按：“住在2020”系列访谈是“实地想象”自媒体在不平凡的2020年末与生活在各地的艺术界朋友们的联络与问候，通过回顾性的描述，分享他/她们在后疫情时期在各地遭遇的日常生活和可能推进的新近作品，希望由此可能勾勒出这个特殊时期人们具有怎样坚韧的品格、丰富的心灵世界和创造力。了解更多关于“住在2020”系列访谈的想法……
另：本文由德国艺术家安德里亚斯·霍夫曼的疫情随笔代替访谈回答。
人物：安德里亚斯·霍夫曼（德）
Artist: Andreas Hoffmann
避 难 岛
作者：安德里亚斯·霍夫曼（德）
2020年可能会在每个人的记忆中留下很长一段时间。这场大流行震动了全世界。
如此多人的大规模、令人费解的、往往是匿名的死亡，不仅离我们非常之近，而且之前存在的许多裂痕也越加撕裂，令人恐惧。穷人越来越穷，少数富人越来越富。社会弱势群体、世界各地的难民、因肤色而受到歧视的人，独居者、病人、养老院里的老人——他们都是最容易受到疫情威胁的群体。与此同时，世界各地的民主和与之相关的价值观正在遭到践踏……欧洲正在彼此撕裂，美国人则势不两立地彼此反对。那些自封的王……或更糟的是，民选国家元首的专制统治……那些想法不同的人则被压制……
非理性与那些为疫情寻找替罪羊或否认疫情这样的疯狂理论相伴而生，这些想法大行其道，试图在这个“不公正的国家”获得自由……人们散布着那些熟悉的有关犹太世界阴谋的煽动性口号……
但这还不是全部！我们还在这里，我们还活着！我们每天都在寻找解决这一困难时期的办法，我们必须，也有足够能力去面对这一切。
怎么做？通过彼此联络、承诺和责任，为了彼此，我们在家庭中、在工作中、在公共场合中，过那种我们认为重要的生活！
与他人分享我们的想法，明确坚持那些对我们来说重要的价值观。
建造桥梁而不是挖战壕！尝试新事物！向别人学习！
为自己找到力量的源泉，并与他人分享！从艺术、文学和音乐的语言中获得灵感！活出全新的一天，为生命感恩！
来自岛上的温暖问候
来自岛上的温暖问候，在过去的两个月里，我给友人们写了很多邮件。每个人都对他/她自（2020年）3月16日以来所处的地方有不同的画面感……紧急状态时期，传统规则似乎不再有效。不得不对思考方式和思想观念的惯性依赖做出改变……作为现实生活中的一个地方，我的岛就是我们的房子和它周围的财产。这个真实的地方位于一个有九百居民的小村庄的田地边缘，它在距图宾根大学城六公里的山谷中，草地和森林环绕着它。我们非常幸运，在新冠大流行期间，我们可以住在乡下而不是城里。
岛屿作为思想和行动的空间
以国际艺术观念作为主要方法，取代那种能够在世界任何地方出场的“自我证明”——更何况它已经变得没什么意义。
我们很自然地沉浸在世界各地的艺术文化环境中，进一步发展与国际艺术家的对话，并邀请大家重新融入自己的本土文化——这是我们所拥有的非凡的宝藏。为此，我们建立了一个连接泰国、越南、缅甸、日本、菲律宾和中国的网络。结束这场“自我证明”要从中国开始，在那里我们进一步推进并展示了“返璞求真”项目。到了（2019年）12月初，结束“自我证明”的理由可能已经来到了世界上……或许它在来自不同地区的艺术家生活环境中……谁知道呢？
当理所当然的世界发生崩溃时会怎样？感觉如何？当通道不再有效时，将产生怎样的轨迹？原先的网络是否依然存留？又如何联络彼此？
封锁，一切都只聚焦在一个自给自足的小宇宙。忽然间，社会慢了下来……一个人一天的生物钟减少了，再也没有借口称自己“无所事事”了……
有时间开始清理公寓，有时间开始整理、重新思考艺术上的推进和想法……一座“时间岛屿”出现了……
直接的关系，伴侣的关系，甚至家庭都逃避了直接的彼此面对……由此导致了什么，不安全感？
岛屿作为一个现实生活中的消失点？
岛屿作为一个小单位，有必不可少的直接而显而易见的参照物。什么属于它？谁属于它？谁被允许在岛上居住？
而远方的印象——像蜜蜂一样采集，集中在岛上处理……印象岛……
三年前，我终于放弃了我在埃宁根的工作室。筛选并整理了过去三十年的艺术……必须做出决定，什么可以延续，什么不可以……顺其自然……一个老地方消失了，一个新的开展行动的地方出现了……
避难岛
它是从此刻而又真实的停滞中产生的吗？新的行动之地需要活跃起来……无家可归的人似乎找到了一个地方——避难岛。
与上世纪八九十年代制造的有着三十年历史的人体石膏相遇——我在八九十年代的表演中制作了一批自己三十岁时候的身体模型，它们大多用于当时项目的模特——它们是那个时代物质性的视觉证据。
身体记忆，一个关于主题和感觉的蓄水池。
现在回忆起来，身体之岛与记忆之岛相连，与时间之岛发生碰撞，为了某种可塑性和表演性项目的出现……
我，我自己和自己的对手
我保护自己以免被
谁伤害
我们保护自己以免被
这…伤害
你保护你自己以免被
你自己所伤害
我所占有的保护它自己以免被
我所伤害
他们保护自己以免被
我们所伤害
谁又保护我们之间的纽带
“岛屿”——作为“共享危机”
“岛屿”
“岛屿”——作为“共享危机”
“岛屿”——作为应对新冠危机的反应
“岛屿”——作为我们面对危机时刻的艺术反应和行动
“岛屿”作为身体：空间/思想 – 空间/社会、空间/关系、空间……
“岛屿”并不是一种有关隔离的隐喻，而是一种自觉发起的对个人和社会的自我感知和反思……
新冠大流行的爆发改变了既定的行为模式；缩小生存空间，限定个体界限……社会、身体、社会系统和经济联系无法正常运作……健康、生存以及与自然共存似乎处于危险之中……
我们却坐在自己的岛上……
同居开始被重新定义……新冠大流行被认为是一场危机，一场笼罩全球的危机……
作为艺术项目的“岛屿”是一个艺术参与当下处境的示范空间。这是一个由装置和表演空间组成的岛屿。岛的一部分是一个3米乘3米的钢管组成的空间，上面覆盖着金属箔和我自己的真人大小的身体翻模的石膏。
借着对危机各个阶段的直接感受和不断的审视，我们发现了一种非常个人化的表达方式……
