勞動九歌：哈倫·法羅基
「您真的認為我們能夠活著看到政治革命嗎？我們，這些德國的同時代人？」 ——盧格（致馬克思的信，1843年3月）
2014年，哈倫·法羅基（Harun Farocki）在旅行中度過了生命中最後的日子。已經記不清是從多久開始，藝術家就在其妻子策展人安吉•阿赫曼（Antje Ehmann）的陪伴下在世界各地進行拍攝、講演、教學並組織影像工作坊，把他的思想與態度散布在每一個角落。我們有理由相信，即使是在生命的最後一刻，哈倫·法羅基依然在工作。不滅的火！世界的影像！這兩個鋒利的題目便是法羅基精神的最好詮釋。而此時此刻，馬賽，這座保羅·策蘭筆下的「盡頭之都」，在一座廢舊的工廠內，法羅基的九篇「俳句電影」正延續他著的精神在屏幕間熊熊燃燒著，傳遞著革命的溫度，而其主題則是關於法羅基致力於一生所研究並踐行的——勞動。「1」
【命運】
1895年，《工人離開工廠》（Travailleurs quittant L』usine）讓工人階級成為了電影誕生時的首個影像，也讓勞動者與影像的同行成為了註定「2」。從愛森斯坦《罷工》中起義的勞工，到五月風暴中戈達爾、克裡斯·馬凱的「傳單電影」所激勵著的工人，再到《紅在革命蔓延時》片頭觥籌疊錯的起義者影像：戰火、青春、顛覆、解放、自由。工人群體不斷地在歷史的影像與影像的歷史中被提及，被剪輯，成為了革命的視覺遺產。而在經歷了整整一百年的激蕩之後。如何穿越勞動者的鮮血宣言再次重訪這部世界上的首部電影，這便是1995年的法羅基所思考的事情。他清楚地識別出了這一影像已經超越了其具體意義，成為了能量的象徵。而在這部法羅基版的《工人離開工廠》中，最初影像裡急促行徑的人群成為了激進的公式，列隊影像的並持讓勞動者自身力量的凸顯出來。人群-人民，奔湧向他們各自的命運。而影片中唯一的彩色圖像，那團煙囪中噴射而出的火焰則讓這次百年後的重訪變成了一次對這一歷史影像的解放。
《⼯人離開工⼚》，影像裝置，36min，1995
Travailleurs quittant L』usine, Installation video, 36min, 1995
【時間】
1995年，在向《工人離開工廠》致敬的同一時間，法羅基以《接口》（Interface）在另一個層面更新了「工作「的概念。作品的德語名稱Schnittstelle意味著「剪輯之處」，也就是說，藝術家在人群列隊中高漲的情緒彌散之後，回到自己的剪輯室，對手中的素材進行著嚴謹的手工勞作：「這兩張圖像是否相符，是否相悖，是否可以創造新的聯繫。」 在《接口》中，法羅基剪接並分析著不同的影像，有時是自己的作品或是紀錄片或其它影像的片段，與此同時，上一個鏡頭中藝術家分析影像的畫面又成為了下一個鏡頭中被剪輯和分析的對象，圖像好似在進行著一次時間的辯證旅行。而「手工勞作」的意義也在於此：與煽情暫時決裂，仔細審視面前這堆的「詞語」，遣詞造句。
《接⼝》，雙屏影像，24』29min，1995
Interface, Installation video 2 moniteur, 24』29min, 1995
【身體】
2004年，在維爾託夫（Dziga Vertov）的《持攝影機的人》與鹿特曼（Walter Ruttman）的《柏林，城市交響曲》之後。哈倫法羅基決定拍一部屬於自己的都市電影。而在圖像的溢出令「表現」（représentation）成為不可能的時代，在已經被圖像層層覆蓋的現實面前，真正的觀看是缺席的。或許唯有通過象徵的方式（現實的它者）才能召喚回對現實的真實感受。在影片《反音樂》（Contre-Musique）中，法羅基並峙了監視攝像頭拍攝的城市影像與醫院病人的心電圖軌道，把今日的城市比作肉身。準確的說，是患病的肉身，是隨時處於被監視，失去了行動能力的身體，是在觀眾面前表露病症的身體。而《反音樂》所要聲明的，則是遺忘「城市交響曲」中那些抒情化的忙碌與繁榮，回歸現實的苦役與繁重。
《反音樂》，影像裝置，25min，2004
Contre-Musique, Installation video, 25min, 2004
【幽靈】
2006年，法羅基再一次重訪影像的源頭，並取名為《工人離開工廠的第十一個十年》（Travailleurs quittant L』usine en onze décennies）。在作品的名稱裡，法羅基似乎向世人宣告，一步作品除去它的藝術語言之外，它還是歷史的，事件的，以及倫理的見證。而一件新作品的誕生，永遠處在對過往歷史的迴響之中。在這部由十二臺電視所組成的影像裝置中，法羅基單純地向觀眾呈現了他選擇並未剪輯的影像橋段：從卓別林的《摩登時代》出發，途徑弗裡茲·朗的《大都會》，直至達拉斯·馮·提爾的《在黑暗中漫舞》；在這些撲面而來的圖像中，法羅基留給觀眾進行自主剪輯與自由對話的空間，而這也是法羅基所理解的：移情時刻。
