「每件藝術作品都是一則聲明」：與南榮對談
文／雷智宇
譯／葉寶儀
「我過去常常戴著我的太陽眼鏡，整天坐在同一個地方，自由地觀察人們，偷聽他們的對話。」南榮長成一個孤獨者，多才多藝、身兼劇作家和導演的他其實一直艱難而努力地表達自己，卻是從閱讀詩歌尋得慰藉。十五歲時，他終於能夠流暢地書寫和閱讀，但他經歷的傷痕猶在。「我身處一個分崩離析的教育體制裡，依據學習能力把學生區分，這深深影響我的教養。」
他的成長路途迂迴曲折，他早年在玻璃市（位於馬來西亞北部，比鄰泰國）的日子並「沒有從事藝術創作的野心」。他曾經從事各種零散工作，包括出賣勞力的工人、農夫和非法泊車服務員，直至他對生活感到幻滅。大器晚成的他二十五歲才註冊入讀馬來西亞國家文化藝術學院(ASWARA)，把精力投注在劇場實踐，與此同時繼續與不同群體合作，包括他早年在玻州的時候已經活躍其中的加央行動劇團(Grup Teater AKSI)、一條石劇團(Grup Teater SEBATU)，以及之後的另類舞台(Alternative Stage)和劇場人之家(Rumah Anak Teater)等等。
南榮意識到團隊協作的意義，這使他對自己從劇場過渡至電影（反之亦然）的實踐頗有批判意識。他一直主張「劇場是團隊合作」，而作為導演的角色是「把碎片拼湊組合起來」，他拒絕「區分螢幕和舞台」，認為「這僅僅是一個延續」，兩者同樣讓他「透過身體姿勢和人物塑造來觀察和解讀他人，猶如我們在外面世界所做的，這關乎將之搬演至螢幕的問題」。他強調「一件好的藝術作品」應當在庸俗社會中「動搖人心」。
性、政治與電影
南榮說他的電影《十字路口》(One Two Jaga, 2018)的評價褒貶不一，因為電影牽涉的議題並不尋常——從貪污到警察濫權等馬來西亞的公開秘密，每個人都有自己的故事要說。所以，當他說自己正盤算拍一部色情電影的時候（儘管他宣稱那不過是宣傳噱頭），我向他坦承，我讀到太多他的聲明了。引起我注意的，並非他字面上聲明要拍一部色情電影（我們必須承認色情電影可能是最難拍的電影類型之一），而是追溯至1998年這個動盪的年頭。當「烈火莫熄」(Reformasi) 改革運動之時，透過過度「性化」的主流媒體日復一日的傳播，馬來西亞人「首次」接觸到「雞姦」、「同性戀者」、「精子」等字眼。性(sexuality)成為國家機器的強力武器，來對抗任何民主化的觀念，而能夠刻劃社會庸俗的人確實是進行一種顛覆的舉動。
他回顧自己的藝術生涯：「我的藝術作品間接地被視為批評當下體制的一部份。在『烈火莫熄』改革運動之前，我大多作品設法處理自己內心的掙扎。『烈火莫熄』期間，由於政府打壓我表達的自由，我對政府有很強烈的異議和不滿，從此變得更有政治性。」在他的眾多劇本和電影改編裡，他的首部電影《流氓》(Gedebe,2003)以莎士比亞的《凱撒大帝》為參照藍本，呼應多年來馬哈迪(Mahathir Mohamad)和安華(Anwar Ibrahim)之間的政治角力。
對南榮而言，政治從此不再一樣，不再是他的劇場導師克里申．吉(Krishen Jit)過往告訴他的那一套，自此，藝術需要超越內在糾結。經年累月的偷聽經驗使他對周遭世界的周密觀察愈趨成熟。這從他諸多作品中清楚表現出來，例如受到公路電影啟發的《捷徑》(Jalan Pintas, 2011)處理的是一個受到希望和責任誘惑的年輕人。《爭執》(Gadoh, 2009)則以他以往就讀的學校發生的種族歧視為主題，充份展示他的觀察和生命經驗。南榮強調，「我們應該揭示那些被刻意掩藏的問題！」
藝術作為批評
當被問及如何將自己置放在當今馬來西亞的社會文化光譜，南榮向我報以一個銳利的眼神。他回想起「後烈火莫熄」年代他跟印尼劇場工作者的對話，「我們都知道馬來西亞是一個警察國家，我的藝術一定會受到國家的監視，因為我們都用藝術作品去批評政府。但這現在已不代表甚麼了，每個人都可以批評，那我們的角色是甚麼？」他的提問不過是要重新確認藝術家最根本的工作，藝術家「需要為觀眾帶來批判思維」，「我們不提供答案和解決方法，那是政治人物的工作」。這關乎拋出準確恰當的問題來挑戰，因為作為國家的馬來西亞總是和將會持續地轉變。南榮的作品往往是一把兩面刃，不單單剖開國家的結構性暴力，亦揭露社會的虛偽和焦慮。
對南榮而言，最重要的是讓「藝術作品去說明」他的政治觀。對他來說，「所有藝術作品都是一則聲明」。他設想各種切中要害的方式，去理清政治和美學之間的關係。他指「這是一個技藝的問題」，去捕捉複雜的集體性的不同形式，如民族、人民、群眾等。他在《十字路口》的最新嘗試是從邊緣的角度，觀察移民身體的非法性和脆危性。這貫徹南榮的創作精神核心：對他來說，邊緣的聲音絕不可以被噤聲。
*本訪談係為2019交通大學「焦慮的年代：馬來西亞影展在台灣」放映計劃進行並整理成章，原載於《放映週報》焦點影評，第643期，2019/04/13。
“Every art piece is a statement”: A Conversation with Namron
/ Zikri Rahman
“I used to sit in one spot all day long wearing my shades”, he says, “I am free to observe and eavesdrop at people”. Growing up a loner, Namron, a multi-talented playwright and director, struggles to express himself only to find solace in poetry reading. He was fifteen years old when he eventually managed to be able to write and read fluently but the scar remains; “Being in such a fragmented education system where students are being segregated by their academic capabilities, it influences my upbringing”.
