Fail Better | Curated by Dr. Brigitte Kölle in Hamburg Kunsthalle

Bas Jan Ader (1942 – 1975), Fall 2, Amsterdam 1970 (Dokumentation), 16 mm Filmproduktion, schwarz-weiß, ohne Ton © Mary Sue Ader-Andersen / Bas Jan Ader Estate at the Patrick Painter Gallery

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

----------Samuel Beckett, WorstwardHo, 1983

       美國社會學家Richard Sennett 曾說過在現今社會中，失敗已經成為一個新的禁忌。追求成功，卓越的職場表現，與創造最大獲利等價值觀隨著時代演變的愈是重要。如此價值觀擴張的情況下，「失敗」「幻滅/ 夢碎」「損失」「挫折」的接受空間則是越來越小。

      這場在hamburg kunsthalle由德國女性策展人Brigitte Kölle所策劃的展覽「Fail Better 」囊括了藝術家去看待失敗的角度，以及這些因為寄望成功而發生的失敗。在藝術的領域裡，失敗一直是藝術家在創作過程中必要之一環。作家Samuel Beckett 描述這種過程為“Try again/ fail again / fail better." 儘管失敗這個概念令人敬而遠之，但其代表的意義卻不只是達到極限與被擊敗；它暗示你新的事物，全然不同的選擇或意料之外發生的可能性。

      

       「也只是可能性而已。」小海補充。

       女學生說：「我們能做的，不是以『可能性』這樣的用詞來貶抑可能性，而是為『可能性』創造條件。」     

              ------胡淑雯 《太陽的血是黑的》

Exhibition works: http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/index.php/fail-better-material.html

Elizabeth Peyton

Practice on Curating (2)

Failure has different currency in the realm of art.  

Artists have long turned their attention to the unrealizability of the quest for perfection, or the open-endness of experiment, using both dissatisfaction and error as means to rethink how we understand our place in the world.  

No one set out to strive for failure.  However, to strive to fail is to go against the socially normalised drive towards ever increasing success.  

When Failure is released from judgemental term, and success deemed overrated, the embrace of failure can become an act of bravery, of daring to go beyond normal practices and enter the realm of not-knowing.

                                    ---------- from Introduction of Failure, Strive to Fail, Lisa Le Feuvre. 

Practice on Curating (1)

Dieter Roth 

This is the day 1 for documenting the research and progress of my project on establishing a curating career from scratch.

Coming back to Asia after finishing my two years of master degree in Edinburgh, I experienced a lot of emotions that I have been prepared for, but still can't handle it very well.

The biggest one is the expectation from family members that was far different than I thought.  As soon as I came back to Taiwan, my relatives started to suggest me to do secretary-like jobs that guarantees me safe incomes and positive social status. My grandmother's biggest wish for me is to get a husband in short coming years also not to travel abroad so much as before.  My mother is hoping me to import luxury brands's products from UK, Europe to sell in Taiwan, or trying to work for any agencies as long as it's from a government organisation.

It is a strange situation that I am in, in the way I am glad that they didn't put too much expectation on the master degree I earned abroad.  What it means is that the sort of jobs that I am looking for, doesn't have to pay me tons of money, they don't expect that I am the one to support the family, but as long as it sounds like a nice job to my future husband's family.
As if to them, the biggest success is to find a good family to marry and to have a good job title.
It is not about my personal satisfaction also they strongly suggested that work isn't suppose to relate to your interest anyway, or it will always end up as a broken dream.