《工⼈離開工⼚的第⼗⼀個十年》，12屏影像，23min，2006
Travailleurs quittant L』usine en onze décennies, Installation video 12 muniteur, 23min, 2006
【姿態】
2007年，法羅基在《對比》（Comparaison via un tiers）並置了印度的手工制磚過程與歐洲的機械化生產。在近乎相同的節奏中，我們感受到了工作對勞動者的異化，逐漸察覺到了我們是如何在日復一日的勞作中，丟失了對器官意識，變為生產鏈上的一個機器。而所有的這些，都法羅基通過影像的簡潔並峙而引發的辯證思考。而雙屏影像的「剪輯-展示」方式也提示出了法羅基把時間與歷史鋪展在同一坐標系中互讓其為參照的工作方法，令圖像的安置成為圖像的政治。
《對比》，影像裝置，24』47min，2007
Comparaison via un tiers, Installation video, 24』47min, 2007
【器官】
1983年，激浪派成員託馬斯·施密特（Tomas Schmit）實行了他的行為詩歌表演。施密特身處一圈空瓶子中央，用手中唯一一瓶裝滿水的瓶子倒入下一個空瓶，然後用重新裝滿的瓶子再次裝滿下一個瓶子。而隨著每次倒灌中水的濺灑，幾輪的裝載過後，水最終會全部遺失。而「無意義的損耗」則成為了詩意的瞬間，成為了激浪派的無政府主義宣言。而這種「無意義的損耗」在法羅基的引用裡則變為了「批判現實主義」的。在其2010年的作品《重灌-託馬斯·施密特變奏》（Re-Verser,Variation de l』opus1 de Tomas Schmit）中，他重新激活了這一行為，而其實施者則是一條機械手臂。
《重灌-託⻢斯·施密特變奏》，影像裝置，20』09min，2010
Re-Verser,Variation de l』opus1 de Tomas Schmit, Installation video, 20』09 min, 2010
【鮮血】
1758年，畫師米格爾·德·貝裡奧（Gaspar Miguel de berrio）繪製了《裡科山與聖城波託西的描述》敘述了在西班牙帝國統治下，環繞裡克山峰（現玻利維亞）所建造的雄壯工程。而繪畫的歌頌粉飾不了殖民行為本身的血腥與剝削，就如人們說得那樣：「西班牙人帶來了十字架，並帶走了銀礦。」在《銀與十字架》（L』argent et la croix）中，法羅基的鏡頭跟隨著貝裡奧畫面中行進的隊列與正在修建的城邦講述了一個更接近真實的故事。原本歌頌偉業的繪畫此刻變成了聲討罪行的證據。而重構我們所見到的現實，則是影像與敘述的力量。就如克裡斯·馬凱1957年的影像《西伯利亞來信》（Letter from Siberia）中所做的，導演並置了兩段完全一樣蘇聯工人勞動的視頻，而只是旁白改變，影像的意義也隨之改變，既可以是蘇聯角度下的對工人的歌頌，也可以是美國角度下的對蘇聯工人不堪的工作條件的曝光。而「一切政治電影都來源於愛森斯坦（蒙太奇）」的說法也提示出了作為電影人所操持的關於剪輯的力量與倫理。而法羅基的選擇是，利用剪輯更加接近事實。
《銀與十字架》，影像裝置， 17』36min，2010
L』argent et la croix, Installation video, 17』36min, 2010
【勞動】
2011年，法羅基與安吉·阿赫曼在十五個城市(包括中國杭州)開展了《單鏡頭勞動》（Le Travail en une seule prise,）工作坊，項目要求參與者利用任何種類的拍攝設備在一到兩分鐘之內記錄勞動的過程。而《勞動者離開他們勞動的地方》（Travailleurs Quittant Leur Lieu de Travail）則是基於《單鏡頭勞動》所展示的關於莫斯科、班加羅爾、布宜諾斯艾利斯、河內等九個城市的影像。在這些影像中，我們既可以看到了紡織女工的手工勞作，也可以看到了流水線上的零件加工者，也可以看到那些坐在辦公室面對著電腦屏幕的職員（工作在不可見的維度進行著），《單鏡頭勞動》工作坊讓在不同的維度發生的工作行為被揭示。值得體會的是，在法羅基愈發受到世人關注，並有能力在全球範圍內進行更大的項目時，他選擇了一條「非景觀化」的路，選擇言傳身教，把影像所給予他的的權力傳遞給每一個人。
