Contemporary Apocalypse:
A Bio Art Perspective
in the Time of COVID-19
當代啟示錄：
瘟疫蔓延時的生物藝術觀
專題策劃 | 官妍廷
輔仁大學英語系學士、荷蘭萊登大學藝術史碩士，主修當代藝術史。現為獨立譯者及研究者，主要關注當代藝術與生命科學間的文化轉譯，曾任職於台北當代藝術館教育發展組及國立臺灣美術館展覽組，曾策劃展覽《定製真實：數位藝術之魅》（2018）
Project Leader | Kuan Yen-Ting
Kuan Yen-ting holds degrees from Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan (BA English Language and Literature) and Leiden University, the Netherlands (MA Art History, specializing in Art in the Contemporary World). Currently working as a freelance translator and researcher. Kuan’s work focuses on the cultural translation between contemporary art and life sciences. She has worked for the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and has curated Customized Reality: The Lure and Enchantment of Digital Art in 2018.
2019年末，罹患不明肺炎的患者在中國武漢確診為新型冠狀病毒感染，幾經追查，武漢華南海鮮市場被視為新冠病毒擴散的發源地。隨著各式旅行途徑，新冠病毒迅速席捲全球，世界衛生組織遂將COVID-19列為全球大流行病（pandemic）。2020年三月以來，世界各國紛紛進入緊急狀態，除了實施邊境管制外，亦頒布境內人民之行動限制令。直至2021年末，臺灣仍處於邊境封鎖狀態，疫情嚴峻的歐美各國雖有疫苗覆蓋，感染人數曲線仍不時起伏，各地更有反疫苗者（anti-vaxxer）示威，而疫苗覆蓋率較低的拉脫維亞再下封城禁令，奧地利總理試圖威嚇將限制未施打疫苗者之行動，在在顯示一場疫情揭開的不只是文明與醫學的侷限，更涉及生命治理的難題。
本計畫企圖以當前COVID-19為研究背景，取逕生物藝術以人文道德觀懷為核心、以科技技術與科學觀念為媒材的特性，叩問當代藝術藝術家在末日景觀中何以面對人類困境及危機。而在藝術、科技與科學的聯集範疇中，我們是否能以藝術角度梳理科學尚無法觸及的倫理議題，又是否能夠透過藝術性創造思考提出另類生存指南？
In late 2019, a patient with unspecified pneumonia was diagnosed with a novel coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan. After investigation, the Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was identified as the “Ground Zero” site of COVID-19. The virus has been spread rapidly through various travel means; hence the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. Since then, countries around the world have announced a state of emergency and restriction rules such as lockdowns and curfews. By the end of 2021, Taiwan has not opened its national borders yet. Despite the relatively high vaccine coverage, the number of infected people in Europe and the United States continues has not ceased to increase in the face of anti-vaxxers and Covid denier demonstrations. However, Latvia reimposes strict lockdown as the first country in Europe’s new wave of Covid due to the low vaccination rate. Austria’s chancellor even has to warn the unvaccinated that they could face a new lockdown. The ongoing apocalyptic landscape reveals that the pandemic has unveiled not only the limits of civilization and medical sciences but also the difficulty of biopolitical governance.
With the current COVID-19 background, this project attempts to take the humanistic and ethical core of bio art as the point of departure to investigate how contemporary artists confront the human predicament and crisis in the apocalyptic landscape. In the context of the convergence of art, technology, and science, can we employ artistic practices to encapsulate ethical issues that science has not been able to reach? And, can artists propose alternative guidelines for survival through their creative and critical thinking?
