去年紐約有個火到不行的公共雕塑，是一座矗立在華爾街銅牛旁的女孩銅像。個子小小的女孩，撐著腰，支著腿，一副天不怕地不怕的模樣，立在了象徵男性和金融世界的銅牛跟前，這對陣一擺出來，就紅遍了社交媒體。
委約的企業說，製作銅像是為了鼓勵華爾街的金融機構更多地提拔女性管理者──這樣的說法似乎一下子就被廣大群眾接受了；很少人關心，這家美國第三大的資產管理公司本身只起用了很少的女性高管；更少人知道，這家企業的男高管們本來是想把一頭母牛放在公牛的旁邊，是被相關審批部門否掉以後，才改為小女孩。
小女孩的面世，以及後來如此地深入人心，恐怕多少有點在那企業的意料之外，不過這倒不耽誤他們使勁地宣傳一個相關主題的基金，省下一筆相當於七百多萬美元的廣告費。
由此可見，公共藝術雖以藝術的名義，走進公共空間，背後卻不免帶著不同的心思和意圖。可是既然戴了一頂公共的帽子，就至少該讓公眾的聲音也參與到製作討論當中。從小女孩差點以母牛面世的小插曲就可以說明，甚麼樣的人參與了討論，甚麼樣的作品就會被製作出來。為了讓公共藝術在社會的不同價值觀間取得平衡，公眾與項目持份者充分參與和討論的過程，就顯得特別重要。
筆者曾參與紐約市政府百分比藝術計劃（Percent for Art）負責人主持的一節工作坊，內容模擬該計劃的項目評議（panel discussion）流程，不同的持份者輪次在會上發言。工作坊上其中一個參與者誇張地扮演了委約作品的警察部門代表，她一個勁兒地說候選作品塑造的人物很像社會的不良分子，她作為一個警方代表，就是看不慣這樣的作品放在警局門口……
看了她的演繹，大家馬上哄堂大笑，可是百分比藝術計劃的負責人說，這場面其實非常真實。在許多這樣的評議會議上，都會出現各種各樣的觀點，有的看似主觀，有的甚至顯得狹隘，但討論的目的，就是要讓不同的意見獲得相同的表達機會，讓最終的結論能體現更多元的價值觀。
這樣的流程正正符合紐約百分比藝術計劃的終極目標，那就是讓紐約的公共藝術，能更真實地反映這座城市的核心價值：多元包容、創意而具有活力。
而這個目前只有三名職員的部門，正主理著計劃裡上百項的公共藝術項目。負責人說道，如果說有甚麼策略可言的話，那就是讓不同的持份者（委約方、製作方、藝術家、公眾等）都能在項目中發出他們的聲音，發揮他們的作用。為了方便社區居民參與討論，會議還不時安排在晚上於社區的居民空間舉行。
說真的，筆者挺欣賞這種就公共藝術建立的公眾參與機制。一方面，它讓社區中的公共藝術更能夠代表居民的意願；另一方面，透過營造出理性討論的環境和機制，也可以讓具有不同價值觀和利害立場的人更好地相互理解，這過程本身，就激發了居民對社區的想像，也增强了社區的凝聚力──這些，都是公共藝術能為社區帶來的隱形財富。
原載於 C2文創誌 第二十五期
Last year, a bronze statue in the form of a little girl in New York went viral among the public audience. The short little ponytailed girl, with her hands on her hips, spirited with power, stares down the Wall Street facing the bronze Charging Bull that represents man power and the world of finance. This art portrayal quickly attracted public attention and went viral on social media.
The statue’s commissioning body explained that the statue was set up to encourage financial firms at Wall Street to promote more female employees to the senior managerial level. The sentiment was quickly accepted by the public while very few people know that this third largest asset management company only employs a few female senior executives. Little do people know that originally the male executives of this company wanted to put a cow besides the bull instead of the fearless girl. However, the original proposal was disapproved by the authority and was changed to the current one.
The birth of the fearless girl and the enormous public attention are more or less beyond the company’s expectation. But it didn’t stop them from using the statue to promote a fund with a similar theme, saving an advertisement expense of about over seven million US dollars for the company.
It’s apparent that apart from being an art form, public art still carries the designers’ own intention when entering public space. But since public art has public property, the public’s voice should be heard in the making of artworks. The unexpected turn of event in the making of the fearless girl statue is a living proof of the fact that the people involved in the discussion on the art production would heavily influence the outcome. To strike a balance among different values regarding public arts in society, the public audience and the commissioning body’s full participation into the design discussion proves to be essential.
I have personally participated in a workshop convened by the New York city government’s Percent for Art that aims to simulate panel discussion on a project. In the workshop, different stakeholders would take turn to express their opinions on the matter. A participant in the workshop played the role of a police department delegate in a dramatic way. She kept on rambling that the statue looked gangsta and she as a police department delegate didn’t want to see such artwork to be put in front of the police station....
The entire room burst into laughter after watching her portrayal of the police delegate. Despite the funniness, the director of Percent for Art commented that the scene was actually very realistic. In panel sessions like this, there would always be a pool of diverse opinions, some of which are subjective, some are even narrow-minded. But the goal of the discussion is to provide different voices with the opportunity to express their ideas and concerns, making the ultimate design reflect diverse values.
This process fits the ultimate goal of New York’s Percent for Art, which is to make public arts in New York truly represent the city’s core values: Diversity, creativity, and energy.
At present, Percent for Art, with only three employees, is working to manage over one hundred public art projects submitted to them. The director stated that allowing different stakeholders (commissioning bodies, producers, artists, and the general public) in the public art projects to voice out their opinions during the panel discussion is the strategy to integrate different values and ideas. To make it convenient for communities to participate in the discussion, the panel session would be arranged in residential areas in communities at night as well.
Personally speaking, I appreciate such mechanism that allows the general public to participate into the discussion on public art establishments. On one hand, such mechanism can help to create public arts representing residents’ will. On the other hand, facilitating an environment and mechanism for rational discussion also contributes to the mutual understanding among different stakeholders and values. During this process, the residents’ imagination for their communities is inspired and the unity of the communities is strengthened. These are the hidden benefits that public arts can bring to communities.
Source: C2 Issue 25