《單鏡頭勞動》，9個來⾃54個城市的影像，2min，2011-2014
Le Travail en une seule prise, 9 video in 54 citys, 2min, 2011-2014
【行動】
那麼，熱愛工作。自「工作」在盧梭口中被引述為「社會中每個人不可避免的義務」時，個體勞動所產生的價值成為了資產階級掌握自身命運的武器。而在多年以後「工作」變成了每個當代人難以擺脫的宿命，勞動者在社會的演變中再一次丟失了對命運主權，重新被體制所規訓：重複、壓迫、異化、剝削；損耗、乏味、噩運、終結；如果說今天我們重提「熱愛工作」，那麼必須在歷史的厚度上重新發明工作，重拾在工作中主體性，不僅僅成為一個「被僱傭者」，而一個成為真正的勞動者。但這條道路依然十分險峻，在勞倫·科維（laurent Cauwet ）的新書《藝術的訓化》（La domestication de l』art）中，他闡述了當今資本主義的普遍存在恰恰要求現代人成為自己的「僱主」，自我發明（預設自身存在的獨特性），發明新的群體並製造新的身份認同（使人偏移或遺忘根本性的階級差異），同時也為社會製造新的欲望（滋生交換價值-商品拜物系統的溫床）。而如何構建一種策略，在不與其合謀的情況下成為行而有效的生產者，這是我們回到田地間勞作時要時刻面對的核心問題。（撰文：蒲英瑋 翻譯：龍星如 圖片提供：蒲英瑋）
注釋「1」：本文系根據法羅基的展覽《移情》（Harun Farocki-Empathie）所寫的文章。文章九個短文以時間的順序分別對應展覽展出的法羅基的九件影/裝置作品。此次展覽舉辦地為馬賽Friche La Belle De Mai藝術中心，原址為工廠，處在馬賽的平民區。
哈倫·法羅基：移情
Friche La Belle De Mai藝術中心/馬賽
2017/11/15-2018/3/18
Nine Songs of Labour: Harun Farocki
「Shall we live long enough to see a political revolution? We, the contemporaries of these Germans?」 - Arnold Ruge, in his reply to Marx's first letter (March 1843)
The German filmmaker Harun Farocki travelled endlessly, until his passing away in 2014. Accompanied by his wife, the curator Antje Ehmann, Farocki toured globally, shooting and lecturing, teaching and giving workshops on the study of film, and in the process he seeded his thinking in every corner of the world.
We believe that, even in the last moments of his life, Harun Farocki was working.
Nicht löschbares Feuer! Bilder der Welt! These two sharp titles from his oeuvre are a true description of Farcoki’s spirit. At this moment, in an abandoned factory in Marseille, what Paul Celan described as 「city of the end」,Faroki’s nine 「haiku」 film works blaze in the light of his legacy, carrying forwards the heat of the revolution. The subject of this exhibition resonates with the subject of the artist’s own lifelong research and practice: labour.
