In August, in the exhibition hall of the Guangdong Times Art Museum, the sound of a strange language being read aloud was echoing. People listened with curiosity to these recordings in Miao produced by the Miao Translation Bureau. On the other side of the room, the improvised sound performance "Returning to the Sound Forest" creates another sound field, where the sounds of music and language overlap in the gallery space. The gurgling sound of the river is hidden behind this culturally and geographically significant soundscape.

"River Pulses presents a series of ethnographies in video form at length. Artists and researchers reach out to communities, using cultural anthropological research methods to conduct fieldwork and view their cultures from the inside perspective of the culture holders. The camera becomes a tool for depicting, comparing and analysing the conditions of people at the borders of nations and communities that spread across waterways.

Societies and cultural forms that are not yet known to us may be pristine and tranquil, or turbulent, but they renew the viewer's understanding of cultural diversity by escaping the domination of modern civilisation. Thai director Nontawat Numbenchapol has long been concerned with Shan society. They live in the border area between Thailand and Burma. The instability in Burma has led to the displacement of the Shan and other minority groups as refugees. The influx of Shan into Thailand is seen as a potential threat and they have no access to assistance, let alone recognition of their nationality. However, the Shan culture has long adapted to the norm of moving between borders, with its influence spreading to the mountainous regions of Yunnan in China, northern Myanmar and northern Thailand. They have long acted as mediators in the conflicting conflicts between the three countries over the jade trade. Rather than talk about the strange customs and anecdotes of the Shan people, Nantawar Nuban Chabang chooses to share the confusion of the present with young Shan individuals, documenting the complex and shifting nature of their identity with images. This respect, listening and empathy for the experiences of the smallest individuals is evident in all the ethnographies selected by the curators.

The film ethnography has a simple realist appearance, but this sense of reality is easily distorted by the filters of early anthropological curiosity and colonial fabrication. In this regard, the Indian photographer, scholar and writer, Sabrindo De, asks sharply: "If one is to write a contemporary history, especially of communities that are largely under-represented, mis-represented or simply invisible (Under-represented, Mis-represented, Un-represented), then one should be able to make a history of them. Do we artists have a responsibility to devise new strategies to help re-imagine and correct the errors in the writing of history?" Between 2013 and 2019, Shabundu De visited a Lisu village on the Indo-Myanmar border several times. This Lisu village, which has been home to the Lisu people for generations, was set aside by the Indian authorities in the 1980s as part of the Nandafa National Park. The beliefs of the Lisu people are close to nature, while incorporating elements of universal faith. Inspired by Lisu ethnic legends, Shabundu De employs the ethnographer CliffordGeertz's Thick Description strategy to weave a cultural web of transcendent realism through still images. The photographs are filled with symbols that circulate within the Lisu belief system, but also act as discursive links in the web of culture, which can be analysed and interpreted for multiple meanings. Artistic 'fictions' no longer provide stereotypical, slice-and-dice narratives and judgements, but rather rewrite a comprehensive set of interpretations. The inner grammar and cognitive structure of heterogeneous cultures is revealed through imaginative and deep descriptions.

Established in 2019, the Hmong Translation Bureau is a self-organised platform for the promotion of the Hmong language. From time to time, they publish glossaries and invent new words in Hmong - a task that the Translation Bureau defines as 'language production'.

Water is like water, it nourishes life and has the power to be soft but strong. The "pulse of the river" gives the texture and healing power of water to an ethnography full of dry concepts and cold narratives. The water system connects the fragments of similar situations and stimulates the social imagination of the people. This watery ethnography can be seen, heard and felt.

Article Source:艺术与设计

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