Live performance

Dream journey through the operating room

Impressions of a performance by Yingmei Duan

the art project “Endstation St. Josef ” in Königswinter, July 2012

手术室中的奇幻旅程

——2012年7月德国克尼格斯温特尔“圣约瑟夫的终点站”艺术项目

段英梅表演观后感

Yingmei Duan was invited to realize a performance in the exhibition Endstation St. Josef, that took place in an empty, structurally intact former hospital before its demolition. 

艺术家段英梅应邀参加“圣约瑟夫的终点站”艺术展并进行了表演。表演场地是在一座完整空旷但是已经废弃待拆的医院里。

One week before her performance she worked very intensively on site surrounded by the work of 120 artists in the 100-room building. Her concept was to combine the performance space with sound, light, movement and time.

这所建筑有着100个房间，汇集了来自120位艺术家的作品。表演前一周，段英梅在现场进行了大量的准备工作。她的理念是希望把表演场地同声、光、运动和时间结合起来。

She decided to create a performance in an empty operating room, in which a movable surgical lamp dominated the space. The only not firmly anchored fixture was a wheeled stretcher used for transporting hospital patients. It became the main feature of the upcoming performance. The normally-open surgical door was shut with the sign “Admission by invitation” displayed.

最后英梅决定在一个闲置的手术室中来创作表演。手术室里正居其中的是一盏可移动手术灯，唯一没有固定位置的设备就是运送病人的手推床。这张床将成为接下来表演中的“主角”。手术室之前敞开的门现已关闭，门上告示写着“非请莫入”。

Visitors were allowed to participate individually or in pairs as “patients” in the performance. The artist took the role of a doctor, with an assistant at her side. With this team, the visitors were alone in the room, therefore an atmosphere reminiscent of a situation in a hospital developed.

获准后观众可以独自或成对地进入手术室，在表演中扮演“病人”的角色。艺术家则扮作医生，另有一位助手从旁协助。手术室里只有“医生”，“助手”和“病人”，除此之外再无旁人，这样一种情境很容易让人联想到医院的场景。

Yingmei asked the visitors to take off their shoes and lie down on the bed closing their eyes for the duration of the performance. Singing softly she moved the wheeled stretcher – very slowly at first, turning, circling, then faster and suddenly slowing down again so that the “patients” lost sense of the direction of movement.

在表演中，英梅要求“病人”脱鞋后躺在推床上闭上眼睛。她一边轻唱一边推着床——最初慢慢地转弯，缓缓地转圈，之后突然加快又猛然减速，这样是为了让“病人”失去方向感。

Different noises created by the performer dominated the space: the squeak of rubber wheels on the plastic floor, the loud opening and slamming of doors and the rattling of bolts in a jar.

手术室里交杂着表演者产生的各种噪音：轮子蹭在塑料地板上咯吱作响，门摔得乒呤乓啷，螺钉在罐子里稀里咣当。

Yingmei’s assistant opened and closed the operation room’s door, sometimes quietly and sometimes very loudly with a bang. In addition, he repeatedly opened and closed the blinds of the windows, so that sometimes darkness and other times strong daylight entered the room in an irregular rhythm.

英梅的助手在来来回回地开关门，动作时轻时重；他还要反反复复地开关百叶窗，让自然光线时有时无，屋子里时明时暗，毫无规律可循。

The performance-patients who endured all this were confused and disorientated. Many believed that the extremely bright operating light was directed at their eyes. On the basis of the door slamming, the noise from the wheels of the stretcher and the changing direction one audience member asked through how many rooms and floors they had been driven.

这一过程中“病人”则是疑惑不解，一头雾水。很多人觉得自己的眼睛受到了手术灯的强光直射。还有一个观众认为，门一直响，推床在动轮子也一直在响，而且不停换方向，所以他很想知道究竟推着他穿过了多少房间，挪了几层楼。

At the end of the performance Yingmei gave a Chinese hand and foot massage.

在表演的尾声，英梅会给“病人”做中式手足按摩。

-The Bonn artist Ingrid Grieser, who also participated in Endstation, remembers:

——来自波恩同样参加本次项目的艺术家英格丽·格里泽回忆道：

“It was a complete surprise for me to witness a performance so directly. Actually, I was more likely to be prepared than the viewers.

So it was a special experience, in which I found myself in very different places. My initial brief feeling of dizziness in the twists of the bed quickly gave way to a succession of different places and feelings. I mentally went down a spiral staircase, was in the sea, the sun was shining, and I could even fly.

I was then brought back by the foot and hand massage. “

“能够如此直观地见证一场表演，对我来讲实在是惊喜。比起普通观众，我更喜欢有备而来。所以说这是一个很特殊的经历，我感觉自己在不同的地方。最开始在转推床的时候有点头晕，之后马上就变成了其他感觉。脑子里有这样一幅画面，好像自己在走下旋梯，我在海里，太阳正在升起，我甚至能飞。英梅给我按摩的时候我就清醒过来。”