“亲近自然”
“亲近自然”是我在2020年12月底至2021年1月初的作品，那刚好在第二次封禁时期。在日常散步时候，我在森林中建立一种对环境的身体干预。
作为一名行为艺术家，本来2020年对我来说非常值得期待，我应该参加许多国际行为艺术节。因为新冠大流行，我不能去任何地方。然而，我却在岛上支持大家！各路组织者也很有创意，设法让来自世界各地的艺术家们参加他们的艺术节表演。有时人们通过脸书发布自己的作品，有时他们在视频会议上展示自己的作品并进行讨论。这就是我的“避难岛”成为表演之地的原因——那些作品都是在这座岛上完成的，然后流向世界各地，这也是一次数字交流的契机。在此之前，我一直是一名现场艺术的虔诚信徒，但现在我意识到数字技术是如何超越空间，如何为连接来自遥远地方的艺术做出贡献。正因为此，我目前正在开发一个平台，可以将两个遥远地点的演出数字化，合并成一个联合表演。这将是一次契机，这会是一种新艺术的诞生吗？
在新冠疫情期间，我损失了70%的收入，我们靠储蓄生活。在一定程度上，国家援助弥补了我的财政赤字。
我们活着，我们仍然活着……这是世界上的许多人所没有的特权……我们住在乡下的一所房子里，它周围有森林和田野……尽管有限制，我们还是可以出去……不是所有人都有这样的特权……
岛上的艺术空间
Andreas Hoffmann’s Home Island
Text by Andreas Hoffmann
The year 2020 will probably remain in everyone’s memory for a long time. The pandemic has shaken up the whole world.
Not only does the mass, incomprehensible and often anonymous death of so many people come very close to us, but the tearing open and deepening of many rifts that existed before is also frightening. Poor people are becoming even poorer, a few rich people richer and richer. The socially disadvantaged, refugees around the world, people discriminated against because of the color of their skin, the lonely, the sick, the elderly in nursing homes, they are all the most exposed to the danger posed by the pandemic. At the same time, democracy around the world and the values that go with it are being trampled on. Europe is tearing each other apart, Americans are irreconcilably opposed. Self-appointed or worse, popularly elected heads of state rule autocratically, and those who think differently are silenced.
Irrationality pairs with the wildest theories that seek scapegoats for the pandemic, or deny it. The strange procession on the street, demanding freedom in the “unjust state,” spreading old familiar inflammatory slogans about a Jewish world conspiracy.
But that is not all, we are still here, we are alive! Every day we are looking for a way in this leaden time and we must, we can stand against it.
How? By looking for the connection, the commitment and the responsibility, for us, for others, in the family, at work and in public. By living what is important to us.
Sharing our thoughts with others. Clearly stand by the values that are important to us.
Building bridges instead of digging trenches. Trying out new things, learning from others.
Find sources of strength for ourselves and share them with others. Be inspired by the language of art, literature and music. Living each new day, being grateful for life.