His raising is nothing but of convoluted experiences where he has “no ambition of doing art” from his early days in Perlis, the most northern state in Peninsular Malaysia bordering Thailand, undertaking various odd jobs from plying his trade as a hard labourer, farmer to illegal parking attendant until he got disillusioned with it. Being a late bloomer, he enrolled into the National Arts Academy (ASWARA) at the age of 25, focusing on theatre practise while continuing to working collaboratively through different groups, such as Grup Teater AKSI, Grup Teater SEBATU—active in both during his formation years in Perlis—to Alternative Stage and Rumah Anak Teater amongst others.
Being aware of how collaboration works hence made Namron critical of developing his practise from theatre to film or vice versa. “Theatre is a teamwork” of which he has long favoured and working as a director “who combines the fragments”, he refuses “to distinguish screen and staging but (it is) merely a continuation” where “I observe and read people through their body gestures, characterization as we do act in the world outside. It is a matter of putting it onto the screen”. As he stressed, “good art is supposed to unsettle people” in its own social vulgarities.
Sex, Politics, and Cinema
I admitted to Namron that I am reading too much of his statement (it was merely a publicity stunt he proclaimed) when he said that he was contemplating to direct a pornographic film upon receiving mixed reviews of his film One Two Jaga (2018) as a result of the novelty of the issues it brings – from corruptions to police abuses that have remained an open secret in Malaysia where everyone has their own stories to tell. It is not only his literal statement of making pornographic film—though it might be one of the hardest genre to produce we have to admit—that captures my attention but to trace it historically to the tumultuous year of 1998 with Reformasi’s upheaval as its background where Malaysians were “first” being introduced through hyper-sexualised mainstream media to the words of “sodomy”, “homosexual” and “sperms” being fed on a daily basis. Sexuality has become a potent state apparatus against any notion of democratisation and those who are able to capture the vulgarities of the society is, indeed, a subversive act.
“Indirectly my hard-hitting art pieces were being considered as part of criticizing the regime of the day”, he recalls. “Prior to Reformasi, most of my work grappled with my own inner struggle. It was only during Reformasi that I have a lot of issues with the government” as “they repress my freedom of expression. I became more political since then”. From his various stage writings to screen adaptations, it was his first film, Gedebe (2003) adapted loosely from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that resonates with the conflict unfolded for years to come in Malaysian politics between Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim.
Politics has never been the same for Namron anymore as it is no longer as what his theatre mentor, the late Krishen Jit used to told him; art, now has to go beyond the inner struggle. Years of eavesdropping matures his thoughtful observations of the world around him. It is being articulated in his many works, among others, from the road-movie inspired Jalan Pintas (2011) where it grapples with the delusional allurement of hopes and responsibilities of a young man. Through Gadoh (2009), the prevalent manifestation of his observations and life experiences pertaining racism happening in his former school which becomes the central theme of the film. “We should unravel those issues that has been swept under the carpet!” Namron’s stresses.
Art as Criticism
When asked to locate himself within the socio-cultural constellations in Malaysia, Namron fixed me with a piercing stare. He reminisces the conversations he had with fellow theatre practitioners from Indonesia in the post-Reformasi era where back then “we know that Malaysia is a police state, so my art was for sure being observed by the State” as “we were using our piece to criticise the government but it is nothing now since everyone can criticise”.“What is then our roles?” he rhetorically asks, only to reaffirm that it is fundamental for the artist that “it has to generate critical thinking among the audiences (as) we don’t offer solution – that’s the work of a politician”. It is a matter of throwing the right questions into the ring as Malaysia as a state always and will continuously mutate itself. Namron’s work often serves as a double-edged sword, not only to dissect the structural violence of the State but also of the society’s hypocrisy and anxieties.
The utmost thing for Namron is to let “the art piece to (do the) talk(ing)” of his politics. For him, “every art piece is a statement”. He envisions pertinent ways to recognize the challenge to untangle the relations between politics and aesthetics; “it is a question of craft” in capturing the different forms of complex collectivity – nations, peoples, masses, etc. His latest attempts through One Two Jaga in looking at the illegality and precarity of migrant bodies from the position of periphery continues the spirit at the core of what Namron does best. For him, the marginal voices must not be silenced.
* This interview is conducted for the “Age of Anxiety: Malaysian Film Festival in Taiwan”, and has been published on Funscreen Issue No. 643 on Apr 13, 2019.