平遥棉织厂的大门永远向着所有参观者开放。左手边的小红门，有人路过看到了没有感受，有人错过了那个门口……

曾经多少人关注北朝鲜，关注我们友好邻邦的人民的生活。我们在背后切切私语，冷眼面对。

老六，很早看过他的画册。随手翻了并没太深刻的印象。走进展厅的一刹那吸引了我：三八线的士兵互相敬烟

原本他们的生活是这样，正如策站展人所言
上帝的“道具箱”

吴鸿



我第一次在老六的工作室里看到他拍摄的关于北朝鲜《阿里郎》表演场面的照片的时候，感受到的是个体迷失在“集体”之中的命运，因为那是一个典型的可以按照政治学去解释的“文本”。但是，当我再次看到他在韩国拍摄的万众欢腾的足球之夜的照片时，我的思维跳出了简单的关于体制对个体生命压制的小圈子。它使我从更广泛的关于人生的命运的角度来思考这个问题。这时候，我想起了克日什托夫•基耶斯洛夫斯基（Krzystof Kieslowski）那部电影《维罗尼卡的双重生命》（两生花），一个忧伤而神秘的故事：一个波兰少女，一个法国少女，一般年纪，一样的名字，都叫维罗尼卡，都有着天籁般的嗓音和音乐天赋，但也都有心脏病。波兰少女在舞台上以天鹅垂死般的哀鸣歌声演出了自己的绝唱，猝然倒地而死。同时法国少女也感到了心脏剧烈的疼痛，她退出了歌剧训练，莫名其妙地爱上了一个表演木偶的神秘男子。这个上帝一般的男子告诉她，他表演的木偶每次都做两个一模一样的，以防“坏掉”。活下来的薇罗尼卡从此感悟到生命的神秘、脆弱与无奈。在影片的最后巴黎的维罗尼卡在自己旅行的照片中看见了华沙女子对自己静静的注视，原来曾经这个世界上有那样一个跟自己一模一样的人存在……

基耶斯洛夫斯基是作为一个流亡者从前社会主义阵营内的波兰去了法国，他正是从这种环境和命运的变化中，体验到了人生的“恍若隔世”的荒诞感，并由此而感受到了生命的孤独和茫然。

而我们现在同样可以从南北朝鲜的这种人为的分裂和对立中，去体验到这种命运的乖戾和无常。一个民族，就像一个完整的有机体，被人为地分成两个相互之间对立、对抗、封闭的部分。他们之间在长期割裂的状态下，没有任何的沟通和了解，各自按照已经设定好的、非自己的意愿的方式在发展着。这就好象在基耶斯洛夫斯基的电影里那个隐寓的暗示一样，充满了命运的无常和不可知的因素，而这种命运的安排是在当时世界的地缘政治的格局下按照意识形态不同的大国利益来强行划分的。他们就像一个人和自己的影子，相互之间如影随形，但是却无法沟通，这个时候，如果我们仅仅纠缠于政治体制的对抗、意识形态的分歧、社会制度的优劣是没有意义的。我反倒更愿意相信这是上帝在冥冥之中的安排，就像那个表演木偶的亚历山大，为了防止木偶在“表演”的过程中发生损坏而措手不及，所以总有一个备用的静静地躺在道具箱中做B角。这样的比喻让人产生了许多的关于宿命的虚无感。

当北方的朝鲜迷失在“集体”的仪式之中的时候，南方的韩国也沉醉在商业化的体育狂欢里。对于这种个体的迷失，北方是基于一种在集权权威下的对于“父亲”的崇拜，而南方则是现代民主中的关于“兄弟”的想象。前者是把个体置于绝对的权威和体制之中，个体才能取得归属感和安全感。而现代民主的幻想则是建立在高度商业化的社会规则之中，这就是，在金钱面前人人平等。以前只有某种特权阶层才能享用的东西，只要你具备了相应的购买能力，你也可以享用，这就是民主。在“父亲”的权威之下，每个人充满了感恩的情绪，他们把个体化为渺小，成为一个个被“格式化”之后的符号，用“集体”代替了个体。这个世界上只有一种声音，那就是“父亲”的声音；这个世界上也只有一种情感，那就是对于“父亲”的感恩之情。而在“兄弟”式的想象中，“群体”代替了个体，“群体”的判断代替了个体的独立判断，每个人所关心的是如何把自己融入群体，所以，“流行”是那边世界的主旋律。“群体”的声音是那个世界的最响亮的声音，“群体”的狂欢也足以让我们迷失其中。

这两个世界是如此的不同，又是那样的相似。我们比较着着两个世界，他们是如此的陌生，因为独裁和民主似乎有着天壤之别；但是他们又是这样的熟悉，就好象一个硬币的正反两个方面。上帝说，这个世界“要有光”，于是便有了光，但是有光也便有了影子。也正因为有了影子，我们才能感受到了光。所以到底是光成全了影子，还是影子成全了光，我们不知道。于是，他便是你，你便是他；但是这个世界也不可能有两个“你”，或者两个“他”。你和他都是上帝的道具箱中的一对木偶。


