何將哲學及邏輯思考教育給年輕人,包含課程的討論內容及作業規劃。

三、關於宗教:
從鄭南榕在筆記裡,對於宗教的思考及分析中使我們了解到,他如何提醒自己在推動某種議題以及讓受眾維持獨立思考之間取得平衡。

四、關於家庭:
在行動者與思想家的角色之外,鄭南榕作為父親的身份也是我們所不熟悉的「自己的事」。

五、其他「自己的事」:
當「剩下就是你們的事」被不斷複誦,經常被忽略的「剩下」意指什麼?(必須了解他將哪些事已劃為「自己的事」於實踐之後,才能理解哪些是「你們的事」)。

 

從文件中我們得以重新掌握個體對於正義之味的連結,正義和當時的科學認知遠比和意識形態的關係更為緊密,鄭南榕對於理性和自由的連結是屬於創造性,而並非單純的呼應自由主義的民主化。

 

鏡牆上的文字為雜誌創辦人鄭南榕發行的各種時代雜誌,在屢屢遭到查禁而必須一再智巧地改變雜誌名稱與發行人,以圖求存。因此鏡面上依序各種時代週刊之名排列,呈現視覺戲法下整體意象的「時代」二字,藉此史料回視曾經發生的革命精神與創造性人格,轉譯各種方式被發現與理解同時再創造。

 

 

A photograph printout of Nylon Cheng’s office after it was set on fire is pasted on the windows, the mirror walls at the two sides, and five mobile filing cabinets on the hallway dividing the museum and the school at the museum’s entrance hall.These have trans formed this gallery into an archive room of Nylon Cheng.

Nylon Cheng (1947-1989) is recognized as a symbol of justice; however, the value of such “symbolic” justice in today’s time has resulted in various confusions or different simplifications. This echoes with the fact that the various points in history that we are situated in are interwoven into an ecological pattern that can’t be seen in whole through the method of bisection or via “simplism”.

 

With the 31st anniversary of the lifting of martial law in Taiwan upon us, these famous words by Nylon is referenced: “the rest will be up to you”, with the objective second-person pronoun changed into “up to me”, and focus is placed on things related to Nylon. Bearing this in mind, the mobile filing cabinets in the exhibition space serve as object-oriented subjects, and through the mirrored reflections on the left and right, the texts and the filing cabinets seem to extend into infinity, forming a metaphor for Nylon’s bio-political ingenuity and dynamism. The following four matters are presented in the documents:

1. Strategy: The action strategies, thought strategies, and methodology basis for Nylon as an activist thinker, such as self-identity and strategies towards the media.

2. Education: Nylon’s approach to educating the youth in philosophy and logic, including course discussion and homework.

3. Religion: According to the thought process and analysis of Nylon’s notes, we gain insight into his ways of reaching a balance between promoting an issue and leaving space for independent thought.

4. Family: Apart from his role as an activist and thinker, Nylon’s role as a father is one of those aspects that we are unfamiliar with.

5. “Up to Me”: Despite the fact that the phrase “…the rest is up to you” has been repeated again and again, we should inspect what Nylon was talking about when referring to issues that are categorized as “the rest.” (We should first explore what issues are “up to me.” Only then can we be clear about issues that are “up to you.”)

 

We are able to once again gain control over the connection between an individual and the sense of justice from these documents, and how justice is more closely related to scientific understanding than ideology. The connection Nylon had held between rationality and freedom was ingenious, which did not just simply echo with the democratization of liberalism.

 

The words on the mirror walls are excerpts from various Era Weekly magazines published by Nylon, which were banned on several occasions, forcing him to cleverly alter the names of the magazine and the publisher on several occasions, in order to continue to publish it. Arranged on the mirror walls are the Era Weekly under different names, which comprehensively come to visually form the Chinese characters for the word “era” (時代). These historical documents are presented as a way to reexamine the revolutionary spirits and ingenious characteristics that took place, with different ways to discover and understand interpreted and also reinvented. 

bottom of page