Abstract
In order to better describe a group of people who continuously travel across borders due to political or economic reasons, Li Kuei-Pi coined the term “TransBorder” as the title of her art project. In the project, she created a fictional company based on real stories told by illegal immigrants in Taiwan, Cambodia and India, providing services to transfer people from one country to another. This article presents a conversation between Li Kuei-Pi and Dolma Tsering, who is a Tibetan in exile now living in Taiwan. In the first section, Dolma gives us a brief history of Tibetan in exile and clarifies the differences among refugees, exiles and the stateless. Following the historical discussion, Li shares her methods and strategies to understand such complicated issues related to refugees and exiles. She emphasises “the inefficiency of art” might be the major concern of her, when it comes to preserving the diversity of different communities, and not turning into a messenger of certain political ideology. At the end of the conversation, they talk about the international status of Taiwan which makes Taiwanese live somewhat like TransBorders.
「根據我在印度等地旅行的經驗，我發現，沒有一個精確的名詞能夠指這些跨越邊境、正在移動的人，因此我創造了一個新的單字『TransBorderer』。」在「TransBorder計畫」中，李奎壁為無國籍者虛構了一種資本主義式的跨國服務方案，但這些參與者都不具有可辨識的國籍身份，他們可能是敘利亞內戰的難民、自緬甸逃往孟加拉的興羅亞人、冒死穿越撒哈拉沙漠與地中海前往歐洲的厄利垂亞人，當然也可能是在台灣的無國籍西藏人。
為了帶給觀眾在閱讀作品時更清晰與立體的參照，《藝術認證》邀請高雄獎首獎得主李奎壁與目前在台學習華文的藏人、尼赫魯大學東亞研究中心博士候選人Dolma Tsering，由群島資料庫主持人鄭文琦擔任主持，以這次的得獎作品〈TransBorder邊境計畫〉為開端，就流亡藏人的處境與藝術家翻轉既定視覺符號的創作法手展開對話。因Covid-19疫情而改為連線對談的那天，正好是西藏與中共簽署《十七條協議》[1]滿70年之際。