Warm greetings from the island
Warm greetings from the island, I have signed my mails in the last 2 months. Everyone has a different image for the place where he, or she, has spent the time since March 16. A time of a state of emergency in which traditional rules no longer seem to work. Habitual accesses to forms of thinking and concepts of thinking had to change by force. In reality as a place my island is our house and the property around it. This real place is located at the edge of fields in a small village with 900 inhabitants in a valley 6 km away from the university town of Tübingen. Meadows and forests surround the place. We are very lucky that we can live in the countryside and not in the city during the pandemic period.
The island as a space for thought and action
Approaches that had focused on international concepts of art and exchange, with the selfevidence of being able to be present always and everywhere in the world, had become meaningless.
It was natural to immerse ourselves in art and cultural contexts across the globe, to further develop the dialogue with international artists, and to invite and reintroduce them into our home culture. An extraordinary treasure that had been at our disposal. Out of this, a network was created across Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Japan, Philippines and China. From China started the end of this self-evident. There, where we had further developed and exhibited the project “Exploring the original nature” until the beginning of December, the reason for the end of the self-evidence had probably already arrived in the world. Maybe even in the environment of the artists who came from different parts of China. Who knows?
What happens when taken-for-grantedness breaks down? How does it feel? What kind of traces develop when accesses are no longer effective. Does this network remain, and how?
Lock down, everything concentrates on a small self-contained cosmos. Suddenly, society slows down. One’s own daily clock is reduced. There is no longer an excuse to do “nothing.”
There is time to clean up the apartment, time to sort, to rethink artistic progressions and insights. An island of time emerges.
Direct relationship, partnership, even family escapes the direct connection. What arises from this, insecurity?
Island as a vanishing point from the reality of life?
A small unit with the directly obvious references that are indispensable. What and who belongs to it? Who is allowed to be on the island?
Impressions in the distance – collected like bees and processed concentrated on the island. Impression island.
3 years ago I finally gave up my studio in Eningen u.A.. 30 years of art – sifted and sorted out. Decisions had to be made, what has continuance and what not. What had at the time, was allowed to go. The old place dissolves. A new field of activity emerges.
Home island
Does it arise from the standstill, now, real? The new field of action wants to be enlivened. The homelessness seems to have found a place, the home island.
Reencounter with 30 year old body casts, which were created during performances in the 80s and 90s. Many of them were models in their own right. Reencounter with 30-year-old body impressions taken during performances in the 80s and 90s. Many of them were models for projects developed from them. They are visible evidence of the physicality of this time. Body memory – a reservoir of themes and feelings.
In retrospect, the body island connects with the memory island, collides with the time island and allows plastic and performative projects to emerge.
me, myself and my counterpart
I protect myself from
whom
we protect ourselves from
the..
you protect yourself from
yourself
mine towards me protect itself from
me
they protect themselves from
us
who protects the bond between us
“The island” – as “sharing crises
“The Island”
“The island” – as “sharing crises
“The island” – a reaction to the Corona crisis
“The Island” – an artistic reaction/action to crises we are confronted with.
“The island” is body – space, thinking – space, social – space, relationship – space.
“The island” is not a metaphor for demarcation but rather a conscious self-perception and reflection of the individual and society.
The outbreak of the pandemic changes established patterns of behavior; narrows the living space, sets individual boundaries. Social, physical, societal and economic contacts do not function as usual. Health, existence and the natural coexistence seem to be at risk.
We are sitting on an island of our own.
Living together begins to be redefined. The pandemic is felt as a crisis. The crisis of the global world hovers over it.
The art project “The Island” is an exemplary space for artistic engagement with this existential situation. It is an Installation and Performance space. Part of the island is a tubular steel cube 3 meters by 3 meters covered with foil and life-size casts of my own body in plaster.
Through the continuous examination of the direct sensations in the individual phases of the crisis a very personal expression has.
“Close to nature”
“Close to nature” is a project that was created at the end of December 2020 until the beginning of January 2021 during the 2nd lockdown. During daily walks physical interventions in the forest were created.
The year 2020 was very promising for me as a performance artist. I was supposed to participate in many international performance art festivals. Because of the pandemic, I was unable to travel to any of them. And yet I was there for all of them! With a lot of creativity the organizers found ways to include artists from all over the world with their performances in their festivals. Sometimes people streamed their contribution via Facebook, sometimes they showed each other their work in a video conference and discussed it. That’s how my “home island” became the setting for performances. They were created on this island, streamed to the world, and were the occasion for digital exchange. Until then, I had been a strict believer in live presence, but now I realized how digital can transcend spaces and link artistic contributions from far-flung places. Based on this, I’m currently developing a platform that will make it possible to digitally unite two performances in two distant locations into one joint performance. A chance, a new artistic quality?
During the pandemic, 70% of my income was lost. We live on savings. Partly, a state aid has bridged the deficit.
We live, we survive, well. A privilege that many people in the world do not have. We live in a house in the country. Forests and fields border it. We could always go outside despite the restrictions. A privilege not all people have.
The island art space
artist’s website: www.hoffmann-kunst.de
