BISFF Correspondence 通信计划
为了跨越种种障碍，开辟更多交流空间，我们设置了“BISFF Correspondence 通信计划”，对部分国际单元的参展作者进行系列访谈，这些访谈将在作品放映后发布在联展各个媒体平台。
A Body Is A Body Is A Body｜身体是身体是身体
Cat McClay, Éiméar McClay
UK｜English｜0:11:41｜2021｜Asia Premiere
Q&A
Directors导演：Cat McClay，Éiméar McClay
Interviewer采访：幸木
Q：In this work, you use the body, a concrete carrier (perhaps not passive? ), to present the conflict between religion and queer nature in individuals. Where did your inspiration come from? How did you conceive your works on this basis?
在这部作品中，你们运用身体，一个实物载体（或许不是消极的？）去呈现宗教和酷儿本质之间的冲突。你们的灵感从何而来？又是如何在此基础上构建这部作品的？
A：Whilst making this work, we were interested in exploring the historically fraught relationship between queerness and the Catholic church in Ireland. Growing up queer in a rural, majority-Catholic community in Ireland inspired us to regard the queer body as a site of resistance against the imposition of heteronormativity. Through making work about sexuality, we were interested in exploring the feminist idea of the personal as political; how private, bodily experiences can actively resist oppressive political structures.
在制作这部作品时，我们对探索爱尔兰的酷儿与天主教会之间充满历史渊源的关系很感兴趣。爱尔兰一位以天主教为主的乡下长大的酷儿，启发了我们把酷儿的身体看作反抗强加异性恋正统主义无理要求的载体。通过关于性别的作品，我们对探索女性主义认为个人即政治的观点，以及私人的身体体验是如何积极抵抗压迫性的政治结构很感兴趣。
Q：In an interview referring to the way you two work together, you mentioned “we support and encourage each other in a relationship that rejects individualism”. Could you expand on your collaborative way of working? How to understand your words that your practice is informed by the reclamation of witchcraft by women as a space for community, collaboration and empowerment?
在一次聊及你俩合作方式的采访中，你们称自己是在一段拒绝个人主义的关系里互相支持和鼓励。可以详细聊聊你俩的合作方式吗？你们还提到自己的创作实践受影响于女性将巫术作为用于社群、合作及赋权的空间，这又怎么理解？
A：Our collaborative practice is foregrounded by research, which we develop in conversation with each other. Regarding the relation of our practice to witchcraft, we are interested in the reclamation of magic as a tool of empowerment. We are particularly interested in the anti-capitalist symbolism associated with its ability to reduce labour and increase the amount of time available for the exploration of personal ideas and desires. Historically, accusations of witchcraft were used as a tool of female persecution. Considering this, the reclamation of these kinds of magical practices can be mobilised in useful ways as a subversion of the oppression of female and non-binary people under patriarchal hegemony. By working collaboratively, we each sacrifice a level of personal authorship over our work. This approach allows us to gain empowerment through sharing ideas, rather than individual achievements. Working in this way rejects capitalist individualism.
我们的合作以研究为基础，在交流的过程中发展。关于我们的实践与巫术的关系，我们感兴趣的是将魔法作为赋权的工具。我们对反资本主义的象征意义特别感兴趣，它能减少劳动，让探索个人想法和欲望的时间增加。历史上，对巫术的指控被用作迫害女性的工具。考虑到这点，对这类魔法实践的再利用可以以有用的方式动起来，作为对父权霸权下女性和非二元人群压迫的颠覆。在协同工作的过程中，我们每个人都牺牲了一定程度的个人身份。这种方式能让我们通过分享想法而非个人成就来获得权利。以这种方式反对资本主义的利己主义。
Q：I remember a line in the film is “I am fourteen. I believe in God”, and the other line is “I didn’t think about religion until it became a violence”. Your text shows many changes, such as from the body of a twin to the body of a lover, from piety to resistance. How to understand these changes?
影片中有句台词是“我十四岁。我信仰上帝。”还有一句是“在它成为一种暴力之前，我没有对宗教有过思考。” 文本牵引出许多变化，比如从一个双胞胎的身体变成一个爱人的身体，比如虔诚让位于抵抗，怎么理解这些变化？
A：The narrative of the film is based on a piece of autotheoretical prose, which reflects on the experience of growing up queer in Ireland from an adult perspective. From this vantage point, the text both embodies and contextualises past fear and piety, allowing it to be understood with greater nuance. Through reflecting on shame, we aim to look critically at the biopolitical forces that engender it.
