“And It Came to Pass”   ◎  Chu ChunTeng

Shot in Chongqing, China by Chun-Teng Chu in 2019, “And It Came to Pass”  is an immersive five-channel video installation that shows the progression of life through local everyday scenarios. The visual narrative presents common ordinary scenes accompanied by environmental sounds.
 
Chongqing is made to appear like a flood-like giant loop and embedded within are individual snippets that are interconnected yet unfolding in parallel to one another, including men that are leisurely swimming in the buff in the Yangtze River; captive sea turtles in the corner of a shopping center; couples embracing in a dance club; and a woman moving in between buildings... Without an objective and an endpoint, these everyday scenes are like fleeting images that only exist momentarily.
 
Juxtaposed with silhouettes of workers in the city, Chu uses a long shot to film one porter, so-called “Bang Bang” by locals, that are standing by and waiting. “Bang Bang” refers to a unique group of strolling porters in Chongqing, relying on a bamboo pole to construct Chongqing’s transportation network. The man in this channel appears like a silent spectator, as the scene subtly unveils the profession’s state of decline.
 
For Chu, “And It Came to Pass”  does not focus on the discussion of the local historical context, nor does it merely expound the observations and annotations on China or Chongqing; it highlights conundrums, which have been collectively evoked by society, which are faced by individuals, as it employs a subtle and vague approach to consider how life’s intrinsic spirits are refined through hardship.      

「 而它來去匆匆」 ◎朱駿騰

「而它來去匆匆」是我2019到中國重慶所拍攝的五頻道影像作品，過去這些年頻繁往返中國駐村與創作後，我發現重慶這個城市，那些看似抓人眼球的地景奇觀與嗆辣文化，已然無法激起我的興趣，頭一個月的田野調查個過程中，早早放棄了簡單以社會議題或歷史文本切入的想法，我開始把目光轉移到最日常不過的場景。

長江裸泳是我第一個拍攝的場景，每日從早到晚，長江邊上這處天然的迴水灣，聚集著無數趁上下班前後空擋，來此游泳放鬆的男人們，在岸邊彼此間坦誠相見怡然自得，直到入水一刻水花四濺，又因著強勁的水流，吃力緩慢地迴游著…不知其然之際

如果說以往在中國，我感受到的是一條邁向開發與未來的直線，在重慶我看到了一個如流水般巨大的迴圈，不管是這個城市與人們，沒有終點沒有目的，相互牽引著彼此，如同這件作品之中，穿梭在大樓公寓間的女子，水池中悠游的海龜，到結尾相擁依偎的男女，每個人與片段都只存在在那消逝之際，如同影像般來去。

最後作品中中的一個頻道，我以一鏡到底的方式拍攝了一位重慶獨有的職業「棒棒」（挑伕），自重慶開城因山城地形起伏，棒棒們以一根竹竿建構起了起來整個重慶貨物運輸的網路，但這些年也因都市開發與物流型態的改變而凋零，比起在城市裝穿梭的勞動身影，棒棒們聚集在路邊等待生意的狀態更加吸引我，在整件作品多條平行穿梭的敘事線中，棒棒像是一個無聲的旁觀者，靜默地存在著。