養神院—陳哲偉

　　參與本館104年度展覽申請獲選的藝術家陳哲偉(1986- )，2011年北藝大美術創作碩士班畢業，曾入選2014年度台北美術獎，現居住及工作於台北。陳哲偉作品常以寓言般跨越不同形式疆界進行書寫，現實與虛構交錯、時間與空間跳躍、情節與情境塑造，見諸於作品中交織的影像、聲音、文字與物件。這次2014年度申請展個展計畫，則於本館地下樓以《養神院》為名，延續2013年《在齁空間裡嚎囂》中四頻道錄像〈我的心與你同在羅克蘭〉拍攝四位曾經住過精神病院的朋友，進而發展的主題。養神院成立於1930年代，為台灣日本統治時期由國家成立第一間專門安置、監禁、治療精神病患之機構。藝術家藉由此作為引子，審視現代性社會發展進程中無法忽視之矛盾，被自然且不公正排除的對象——精神病患。以其處境為核心發展出作品〈遺忘記事〉、〈免疫身體〉與〈雙重肖像〉，試圖透過不同層面如歷史、社會、空間與身體等，探討被遺忘之個人記憶與集體意識，顯現系統中隱匿的權力與政治。本書三位作者龔卓軍、許芳慈、印卡分別撰文，為展覽延伸出不同視角與論述厚度，也收錄《養神院》之前作品作為參照，點滴記錄創作脈絡上對於精神狀態持續的探討與關注。

　　Selected for a 2015 Application Exhibition, upcoming artist Che-Wei Chen (b.1986) is a 2011 graduate of the Master of Fine Arts Program at Taipei National University of the Arts and was chosen for the 2014 Taipei Arts Awards. He currently lives and works in Taipei. For his four channel video I'm with You in Rockland, exhibited at his 2013 solo exhibition HOWL in Howl Space, Chen recorded autobiographical stories of four friends who had been residents of a psychiatric hospital. Later, Chen continued working in the same vein, developing it into his project Oblivion, the subject of the current exhibition. The project is named for a psychiatric hospital built in the 1930s during the period of Japanese rule in Taiwan. It was during this time that the government established Taiwan's first institution for confining and treating the mentally ill, which represented the first restrictions of modern social order in Taiwan. Chen intends this issue as the first part of ongoing observations of psychiatric patients who have been marginalized by injustice in the course of modern social development. Using the unfortunate plights of these individuals as the focus of his work, Chen discusses individual and collective memory from the perspectives of history, society, physical space and the body. His goal is to present the politics hidden within history and the system.