"Sacred Garden" 2021 Ars Electronica Festival curated by Chia-Hui Lu 「神聖花園」 奧地利電子藝術節 盧佳慧策展

Ars Electronica Festival was founded in 1979. Forty-two years later and two years into the Covid pandemic, the digitization of our world has intensified along with the hopes and fears we attach to it. The festival is designed to take the digital revolution’s emergence to scrutinize potential futures and to focus inquiries on the nexus of art, technology and society. Within a few years, the Linz invention has developed into one of the world's most important media art festivals. There were symposia, exhibitions, performances, concerts, and interventions spanning a broad arc from speculative futuristic scenarios to analytical considerations, and from provocative actionism to philosophical debate. Each year the festival has been dedicated to a new topic and since 2020 the notion of the festival has been extended into an exciting hybrid format.
“Sacred Garden“ is curated by the chairwoman Chia-Hui Lu. Plato once said “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” Throughout history, people have used music and art to convey their beliefs, inner thoughts and emotions. With the oldest known musical instrument dated 50,000 years ago, and the oldest painting dated over 45000 years ago, we can say music and art are not ancient, but prehistoric and very human. Medieval times saw a renewed interest in music in monasteries and with studies in universities. Sacred music was composed for religious use and influence. Music proved to be especially powerful in its use in courtship, prayer, worship, sacrifice, divination, and primitive rituals. One can understand how music and art can be extremely robust mediums that can help accomplish goals of significant importance. Nowadays, music and art are omnipresent and in our view, diluted through mainstream entertainment, commercials, social media, and memes. Sacred Garden hopes to refocus the unbounded potential of music and art for a higher purpose.
As technology advances, we can imagine even greater possibilities to produce new innovative performing art. And we should embrace technology with a healthy blend of humanity's warmth and meaning. We hope to bring music and art back to its original high value and high importance state, where it may emanate profound influence and appeal.
林玆「奧地利電子藝術節」成立於1979年，為歐洲最大的電子藝術節。從2020年開始改為線上展演，去年有120個國家及不同城市團隊線上參展。此屆環繞世界的藝術節主題定為「A New Digital Deal」。成立42年，適逢疫情大流行的第二年，隨著世界日趨強烈的數位化發展，以及大家對其寄予的希望與憂慮，做為歐洲最重要的藝術節，正在為了技術和社會平台，進行反思及重整。
2021年九月八日到十二日，為期五日的林茲電子藝術節將是個全球性的展演，由一百多個合作夥伴共同響應。以播種者之身分，請各國花園之總管，開放園區全球線上共享，一起共創新數位花園博覽會。
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基金會策展人盧佳慧設計主題為「神聖花園」。早在還未有文字溝通的史前舊石器時代時便有了洞穴壁畫和樂器的存在。音樂被運用於求偶、祈求、敬拜、祭祀、占卜及各式的原始儀式。到了中古世紀，藝術與音樂成為服務宗教的主要媒介，有極高的價值及重要的地位，具深厚的影響力及感染力。表演藝術被身為音樂人的盧佳慧奉為宗教，舞台則是她的殿宇。音樂、藝術和表演可洗滌人類的身心靈，尤其在如此不安的疫情黑暗期，更是需要音樂、藝術及表演在精神層面上給予無形的撫平和慰藉，盼能更進而啟發內在的強韌性、想像力、創造力及爆發力。

柏拉圖曾說：「音樂是宇宙的靈魂，心靈的翅膀，帶我們飛向想像世界及生命的一切。」音樂無色無味無形，比抽象藝術還抽象，能穿越時空，還能長存不朽！ 實體畫作、雕像終會風化崩壞，甚至毀於祝融，除非數位化，才得以另類形式被保存。然而表演藝術也應算是行為藝術之一，稍縱即逝，若能透過記錄影片方式被完整保存，可於不同時間和地點，不限次數重新被更多人看見與聽見，對於藝術傳承來說是相當關鍵的一環，於歷史上更是人類智慧遺產不可或缺之重要資產。
在全球皆無法以實體展演的疫情時期，迫使人們迅速往數位時代邁進，線上聯播變成了與國際接軌的唯一出路和選擇。「神聖的花園」，將以精心製作之記錄片來呈現基金會多年跨界製作的表演藝術節目，相信會是最佳、最快速也是最大化之疫情新展演模式。
#EgretCulturalAndEducationalFoundation #SacredGarden #ArsElectronica #ArsElectronicaFestival #ChiaHuiLu #白鷺鷥文教基金會 #神聖花園 #奧地利電子藝術節 #盧佳慧

[@onehundredyears2022]

Great Job !