God’s Prop Chest
I first appreciated Lao Liu’s photos concerning North Korea showing in Arilang’s workshop. The feeling I first had was “fate” - individuals have lost themselves into a collective entity because that was a version which could be applied in politics. During the second viewing, I appreciated his photos showing millions rejoicing at a football night in South Korea and my thinking “jumped out” of the circle---a kind of oppression imposed on individuals and this helped me to think these questions from a different angle, life’s fate.  I then recalled Krzystof Kieslowski’s film “Double vie de Veronique, La¨Twinflower”. It’s a mysterious and grief filled story: a Polish and French woman, about the same age and the identical name Veronique. Each had a good natural voice and was talented in music but both met a tragic end dying from a heart attack. Like a dying swan’s moaning, the Polish singer completes her final song then suddenly falls dead. Meanwhile, the French maiden also feels a severe pain in her heart and she subsequently withdraws from opera training, and inexplicably falls in love with a mysterious puppet player. This God-like man tells her before each performance he deliberately prepares two exact puppets. The reason, in case one puppet becomes inoperable during the show’s performance, the other is available. From this moment onward, Veronique comes to realize life’s mystery, fragility and that life is often beyond one’s control. At the film’s conclusion, Veronique is found in Paris, in her own photos she had taken during her travels, while the Warsaw maiden is attentively at her in these photos. It turned out to be that there actually were two identical people in the world¬.
As an emigrant, Kieslowski, a member of the former socialist camp, escaped from Poland and arrived in France. Through these changing situations and a turn of fate, he tasted life’s fantasy as though he had been exiled and cut off from the outside world for ages. As a result, he felt life’s loneliness and isolation – an exile.
We can also experience these changeable fates when comparing the artificial division and the opposite ideologies separating South and North Korea. A nation, similar to a complete organism, was artificially divided and separated into two opposing, confrontational sides – closed and oblivious to the other’s influence. Under this lengthly division, they have developed their own pre-arranged unwilling ways void of any real communication or understanding the other. The same metaphorical effect as in Krzystof Kieslowski’s film where fate becomes a changeable yet unpredictable factor. These arranged factors force changes according to different interests and varying agendas of those powerful countries touting different political ideologies geopolitical differences. Like a shadow following its originator, they can not communicate with each other. Therefore it’s meaningless for us to solely focus our attention on the confrontational aspects of varying political systems. Two systems and each having its own set of pros and cons - differing ideologies, good and bad aspects, the inner workings of each system, varying social implications and differing expectations. Contrarily, I’d like to believe all of this has perhaps been mysteriously arranged by the God of our unseen world. Just like the puppet player, Alexander, who always prepared an alternative puppet in the event of an unforeseen accident, we just might catch Him during this show’s performance. This metaphor arouses most people’s senses about the nothingness of fate.
While North Korea was losing herself in its collective ceremony, South Korea was perhaps exhilarated and celebrating with the joyous news about some commercial sporting event.As to the loss of individuality, while the North is worshipping its Father under a centralized authority; the South portrays its Brother as being a modern democracy. The former one puts individuals into an absolute authoritative system, so individuals can perhaps gain a sense of belonging and safety. However, the case for modern democracy is perhaps based on some commercial roles  i. e. “All men are equal before counting their money.” You too can now possess and enjoy those things highly possessed by the privileged classes, if only you own the corresponding piece of the purchasing power, this is now what masquerades as democracy.
Under the father-like authority in North Korea, everyone is filled with emotion and are faithfully grateful. This system diminishes individuals into individually formatted symbols- replacing individuals with a collective body. There is now only one voice in the world, the father’s; there is only one emotion in this world, the gratefulness to their father. The group replaces the individual, and group’s collective judgment replaces the individual’s own judgment. What concerns every one of them is how he or she can integrate himself into the group. As a result, conformity becomes the central fashion in that North Korean world, the voice of the collective group becomes the loudest voice in the world, and the group’s revelry is high enough to thoroughly intoxicate oneself.
These two worlds are so different that they are perhaps actually the same? Is there really a world of difference between autocracy and democracy? Contrarily, they are rather familiar, like the two sides of a given coin. Surely when God said, “Let there be light” and light appeared and filled the sky, a shadow then followed. Proving a shadow’s existence allows us to likewise feel and search for its corresponding light. So we can not tell one from the other – the light and its pursuant shadow.  So he is you, and you are he?  It’s impossible to have two of you or him existing in this world, so you and he are now nothing more than a pair of puppets in God’s Prop Chest.

   
  2006年9月5日  于北京通州晾木厂
September 5, 2006   Beijing Timber Drying Yard

一个展览带给我们更多的思考，从社会现象到人的内心，当我们冷眼面对时，内心世界汹涌澎湃，我们主观的希望友好的一幕再现。
（图片 老六提供）