古今東西人們往往有一種願望：透過身體變化，完成自己內在心靈的慾望。此展覽所討論的變身並非宗教意義或者小說的想像，而是以身體為主題發展，並透過「啟蒙之始」、「情藝之爭」、「權力規訓」、「集體凝視」及「流變之身」五大展區，分別探討東方的身體觀、藝術與情色的界線、權力、觀看及跨界的身體，一探「身體」於二十世紀以來的藝術新貌，以及美術發展脈絡中身體表現各種歷程的重要課題與挑戰。
People across time and geography often have this kind of wish: fulfill their inner desire on their mind through bodily changes.  The transformation discussed in this exhibition is not of religious meaning or fictional imagination, but developed with body as the theme. The five galleries, i.e. Dawn of Enlightenment, Struggle of Eroticism and Art, Power Discipline, Collective Gaze, and Body of Evolution, delve into the eastern view of body, the line between art and eroticism, power, viewing, and interdisciplinary body, respectively. Hence, the exhibition probes into the new artistic outlooks of “body” since the 20^th century as well as the important topics and challenges across the processes of body presentation in the context of art development.

現代法國思想家傅柯(Michel Foucault)提出的「生命權力」(biopouvoir, biopower)成為我們策展的思想根源，同時也回應於現今發生於臺灣的「#MeToo」（#我也是）運動。這種生命權力不同於聯合國宣言中的「生命權」(Right to life)，傅柯所提到「生命權利」具備體制反省、文化、哲學、心理學的綜合意義。他認為人一出生，就時時受到時間、空間、政治制度、社會習俗以及文化等看得見或者看不見的東西所部署(deployment, apparatus)、所規訓(discipline)。而構成規訓背後存在一種不同於柏拉圖所說的超越時間、空間的真理的「知識型」(epistémè, episteme)；相對於此，這種「知識型」構成對於人們認知、判斷、身體行為的規訓，使得人在不知不覺中被行為模式、思想模式、甚而生理反應限制，那是壓抑、控制、被觀看然而卻不自知的可怕的生命權利。我們的肉體以及內在心靈受到規訓而不自知，整個社會都是一種制約個體的存在。生命權力藉由特定的權力，介入且操控我們的身體，國家是一部大型控制的機械。生存於現代社會的個體，只有透過揭露控制我們的權力結構，才能使個體獲得自由。
Biopouvoir (biopower) proposed by the modern French thinker, Michel Foucault, serves the source of our curatorial thinking, while in response to the #MeToo movement happening now in Taiwan. This biopower is different from the “right to life” as stated in the UN Declaration. The “biopower” described by Foucault comes with the integral meaning of system reflection, culture, philosophy, and psychology. He was convinced that humanity is constantly subject to the deployment or apparatus of, or discipline of, time, space, political system, social customs, culture, and anything visible or invisible. What lies underneath discipline is an epistémè (episteme), which is different from the truth beyond time and space claimed by Plato. In comparison, such episteme constitutes the discipline for people’s knowledge, judgement, and physical behaviors, placing people in the constraints of behavioral patterns, thinking patterns, and even physiological responses unconsciously. That is a horrific biopower of oppression, control, and being viewed without self-aware. We are disciplined, body and mind, without the knowledge thereof. The society as a whole is an existence that keeps individuals in check. Biopower intervenes and controls our bodies through specific powers. A state is one colossal apparatus for control. Only through exposing the power structure that has control over us can individuals living in the modern society be free.

臺灣美術發展中對於身體的描寫，經歷了許多的歷程。天上維納斯的西方身體發展在整體發展脈絡當中，緊密地與神聖的力量緊密相關。古代希臘羅馬時代的身體觀，以理想美為依歸，尋求普遍的美感。基督宗教時期的身體觀，身體是神的被造物，展現一種對於無限存在的身心淬鍊與永恆的追求。文藝復興以後的古典主義回歸古希臘羅馬時代的身體美學，古典主義的身體觀建立在超越現實個體的普遍理想美上面。近代身體的甦醒出自於浪漫主義以後的個性美的發現，存在者自覺的身體觀成為近代身體的基礎。漫長的西方藝術流傳到東方，東方的身體觀緊密地與禮法社會結合在一起，身體的存在感即是社會價值觀的顯示。西方藝術傳布到東方，江戶時代的蘭學逐漸汲取西方的身體的觀看方式，明治維新之後聘請義大利畫家擔任工部美術學校教師、派遣留學生前往歐洲學習藝術。日本殖民時期西方身體觀念透過日本的美術學校教育、美術展覽活動，成為臺灣美術時期的身體美學。我們看到日本油畫重要畫家黑田清輝的「智情意」三連作，足以看到西方人的身體觀被融入日本的美學當中，細膩的線條如同一種規訓那樣深深地刻劃在這三位裸體的身上，那是來自於東方歷史悠久的毛筆線條。殖民時期的人物，不是糾結在人體美上，而是一種人存在於社會制約下的集體存在感。臺灣美術萌芽時期的身體觀照入徑，學院的古典美學的基底成為身體美感的觀照方式。
The body portrayal in the art development of Taiwan went through several stages. The development of the western body of Venus in heaven has been intimately associated with divine power in the whole development context. The ancient Greco-Roman view of body adhered to the ideal beauty in quest of universal beauty. In the view of body during the era of Christianity, a body is a creation of God, demonstrating the pursuit of perpetual purification and immortality for body and mind. Classicalism after the Renaissance returned to the ancient Greco-Roman body aesthetics. The body in the view of classicalism is grounded on the universal, ideal beauty beyond individuals in reality. The awakening of modern body emerged from the post-romanticism discovery of personal beauty, where an existence’s conscious view of body laid the foundation of the modern body. The western art with a long history flowed to the East. The view of body in the East had been closely tied with etiquette and society, as the existence of body made the manifestation of social value. The western art spread to the East. Rangaku (the Dutch learning) in the Edo Period absorbed the western view of body bit by bit. After the Meiji Restoration, Italian painters were invited to serve as the teachers in the Technical Fine Arts School, and students were sent to Europe to learn art. The western notion of body became the body aesthetics in the fine art period of Taiwan through the Japanese fine art school education and exhibitions during the Japanese Rule. From the three-piece work, Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment, of the eminent Japanese oil painter KURODA Seiki, we can observe the incorporation of the western view of body into the aesthetics of Japan. The delicate lines are deeply carved onto the three nudes like a kind of discipline, which were born from the brush of the East with a long history. The portraits during the colonial period, instead of fixated with the beauty of human body, manifest the collective sense of human existence under social conditioning. As the entry for body viewing in the budding stage of art in Taiwan, the foundation of classical aesthetics of academy became the mean to viewing body beauty.