影片的叙述是基于一篇自述散文，以成人的视角反映爱尔兰酷儿的成长经历。从这一有利的角度来看，这个文本既能体现过去的恐惧和虔诚，又能将其置于语境中，能被更细致地理解。通过对羞耻的反思，我们旨在批判性地审视产生羞耻的生物政治力量。
Q：Burning flames, flowing water, and chirp from the distant space…the sound in the film also has a strong narrative function, while your words are presented in the silent way of subtitles. How did you design the sound of this film?
燃烧的火焰，流动的水，幽远空间传来的鸟鸣……声音在影片中叙事功能也很强，然而你的文本却以字幕的无声方式来呈现。在声音设计这方面是怎么考虑的？
A：The audio in the film consists primarily of ordinary ambient sounds mixed with sounds related to extreme weather. Although the text in the subtitles describes a visceral bodily experience, the body is purposefully omitted from the visual element of the film. The equivocation of the identity of the speaker in the text through the absence of characters or human figures in the accompanying animation is reinforced by the omission of a voiceover to narrate the subtitles communicating the text. As the script explores desire and memory associated with an absent partner, we wanted to create a sense of absence in both the animation and sound design of the film. We were also interested in equivocating the identity of the speaker in the film, as we wanted to reinforce ideas regarding the transgression of specific binary forms and frameworks in queer sex and relationships.
影片中的音频主要是由普通的环境声和极端天气相关的声音混合而成的。虽然文本描述的是一种出于本能的身体体验，身体也被有意地从影片的视觉元素中省略了。通过在伴随的动画中人物或形象的缺失来模糊说话人的身份，并且通过省略旁边的方式来叙述传达文本的字幕加强这一点。由于剧本探索了与缺席伴侣相关的欲望和记忆，我们希望在电影的动画和声音设计中创造一种缺席感。我们也对模糊影片中讲话人的身份感兴趣，因为我们想强化关于酷儿的性和关系中特定的二元形式和框架的越界的想法。
Q：This film is very beautiful, full of poetry in both artistic expression and emotion. Do you have any regrets about this finished work? What’s your next film plan?
这部影片很美，无论是在艺术表达上还是情感上，都充满诗意。对于这部已经完成的作品，你们有什么遗憾吗？接下来有什么创作计划？
A：Reflecting on our past work helps us to develop and improve our collaborative practice, which encourages us not to regret anything we have made. Regarding our plans for future films, recently, our moving-image practice has focused on the corrupt network of social institutions — Magdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes, etc. — run by the Catholic church in Ireland across the 20th century. This research has aided our understanding of contemporary Irish society and identity, particularly regarding the political influence of the Catholic church in Ireland since the formation of the post-colonial Free State. To expand on this project, our next film will investigate contemporary and historical Irish mental health institutions and the sociopolitical and economic factors that influenced their development. Over the coming months, with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland and CCA Glasgow, we will visit local archives in Ireland to gather information regarding the operations of St. Conal’s Hospital, Letterkenny during the mid-20th century. Using patient case files, we aim to advocate for a bottom-up form of historiography, which platforms those who have been historically disempowered rather than the institutions or biopolitical forces that have contributed to their marginalisation.
反思过去的工作能让我们之间的实际合作进一步提升和发展，这也促使我们不对任何制作出来的东西后悔。关于我们的未来电影计划，最近我们的动态影像实践一直集中在20世纪爱尔兰天主教会经营的社会机构的腐败网上—抹大拉洗衣店，母婴之家等等。这项研究有助于我们对当代爱尔兰社会与身份的理解，特别是有关天主教会自后殖民自由国家成立以来在爱尔兰的政治影响。为了拓展这个项目，我们下一部影片会调查当代及历史上的爱尔兰精神卫生机构，还有影响其发展的社会政治和经济因素。在接下来的几个月里，在爱尔兰艺术委员会和格拉斯艺术协会的支持下，我们将访问爱尔兰地方档案馆，搜集有关20世纪中期莱特肯尼St. Conal医院的运作信息。通过使用患者的病历档案，我们的目标是倡导一种自上而下的历史编纂形式，为那些在历史上被剥夺权力的人提供平台，而不是那些导致他们被边缘化的机构或生物政治力量。
more information：https://www.bisff.co/selection/a-body-is-a-body-is-a-body
Screening schedule：https://www.bisff.co/single-post/bisff-reboot