(The original text is in Chinese; Google AI Gemini translated the English text)
Natural history, which can be loosely defined as the study of animals, plants, minerals, and other natural phenomena, is a way of knowing that, following the global expansion of the Age of Discovery and Western modernity from the 16th to 19th centuries, took hold across the world. Merchants, explorers, and plant hunters collected and traded specimens in colonial metropolises, treaty ports, and tropical and border regions. Relying on the local knowledge of indigenous peoples, they established a hierarchy of modern Western scientific knowledge, which was then widely applied to the identification and classification of different geographic regions' peoples, cultural practices, and natural ecosystems. Although natural history has been supplanted by specialized fields such as biology, geology, zoology, and botany in contemporary scientific practice, its related material systems and cultural heritage still, in a specific order, permeate the historical construction and exhibition complexes of various contemporary museums and art galleries. The evolution of natural history reflects the deep historicity of nature; as soon as humanity proposes a knowledge of nature, it has, in effect, already changed nature.
The "knowledge" (知) in the title contains three layers of meaning: First, the development of natural historical knowledge is synchronized with the observation, recording, description, and classification of nature. Nature is cast as the "other," while the motivations and actions of local peoples and cross-regional cultural exchanges become invisible parts due to a lack of written records or material carriers. Second, the digitalization and technicalization of images have made the subject and process of interpretation diverse and open. Cultural authenticity is no longer the core, and the authoritative meaning of museum exhibits is constantly influenced by changing real-world contexts. Third, the decentralization of "knowledge" has led more people, out of concern for nature and the environment, to revive the amateur hobby of the "naive naturalist," and to use natural history knowledge as a starting point for action and change.
Artists, who are particularly concerned with the generation of material culture, examine, re-enact, and fictionalize the roles and perspectives that have been obscured, overlooked, and erased by scientism, in order to scrutinize the interweaving of natural history's past and contemporary visual practice. They have a natural resistance to the specialization of knowledge. Data and information about nature, the classification and display of traditional museums, and the methodologies of scientific research are not only objects of cognition and simulation but also means of expression and reflection. In this sense, the artists have also become contemporary naturalists. This role-reversal challenges the binary hierarchy of scientific knowledge and local knowledge, the center and the periphery, blurring the distinction between natural history museums and contemporary art galleries in terms of exhibition content.
"The Knowledge of Naturalia" is presented as part of the "Pan-Southeast Asia Research Series" initiated by the Art Museum of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. In response to the legitimacy crisis of "Southeast Asian regional studies" established by British and American academia after the war, the project deliberately blurs the boundaries between "region" and "exhibition." In this natural history map created by contemporary artists, regions are porous and open, knowledge is embodied and mediated, and all things are placed within a comparative, fluid global process. "The Knowledge of Naturalia" views art production and curatorial practice as a medium for translation and education, expecting to provide a long-term platform for communication and research for diverse and open knowledge production and dialogue in the region. It invites scholars, artists, institutional practitioners, and students from different disciplinary backgrounds within the university city to participate in the construction and discussion of the triennial's working directions and methods, building a nexus of practice for different disciplines, perspectives, paths, and methodologies.
博物学 (natural history，译作“自然史”)，可以宽松的定义为对动、植、矿物及其他自然现象的研究。这种博物学式的认知方式，随着16-19世纪的地理大发现及西方现代性拓展的轨迹覆盖全球，在殖民都会、商埠、热带和边陲进行标本收集及买卖的商人、探险家和植物猎人，依赖本地民众的地方知识，确立起现代西方的科学知识等级，并被广泛应用于对不同地理区域的人类、文化实践、自然生态的鉴别和分类上。博物学在当代的科学实践中已经为生物学、地质学、动物学和植物学等专业门类替代，但与之相关的物质体系和文化遗产，仍以特定的秩序，渗透于各类当代博物馆/美术馆的建构历史及展示情结当中。博物学的演变过程反映出自然深刻的历史性，人类只要提出了自然的知识，实际上就已经改变了自然。
标题中的“知”包含三重涵义:一是博物学知识的发展，是与对自然的观察、记录、描述和分类同步的。自然被塑造成他者，本士民众的动机和行为，跨地区的文化交往，因缺乏文字纪录或物质载体，成为无法显影的部分。二是图像的电子化和技术化，使诠释的主体和过程变得多样和开放，文化原真性不再是核心，博物馆展示物的权威意义也不断受到变化的现实语境影响。三是“知识”的去中心化，使更多的人出于对自然和生态的关切，重拾“天真的博物学家”的业余爱好，并将博物学知识，作为行动和改变的出发点。
对物质文化的生成尤为关注的艺术家，检视、复现和虚构被科学主义遮蔽、忽略和抹去的角色及视角，以审视博物学的历史与当代视觉实践的交织。他们天然地抵制知识的专门化，有关自然的数据与信息，传统博物馆的分类及展陈，科学研究的方法论等等，既是认知、模拟的对象，亦是表达和反思的手段。在这重意义上，艺术家也成为了当代的博物学家。这种角色互换，挑战了科学知识与在地知识，中心与边缘的二元阶序，模糊了自然博物馆与当代美术馆在展示内容上的区分。
“博物之知”受邀作为广东美术学院美术馆发起的"泛东南亚研究序列"的一部分呈现。为了回应战后由英美学界确立的“东南亚区域研究”的合法性危机，项目刻意消弭“区域”和“展览”的边界-在这幅由当代艺术家创造的博物学版图上，地区是多孔的和开放的，知识则是具身的和媒介化的，而万物都被置于比较、流动的全球过程之中。“博物之知”将艺术生产和策展实践，视作翻译和教育的媒介，期待为区域中多元开放的知识生产与对话提供一个长期的交流与研究平台，邀请学者、艺术家、机构实践者和大学城中不同学科背景的同学，参与到三年展的工作方向和方法的构建和讨论当中，搭建不同学科、视角、路径与方法的实践交汇。
Text by Nikita Yingqian Cai
Curated by Nikita Yingqian Cai
Artists:
Cao Minghao & Chen Jianjun, Chen Dandizi, Hu Yinping, Hu Yun, Liao Wen, Wing Po Su, Trachung Paizang, Zhang Beichen
