连州国际摄影年展总策展人段煜婷谈年展

摄影：观察与被观察

　　在一个小城市衍展摄影的话题，展示当下中国丰富的影像资源，并对世界不同文化背景下的摄影进行探讨，是我们创立连州国际摄影年展的初衷。

　　连州以极大的包容盛载了我们对于摄影的所有理想，人为策划的摄影节却像是源自于

本体一样自然地扎根、发芽，我想每一个去年来过的人都可以感受到一种独特的连州风格的摄影节氛围，某种意义上我们更加立足于中国，连州摄影年展只是中国摄影的一个出口，也是我们与世界摄影同步的契机。

　　在每一个城区旧建筑改造而成的展区，在混杂着普通市民的多种风格的展览中；在连州周围的古老村庄；在夜晚的摄影幻灯放影会中；在城中每一个江边大排档的敞饮中……当看到摄影节独特的连州原生态艺术表演的开幕式时，有艺术界朋友说，“摄影节就像是一个大型群众运动，摄影的力量太强大了！也许只有摄影才能做到这样”。这样的评价很贴切，艺术本来就不应只在博物馆里，能如此贴近于社会，真的很好。

　　举办艺术、摄影或学术上某种形式的会、展，在世界范围内，许多先行者已经作出了很好的榜样，如：巴赛尔艺术博览会、阿尔勒摄影节、日本山形纪录片节等。作为后来者，我们将摄影这样一种与人类的当代生活结合紧密的视觉交流形式再一次植根到一个小城市，它的影响与意义不仅在于摄影与相关的专业界本身，随着时间的推移，它对于举办地的人与文化生态的影响也将会是深远的，当然这些影响还会体现在经济与社会生活诸方面。

　　摄影本身即是一种视觉表达与交流的媒介， “在当今世界，除了口传和文本之外，意义还借助于视觉而传播。图像传达信息，提供快乐和悲伤，影响风格，决定消费，并且调节权力关系。我们看到谁？看不到谁？谁有特权处在威势赫赫的体制内部？历史上过去的事件哪些方面实际上拥有流通性视觉表征，哪些方面并不拥有？谁会对何种视觉图像所提供的何种东西产生幻觉？这些便是我们对于图像及其传播所提出的部分问题。”伊雷特 罗戈夫站在视觉文化的角度，对视觉领域的图像进行文化上的解构。

　　我们试图通过连州的每一个展览来传达摄影本质的意义，以及它衍生出的其它意义，我们希望能够使观者能够在其固有的观看模式中发现新的观看方式，今年，我们更加将它作为主题提出——“观察与被观察”。

　　我们对于摄影的探讨将回到摄影本身，主体与客体，观看与被观看，私密性观看与社会性观看……我们的多数展览也将围绕主题展开讨论。我们的国内外策展人们也将会带来他们推崇的摄影师的作品，他们将继续固守着他们近乎苟刻的策展标准。在展览空间方面，去年我们请了“哈佛”的建筑博士来操刀，今年改造新的“空间”，我们同样会作足功夫。“群众运动”是一种有效的方式，但只有保持在某种水准基础上的“群众运动”才具有意义。

　　欢迎每一个热爱艺术与不爱艺术的朋友，欢迎每一个热爱摄影与不爱摄影的朋友，再次前来参加这场摄影与艺术的群众运动！

　　连州国际摄影年展总策展人：段煜婷

　　Photography - The Observer and the Observed

　　The Lianzhou International Photo Festival was born out of the desire to demonstrate the immense wealth of photography found in China while exploring photographic works from various cultural backgrounds in an exhibition held in a small-sized Chinese city.

　　Although organized by a team full of ideals and dreams about photography, a festival should grow naturally from the land it is held in. Last year’s edition gave most people a taste of the Lianzhou International Photo Festival’s remarkable ambiance—a unique chance for Chinese photography to meet the world and share the stage with the wider world of international photography.

　　Exhibition spaces grown out of the remodeling of ancient architecture, wanderings in the surrounding old villages, captivating nighttime slide shows, riverside food-stall activity, local folk color… While watching Lianzhou’s phenomenal opening ceremony, a friend active in the art world commented: “The festival is so intense it’s like those mass campaigns we used to have in the past! Perhaps only photography possesses the ability to produce such a powerful effect.” Such praise is justified, for art isn’t only meant for museums, and it’s marvelous for it to have an opportunity to reach out and touch the masses.

　　There are pioneers around the world who have already provided a model for holding an artistic, photographic and academic forum or exhibition in a uniquely symbolic city with limited capabilities and a relatively peaceful environment: the Basel Art Expo, the Arle Photography Festival, and the Yamagata Film Festival. As latecomers, we have taken photography, this visual form that is tightly intertwined with mankind’s contemporary life, and once again planted it in a small city. Its influence and significance will not merely be limited to its related fields and professions; over time, it will have a profound impact on the people and cultural state of the place where it is held. Of course its influence will also manifest in many aspects of economy and society as well.

　　Photography is in essence a medium for visual expression and interaction. “In this society, aside from speaking and writing, meaning can also be spread through the use of the visual. Images spread information, provide joy and sorrow, effect style, determine consumption and alter power relationships. Who do we see? Who don’t we see? Who has the right to be within the system of power and righteousness? Which events in history truly possess flowing visual characteristics, and which ones do not? Who can produce a vision from what is provided by the visual image? These are some of our questions regarding images and their dissemination.” Irit Rogoff is looking from the perspective of visual culture and engaging in cultural construction of images in the visual field.

　　Through each edition of the Lianzhou Festival, we try to lead the viewer to discover new ways of viewing, and this year’s theme “The Observer and the Observed” was conceived with the viewer in mind.

　　Exhibitions will discuss topics revolving around the theme, touching on such subjects as the essence of photography, objectivity and subjectivity, the observer and the observed, and personal and public interpretations; curators from home and abroad will present works by highly esteemed photographers that meet the criteria of the exhibition; and the exhibition space, like last year’s Harvard professor of architecture-designed space, will be creatively and meticulously carved out, for while the concept of “mass campaign” is a useful paradigm for the festival, it only bears significance if the event is based on certain standards.

　　We open our arms to the public—to all those who love or do not love art, to all those who love or do not love photography, and to all those who have come before or who will come again—and welcome it to take part in this great “mass” celebration of the art of photography.

　　Duan Yuting

　　Director, Lianzhou International Photo Festival