這些年在台灣，藝術介入社會的形式愈來愈多樣，藝術在當代社會的角色、功能逐漸受到重視，成為民主社會的表徵。這個現象除了跟西方前衛藝術思潮有關，也與1987年解嚴，1990年代開啟的社區營造、公共藝術設置、文化公民權的倡議有關。

 

香港在1997年之後，由於政治的劇烈變化，民間力量崛起，許多具創意的倡議和行動相互聯結，形成一股「反主流文化」（counter-culture）。透過藝術關注社群生活、文化保存、社區發展，以及居住權、環境權、傳統記憶等，成為這些年香港藝術介入社會的核心。

 

「與社會交往的藝術」重新反思藝術與社會、藝術與公眾的關係，它在西方二十世紀初由歷史的前衛開展，有強烈的政治、社會訴求；而另一類強調日常生活的實踐，如包浩斯、俄國構成主義等，則結合文化和工業生產，意圖改善人們的生活。這兩種不同的實踐模式，在當代仍可見其精神的延續。1970年代行為藝術家以創造讓觀眾體驗、參與的空間與時間，使觀者成為共同創作者。而杜威的「藝術即體驗」，指出藝術乃教育重要的一環，藝術也因此被一些社會行動者視為重要且有效的溝通媒介，蘊生了「藝術在教育中」（art in education）的概念。

 

近年，台灣與香港各界在探討「與社會交往的藝術」之精神與類型時，亦延伸出多種稱呼，大抵指的是：透過藝術媒介，與社會、公眾發生關係，或生產新關係的創作或行動。它是一種政治藝術，但與過往政治藝術僅作為宣傳或異議不同，藝術家藉由觀念、行動、媒體，連結公眾（以人為核心），建構公共性，以促成反思及改變。這種介入社會的藝術，又被稱為「改變社會的藝術」，或「藝術的社會實踐」。在當今藝術成為景觀（消費）社會的一環，城市空間被資本化，公共空間也逐漸消失時，與社會交往的藝術成為建構公民社會、重塑公共領域力量之所在，而這也是前衛藝術在當代展開的不同樣貌。

 

本展強調藝術與社會透過「交遇」、「交往」，碰撞出多種可能。展出的作品與計畫，有的利用藝術空間，有的發生在日常生活，更多是透過網際平台、影音傳播，讓參與者更為廣布。藝術工作者既是文化生產者，也是社會運動者，對於藝術的生產、發展與傳播，產生了不同於以往的影響。

 

此外，這些計畫與行動也因與發生場域、社會脈絡息息相關，這個交流展透過工作坊、展覽及論壇，希望促成香港、台灣兩地的深度對話，了解這種藝術表現在各自社會所代表的意涵，以及美學表現的特殊性。更重要的也在於，讓參與者進一步反思這種文化藝術生產所引發的藝術社群與一般大眾間話語權、倫理關係，以及「與社會交往的藝術」是否被工具化，或又成為景觀社會裡的消費性媒介的討論。

 

In Taiwan, in recent years, as art finds more and more ways to interact with society at large, the role and function of art in our modern day society have become increasingly valued, seen as the symbol of democracy. Aside from its historical roots in the western avant-garde art movement, this phenomenon is also closely related to the lifting of Taiwanese martial law rule in 1987 as well as the emphasis on community building, the implementation of public art and the demand for cultural civil rights, which began in the 1990s.

 

In Hong Kong, after 1997, with the drastic changes in political environment came the rise of the power of civil action; many creative advocacies and actions formed alliances and networks, evolving into an anti-establishment counter-culture. In the last few years, the core effort of the Hong Kong artistic community's interaction with society has been to highlight through art such issues as community living, preservation of cultural heritage, community development, residential right, environmental right, and memories of the past.

 

This kind of “art as social interaction” reexamines the relationships between art and society, between art and the public; one school of this kind of art began with the historical avant-garde movement at the turn of the 20th century, and is characterized by its strong social/political demands. Another school, of which Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism are two examples, focuses on practices in the everyday world; by marrying culture to industrial production, this school of art-as-social interaction aims to improve people’s lives. We can see the spiritual offspring of both schools of artistic practice in the modern day society. In the 1970s, performance artists transformed spectators into co-creators of the artwork by establishing the space and time in which the spectators could experience and participate in the creative process. In Art as Experience, John Dewey asserted that art is an important part of education; art is therefore used as a significant and effective mode of communication by some social activists, giving birth to the idea of “art in education.”

 

As the Taiwanese and Hong Kong artistic communities explore the main principles and categories of “art as social interaction,” they have come up with many names for it; generally, it refers to a piece of creative work or performance which interacts with the society and the public through the medium of art, or even produces a whole new relationship between art, the society and the public. It is certainly political art, but goes beyond the traditional role of political art as propaganda or dissention. Instead, it is built with people at its core; the artist often connects with the civil masses through ideas, action and the media, constructing a commonality in order to bring about reflection and change. This kind of “socially engaged art”is also called “the art of social change” or “the social practice of art.” In today's world, when art becomes part of the spectator (consumer) society, urban spaces are capitalized, and public areas keep disappearing, the art that interacts with society becomes the cornerstone on which a civil society is built and the power of the public arena is redefined. This is also an alternative iteration of avant-garde art in the contemporary society.

 

In Art as Social Interaction: Hong Kong/ Taiwan Exchange, we hope to showcase the myriad possibilities generated by the intersection and interaction between art and society. Of the exhibits, some make use of artistic spaces while others happen in the everyday world; more often, the artwork is broadcasted through online media and platforms in order to reach a larger pool of participants. The artist in this case is both a creator of cultural products and practitioner of social activism, affecting the production, development and distribution of art in new and different ways.

 

Also, since these projects, actions and performances are deeply connected to their geo-social context, this exchange hopes to stimulate in-depth conversations between the artistic communities of Taiwan and Hong Kong through workshops, the exhibition and the forum. The goal is to gain deeper understanding of the meaning and influence of this kind of art in the context of each community’s specific social environment, as well as the specificity of each community’s artistic expression. More importantly, this exchange aims to instigate the participant-spectators’ contemplation upon issues of ethics and the right of speech between the artistic communities triggered by cultural production and the general public. Also, the exchange hopes to encourage discussions on whether “art as social interaction” has become instrumentalized or even re-absorbed as a consumer medium in the society of the spectacle.