2019 年 1 月 1 日，我拍了張自照，凝視間，突然很想比對一張我趁媽媽還清醒
時擷取到的最近照–從 1996 開始遺忘到此刻，瘦骨嶙峋的母親面容透出奇異溫柔，現在抱著她我會流淚，她忘記了所有一切，包含最基礎的吃飯起坐程序。
而我，終於等到歲月過了六十，追隨母親步入老年–這個忘性當道、衰病纏身的最後一塊人生拼圖階段。
為什麼人生不能止於極盛，而需寂靜於枯槁？
“忘記”如一個手勢，預告即將潛行–一個界域，截然不同於其他人生階段，但同樣無可避免；故而最終不再想被動接受，反而慾望逆風地全力以赴活出未有， 這當是“成全”之真義。
當計畫越是延展開走，我越是彷彿要遠離它的“形式”–不同的是我未曾或忘這位如影隨形了三十年的藝術老友–我打算以藝術最核心的創性，來問問這塊生命最後拼圖的究竟意義。從這個角度–這不是件“作品”，而是真實我的現在進行式。這也是關於任何一位如我之成忘老太太的現在進行式。它的殘酷清醒，它的質變煉金，它的一五一十不肯妥協，完全契合我對藝術最終極能量的叩問。
正因如此，接觸到這個計畫的所有過程（從 2019 到 2020；從台北到高雄三個不同場地；從編寫劇本、尋找演員、排演到演出；從不認識到午茶濃情到寫一封信給成忘老太太…）無論擺盪在如何大幅真實人與事以及高度演釋結構之兩極，總是能有機而微妙地鎖住計畫的核心–當你相遇“成忘老太太”，請用創力握住 “這位”尋常在你身邊、卻也極其值得以“藝術”對待的人物。
成忘老太太計畫，它不附庸於社會服務，也不是醫療教學，它直指人類心智的抽象轉換–來自藝術最終層次：對於忘記的成全猶如對於年老的成全、對逆境的成全，皆考驗人類面對異質心智符碼，其轉換演繹的可能創性。
成忘老太太計畫是為納受記憶的失去而生，也為每一剎那由年老生出的難題以創心去觀視而生，由重重衰敗哀傷中出現對生命究竟真相的體悟與感激。經由態度改組，找到生命之於每一階段、自與他相互成全的相處之徑。
那麼，無論是“作者”，是“成忘老太太”，是即將來臨的“年忘老太太”，甚至是具有如此“成忘”性格的人物，我們都因此而是–“成忘老太太”！
Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady, Tang, Huang-Chen
2019 Action Plan Artist Statement
On the January 1st of 2019, I took a selfie. Gazing at the photo, I suddenly had the urge to compare it to a recent photo that I took of my mother when she was lucid—from when she began forgetting things in 1996 until that very moment, her emaciated countenance has exuded a strange gentleness. My tears would fall when I hold her in my arms now. She has forgotten everything, including basic stuff, such as eating, getting up and sitting down.
I am now in my sixties and entering the stage of my twilight years, just like my mother—this is the final stage informed by forgetfulness and illness, the last puzzle to complete one’s life.
Why can’t one’s life stop at its prime but must wither into silence?
“Forgetting” is like a gesture that signals at one’s upcoming journey—a journey into a domain utterly different from other stages in life, though equally unavoidable. Eventually, I have become tired of passively accepting what is to come but desired to give all I could to live the days to come head-on. For me, this is the true meaning of “completion.”
As the project unfolded and continued, I seemed to have moved away from its “form”
– the difference is that I have never forgotten art, my old friend for three decades – and planned to question and explore the ultimate meaning of the last puzzle of life through creativeness, which has been the core of art. From this perspective, the project is not a “a work of art” but the very reality of my present life. Also, it is about the present condition of any “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady” such as I myself. Its cruel lucidness, its utter transformation and sublimation, and its truth and irreconcilableness have all corresponded to my questioning of the ultimate energy of art.
For this very reason, no matter how every step of this project (from scripting, auditioning, rehearsing to performing; from being total strangers, having afternoon tea together to writing a letter to the “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady”; from Taipei to Kaohsiung, in three different venues; and from 2019 to 2020) oscillated between its extensively realistic elements and the highly interpretive structure, it has always organically and subtly revolved around the project’s core—when you encounter the “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady,” with your creativeness, please hold onto “this” figure around you in daily life who is worth being treated with “art.”
The Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady project is not adhered to social service or medical education; instead, it points to the abstract conversion of human intellect in the ultimate dimension of art: the completion of forgetting is similar to the completion of being senile and adversities, which tests human’s ability to face heterogenous mental codes as well as the potential creativeness resulting from such conversion and interpretation.
This project was born from the need to accept the loss of memory as well as for creatively coping with conundrums stemming from aging. From degradation and sorrow, understanding of and gratitude towards the truth of life is revealed. By changing one’s mindset, the way to make peace with every stage of life is uncovered, allowing mutual completion between oneself and others to become possible.
So, be it the “author,” the “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady,” the “forgetful old lady” or figures with a “forgetting” personality, we are all in a way “Completed-in-Forgetting Old Lady.”