1989年春晚的一次翻唱之後，由台灣歌手蘇芮原唱的流行樂《跟著感覺走》成為90年代至今在中國大陸廣為流傳的金曲。原唱MV中，蘇芮一襲摩登扮相，穿行於都市及公路之間，講述在「感覺」的引領下，愈發自由輕快的個體。在動感的迪斯科節拍和對「港台」文化的國際化想象下，彼時中國的社會亦快速地變換著節奏，從「跟著黨走」轉變為「跟著感覺走」的輕盈步調，朝著夢想、愛與現代化行進。
於是，那個在五四運動時期便被「自由」與「戀愛」召喚顯身的現代中國個體，在世紀末的社會轉型下再次以充盈的感覺和情緒定義了自身的現代性。然而正如《跟著感覺走》的歌詞所示，「感覺」似乎並不是內在的於個人的、「天然」的內湧；而是一種外在的、牽引我們前行的力量。從上世紀90年代以降的速度迷戀、言情敘事、港台音樂到當前碎片化卻不失塑造力的短視頻文化，「感覺」持續地形變並形塑著當代個體的記憶、夢想、前行方向。展覽「跟著感覺走」所試圖勾勒的正是這個自上世紀末起持續召喚我們出走和前行的「感覺」，以及它所衍生的圍繞著情感與親密性、愛與痛的話語。在邊走邊唱的浪漫情調之中，過去30餘年中國社會劇烈的城鄉及跨國流動、家庭結構重組、情感私有化與商品化逐漸連成一道泛著溫柔光暈的開口，透視著當代中國的肌理深處。
透過一批注視當代情感波紋及其歷史漣漪的藝術創作和文獻，圍繞著戲劇、流行樂以及其中的觸感與現代美學，展覽摸索著「情感」的生產模式及其與個體的親密交互，亦沈思當代藝術創作中的「情感轉向」。藝術創作與文獻將在展覽空間中彼此穿插交錯，構成多重互文。
* 成形於2022年，《跟著感覺走》現正於籌備過程中，項目將呈現一系列展覽、研究及寫作。
The song Follow the feeling, originally sung by Taiwanese singer Julie Sue, became an instant hit in Mainland China after a cover at the 1989 Chinese state television’s Spring Festival Gala. In Sue’s music video, she is dressed in the latest fashion, jaunting between urban vistas and open highways, describing the increasingly carefree, vivacious individuals, compelled by nothing but the “feeling”. It was over upbeat earworm soundtracks like this, and an imagination of the outside world inspired by popular culture from Hong Kong and Taiwan, that the Mainland Chinese society at the time underwent a momentous gearshift from following the Party to following the feelings, heading towards dreams, love and modernisation.
The “modern individual” in China, conjured up by the ideas of freedom and love since the 1919 May Fourth have rediscovered their modernity with exuberant feelings and affection during the societal transformation near the century’s end. However, as the lyrics depict, that “feeling” was as if not an internal, natural, self-initiated energy, a push; but an external, synthetic one, a pull. Since the late 20th century, “feeling” has been multiplying and continuously shaping individual’s memories, dreams, and directions, be them the obsession with speed, the romantic dramas, the Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop, the highly addictive and affective short videos on social media. The exhibition Follow the Feeling thus attempts to examine the “feeling” in reform and post-reform-era China, around which the discourse of intimacy and love revolve. During the romantic pursuit of progress in the past three decades, the ever-intensifying rural–urban migration, the restructuring of family, the privatisation and commodification of emotion open a soft and rosy slit as an entrance to examine the tissues deep inside contemporary Chinese society.
The exhibition explores the production of “feeling” and its intimate relation with the individual, and contemplates the “emotional turn” in contemporary art-making, through a list of artworks and archives revolving around melodrama, pop music, as well as the texture and modern aesthetics that lie within, focusing on emotional patterns and their historical ripples.
* Follow the Feeling is a curatorial project conceived in 2022. It is currently under development and will be presented as a series of exhibition(s), artistic research, and writings.