Fate
The working class was captured when film first arrived, in Travailleurs quittant L'usine of 1895. Since then, the fates of labourers and film have been entwined. This entangled relationship can be found in Eisenstein's Strike; Jean-Luc Godard's reaction to the events of Paris in May 1968: how he and Chris Marker's Cinétracts stimulated workers; and the insurgents from the opening of Le fond de l'air est rouge: war, youth, subversion, liberation, freedom... the image of the working class has been receptively illustrated and edited throughout the history of moving-image, and the moving-image of history, and eventually became the visual legacy of the revolution. In 1995 what Farocki had in mind was how, after a century of turmoil, we might penetrate the bloodstained manfiesto of 「labour」 and revisit the first film in human history. He consciously recognised that this film transcended specific connotations: instead, it evolved into a symbol of 「energy」. In Farocki's version of Travailleurs quittant L'usine, the buzzing crowds that featured in the original footage are transformed into radical formulas, bringing the intrinsic power of the workers into the foreground. The crowd, the people, are flowing towards their own fates. The only element of colour in this film features in flames spraying from a chimney – the artist's visit, after one hundred years, emancipates this particular image from history.
Time
In 1995, the same year of his homage to Travailleurs, Farocki reconstructed the notion of 「working」 on another level in his piece, Interface. The German title, Schnittstelle, refers to 「where editing happens」. Namely, once the raging sentiment of the strike march had diminished, the artist returned to the editing room, and laboured rigorously on the footage, hands-on: 「would these two images co-exist or contradict one another – and could any new relationship be established between the two?」 In Interface, Farocki analysed and edited diverse footage, his own creations or others'. Then footage of the artist himself, analysing these images, is further recomposed and analysed in the next shot: in this way the images seem to have voyaged dialectically through time. Here, the meaning of 「hands-on labour」 emerges: a breakthrough with pure sentimental drive, while 「words」 are confronted and thoroughly investigated, and thus re-construed.
Body
In 2004, following Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera and Walter Ruttman's Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis, Harun Forecki decided to shoot his own version of a film featuring urban life. At a time in history when overloaded images have buried reality and exahausted the possibilities of 「représentation」, an authentic way of 「seeing」 is in decline. Perhaps only symbolic approaches – alternatives or 「the other」 of realities – can inspire real responses and genuine feeling towards realities. In his film, Contre-Musique, Farocki juxtaposed CCTV footage of urban scenes, and the electrocardiograms of hospitalised patients, comparing the contemporary city to the human body. Specifically, a diseased human body under seamless surveillance, unable of moving and exposing their suffering to the audience. Hence, Contre-Musique makes the statement, forget the lyricised bustle and prosperity depicted in Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis – and return to the servitude and onerousness of real life.
Spectre
In 2006, Farocki revisited the original source of the language of film, and entitled his work Travailleurs quittant L'usine en onze décennies. This title seems to be a manifesto in itself, announcing that a film work exceeds the boundaries of artistic language, and also embodies history, events, and ethical standpoints: the birth of a new piece shall forever linger in the echoes of history. In this video installation, comprising twelve televisions, Farocki straightforwardly presented footage that he had chosen but never edited: begin with Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, and arrive via Fritz Lang's Metropolis at Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark. Among the overflow of these imaginaries, Farocki delicately leaves the audience with space for autonomous editing and free conversation – the artist perceiving a state of 「Empathie」.
Gesture
We find another kind of juxtaposition in Farocki's 2007 piece Comparison via un tiers, between the handcraft of brick-making in India, and mechanical production in Europe. Through an almost synchronised rhythm of editing, we sense the alienation of labour, and realise how, through repetitive labour, we have lost an awareness of human senses, and metamorphosed into a machine on the production chain. We can interpret all of this as Farocki's dialectical reflection, throughout his straightforward juxtaposition of films. The 「edit-display」 approach of dual-screen films implies Farocki's methodology of layering 「time」 and 「history」 on the same co-ordinates. The positioning of images alone, is political.
