Postvan: Can I Have a Letter from You?
Can I receive a letter from you? is a transnational road trip project in which I will traverse the European continent, assuming the role of a "postman." The project originates from a seemingly absurd yet symbolically rich idea: choose someone, a place, an object, or a landscape to which you wish to send a letter—I will deliver it for you.
During this process, I have received ten letters, addressing themes such as home, the feeling of home, childhood memories, the sea of my hometown, matriarchal societies, small islands, stones atop Welsh mountains, seeds crossing oceans, caravans, death, and love. These letters carry personal emotions, cultural memories, and geopolitical undertones, and I embark on an unknown adventure with them.
In this journey, my body, as a vessel of information and emotion, becomes a medium for perceiving the external environment. Through this practice, I explore the concept of "the body itself as a container of the route." Traditionally, the subject is often seen as a stable and independent entity, but here, the identity of the subject is fluid, constantly generated, and negotiated across different cultural and political contexts. As James Clifford points out, "routes" replace "roots"; in this journey, the path is not just a physical road, but a process embedded in bodily experience.
Throughout this journey, I began to reflect on how, as an outsider, I perceive the history and reality of the European continent. How do I find my entry point within the complex geopolitical landscape? In the intertwining of history, language, culture, political systems, and borders, how is an Eastern body shaped, censored, ignored, walked upon, driven, identified, praised, or projected within European cultural spaces? These questions are not just about individual migration narratives but also involve a re-examination and deconstruction of European identity, culture, and history.
Through this project, I not only cross multiple geographical boundaries but also engage in deep reflection on issues of identity and cultural belonging. What I face is not simply the issue of "belonging" or "the other," but an exploration of how one "lands" in different cultural and political contexts and how to redefine the self in an ever-changing space.
“能否收到您的来信？”这是一个跨国公路旅行项目，我将穿越欧洲大陆，扮演“邮差”的角色。该项目源于一个看似荒诞却寓意丰富的想法：选择一个人、一个地方、一件物品或一处风景，然后向其寄一封信——我会替您送达。
在这个过程中，我收到了十封信，信的主题涵盖了家、家的氛围、童年回忆、家乡的海洋、母系社会、小岛、威尔士山脉上的石头、种子跨越海洋、商队、死亡以及爱情等。这些信件承载着个人情感、文化记忆和地缘政治的意味，我与它们一同踏上了一段未知的旅程。
在这段旅程中，我的身体作为承载信息与情感的载体，成为了感知外部环境的媒介。通过这种实践，我探索了“身体本身就是路线的容器”这一概念。传统上，主体通常被视为一个稳定且独立的实体，但在这里，主体的身份是流动的，不断生成，并在不同的文化和政治背景下进行协商。正如詹姆斯·克利福德所指出的：“路线”取代了“根基”；在这段旅程中，路径不仅仅是一条物理的道路，而是一个嵌入身体体验中的过程。
在这段旅程中，我开始思考作为一个局外人，我是如何看待欧洲大陆的历史和现实的。我如何在复杂的地缘政治格局中找到自己的切入点？在历史、语言、文化、政治制度和边界相互交织的背景下，一个东方的个体是如何在欧洲文化空间中被塑造、被审查、被忽视、被践踏、被驱使、被识别、被赞扬或被呈现出来的？这些问题不仅关乎个人的移民故事，还涉及到对欧洲身份、文化和历史的重新审视和解构。
通过这个项目，我不仅跨越了多个地理界限，还深入思考了身份和文化归属等问题。我所面对的并非仅仅是“归属”或“他者”这样的问题，而是一场对一个人如何在不同的文化和政治环境中“立足”以及如何在不断变化的环境中重新定义自我的探索。