國府來臺初期，身體的呈現以紀念碑式的崇高美感為主軸，人物或者說身體處於這個時期，具備高度被規訓或者說是制約化的個體存在，這種感覺構成時代的基本特質。來自大陸的畫家與臺灣藝術家雖是受到不同政治權力下的規訓，卻也逐漸共同創造出時代的身體美學，這個階段的人體美觀主要以肖像逐漸發展成為美的身體觀照。身體美在學院固然成為描繪的對象，但是卻依然以肖像、裸體之間的紀念、隱喻、物化的手法，藝術與情色之間成為當時的一大話題。
In the early days of nationalist government’s relocation to Taiwan, body was presented with sublime beauty in the modern monument style at the core. Figures or bodies in this period are individual existences, highly disciplined or conditioned. Such sentiment made up the basic quality of the time. The painters from Mainland China and the Taiwanese artists, although subject to discipline of varied political power, gradually and collectively developed the body aesthetics of the time, during which the view of human body’s beauty mainly evolved from portrait into the body viewing of beauty. The beauty of body naturally became a subject for portrayal in academies, yet still in the manners of memory, metaphor, and objectification among portraits and nudes, nevertheless. Art versus eroticism made a huge topic of the time.

社會、國家制度是對於每個個體內在與身體的控制與介入，成為身體的規訓。臺灣戰後的最大的全面控制是戒嚴體制。臺灣身體美學發展在1980年代民主運動朝向新的面向發展，一種傳統威權體制與多元價值的制度產生對抗，解嚴是政治議題，同樣也是藝術課題。街頭運動的衝撞、對抗以及暴力形式，另一方面則以女性主義方向省思性別的歷史傳統，背後有壓抑與男女性差異的時代包袱，傳統男女價值觀開始產生變化。身體被壓抑的同時，透過揭露身體或者身體行為表現為對制度的抗爭。男性的觀看這種角度轉變為女性身體的自我觀看與解構，解嚴使得身體觀看更加多元而複雜。規訓與被規訓化、隱蔽與暴露、權力屈服與壓抑，女性藝術家自我展現身體的奧秘與多元性。
The social and national systems constitute the control and intervention of each individual, internally and bodily, as the discipline of body. The largest post-war total control in Taiwan was the martial law system. The body aesthetics in Taiwan evolved towards new frontiers during the democratic movement in the 1980s. It was a confrontation between the system of traditional authoritarianism and the system of multivalence. The lifting of the martial law was a political agenda as much as an art subject. Along with the forms of collisions, confrontations, and violences in street movements, the historical tradition of gender was reflected upon towards feminism. What lied beneath was the burden of the time in oppression and male-female differences. Changes began to occur to the traditional value of men and women. While bodies were oppressed, the struggle with system was presented via body exposure or body behaviors. The perspective of male gaze was shifted to the self-viewing and deconstruction of female body. The martial law lifting added more diversity and complexity to body viewing. Betwixt discipline and disciplined, concealment and exposure, as well as power submission and oppression, female artists display the mystery and diversity of body on their own account.


身體從外在行為以及內部心靈都因為教育、制度以及文化而受到制約。因此，為了掙脫制約，必須揭露控制身體的所在制度，敘說自己身體經驗。個體受到壓抑或者碰觸甚而侵擾的不安、壓抑成為自我救贖與解放所有體制的重要手段之一。科技的介入使得身體趨向生命與複製生命的焦慮，複製、增殖成為二十一世紀身體發展的重要歷程。身體成為社會制度與體制基於知識型所規訓的存在，以藝術獲得身體自由的發展隨著歷史不斷變遷。揭露控制權力結構或者述說自身的身體經驗，正是臺灣經歷千禧年後的最大一場身心解放運動。
Body is conditioned by means of education, system, and culture in terms of external behaviors and internal mind. Hence, to unshackle the conditioning, it is necessary for one to expose the system that controls body and to recount their body experience. The disturbance or oppression owing to repression or touch or even intrusion experienced by individuals come to be the vital means to self-redemption and liberation of all systems. The intervention of technology has driven body towards the anxiety with life and life cloning, as cloning and proliferation become the critical processes of body development in the 21^st century. Body has grown into an existence disciplined by social system and institution on the basis of episteme. The free development of body gained from art is constantly evolving over the course of history. Exposing the controlling power structure or recounting one’s own body experience is precisely the greatest liberation movement for body and mind after the Millenium in Taiwan.