Organs
In 1963, Tomas Schmit, a pioneer of the Fluxus movement, conducted his famous performance poetry piece, ZYKLUS for water-pails (or bottles). Buckets are placed on the circumference of a circle, one filled with water. From inside the circle, the artist picks up the filled vessel, and pours it into the empty one next door; he then picks up the newly filled one and pours it into the next, and so on – until all of the water has been spilled or evaporated in the process. This kind of meaningless depletion became a poetic moment, in the anarchistic manifesto of the Fluxus group. Referring to this 「meaningless depletion」, Farocki narrated a kind of 「critical realism」. In his 2010 piece, Re-Verser, Variation de l'opus 1 de Tomas Schmit, he revisited Schmit's performance – the only difference being, a robotic arm replaces the performer.
Blood
In 1758, the painter Gaspar Miguel de Berrio painted his piece Description of Cerro Rico and the Imperial Municipality of Potosi, which depicted the grandeur of engineering work surrounding Mount Richter, in what is now Bolivia, under Spanish colonial reign. What the painting celebrates cannot whitewash the bloody and exploitative nature of colonial exploitation, as the saying reminds us: 「The Spanish brought the Cross, and extracted silver ore.」 In L'argent et la croix, Farocki's camera follows the marching soldiers and cities under construction as depicted in Berrio's work, but narrates a more realistic story: the image, painted to glorify, becomes testimony to a crime. It is precisely in the power of film language and narration to reconstruct what we perceive as 「truth」. In his 1957 piece Letter from Siberia, Chris Marker layered together two identical films of Soviet workers, but, by altering the accompanying voiceover, completely changed the meaning of the images – either, from the Soviet perspective, a celebration of the working class; or, from the American standpoint, a confession of unendurable working conditions. While the saying, 「the politics of movies are originated from Eisenstein (『father of montage』)」, brings up a discussion of power and the ethics of 「editing」, Farocki's choice was to approach reality through the act of editing.
Labour
In 2011, Farocki and Antje Ehmann conducted the workshop Le Travail en une seule prise in fifteen cities (including Hangzhou, China), in which participants were requested to document a process of labour between one and two minutes long, with the support of any documenting device. Travailleurs Quittant Leur Lieu de Travail was based on footage from the workshops, in which urban images from nine cities, including Moscow, Bangladesh, Buenos Aires and Hanoi, were represented. From the handcraft of textile grisettes to electronic component manufacture, or office clerks facing computer screens (conducting labour on invisible dimensions), Le Travail en une seule prise demonstrated the act of working on various dimensions. The intriguing aspect is, at a stage when Farocki had acquired a reputation and the resources to conduct his work on a global scale, he rather chose a 「non-spectacle」 approach: to practice what he preached, and endow everyone with the same power with which film had endowed him.
Action
So, love to work. Since Rousseau made the connection between 「work」 and 「obligation」, the value generated by work has tended towards the arms of the bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, after decades, 「work」 has become the predestination of every contemporary individual. With the shifting of society, the labourer is again deprived of sovereign power over his own fate, and regressed to a state of institutional discipline: repetition, oppression, alienation and exploitation; depletion, tediousness, doomed fate and finality. If we are to revisit the concept of 「love to work」, we ought to reinvent it in the context of history, and rebuild our autonomy, not just by serving as an 「employee」 but as a real labourer. This pathway, however, remains steep. In Laurent Cauwet's recent book, La domestication de l'art, he elaborated on how the ubiquitous existence of capitalism in the contemporary world has required everyone to become the 「employer」 of his own self: to invent the 「self」 (preinstall the uniqueness of oneself), invent new communities and construct identity affiliations (to divert people from or make the forget the fundamental differences of class), and invent new desires for the society (hotbeds for exchange values or commodity fetishisations). In addition, landing on a new tactic for becoming an efficient producer, without acting in concert with others, becomes a crucial issue to tackle, as we return to the field of labour at this historical moment. （By Pu Yingwei Translated by Long Xingru,Image Courtesy of the Pu Yingwei）
This text has been written in response to Harun Farocki-Empathie, an exhibition of works by Harun Farocki. The nine sections of the text follow, in chronological order, the nine video/installation works by the artist on exhibition. The location of the exhibition is Friche La Belle De Mai, originally a factory, located in a ghetto area of Marseille, France.
Harun Farocki:Harun Farocki-Empathie
Friche La Belle De Mai/Marseille France
25 November 2017-18 March 2018