8actagon Projects is pleased to present “Perceptions of Home,” a 24-hour experience that questions reactions to photography installations, site-specific soundscapes, and an interactive performance when re-contextualized into the alternative space of a Home Inn. Taking place on three floors of the motel, “Perceptions of Home” attempts to question the context in which contemporary art is experienced, how prior memories of varying stimuli shape our cognitive and emotional processes, and why physical spaces contribute to the understanding of both.

Home Inn motels litter the Beijing landscape. Purple, yellow, and crowned with a golden moon, these edifices with rent-by-the-hour rooms serve a pure function, providing private space for frugal travelers or discreet lovers. The banal walls, dim lights and mass-produced furniture create anything but a unique ‘home-like’ feeling. “Perceptions of Home” will force the viewer to re-think and perhaps re-define the spaces that humans inhabit (both communal and private), and the phenomenological reactions to the contents of that space. It further questions how various elements within these re-contextualized rooms, particularly contemporary art, arouse memories of the same element in another environment. Perhaps a return to the ‘home’ will tell – it is one’s childhood home where first spatial experiences are had, and memories drawing distinct reactions are imprinted.

Nodding to ancient Chinese notions of space, its configuration, and resulting inherent non-physical energies, “Perceptions of Home” incorporates the photographic works of Bu Yun Jun (卜云军), live soundscapes from Meng Qi (孟奇), and an interactive tactile performance by Chen Xi (陈熹). Separated into three different rooms, viewers are invited to enter constructed spaces that utilize artworks to physically alter the aura, or 气 qì, of said room, and interject new stimuli that transform the viewers relation to the space, artist or artworks, and/or the artists/artists within the context of that space.

Upon entering into the Home Inn ‘standard room’, one immediately is forced to reject its common use. Bu Yun Jun’s photographs questioning whether the room is defined by the Home Inn’s concrete walls, or rather by the literal interjection of photographed walls and ceiling fans. Like a cold and uninviting “cellar” of a home, the disengaged emotional reflex varies from that in a more public, “living realm” – one found in the public sphere of the living rooms. Working as a programmer, synthesizer and sound engineer, Meng Qi derives sampled sounds for a live soundscape from two of the three rooms. His work transcends the time-space continua to bring together the sounds of an audience (from other locations within the Home Inn) for his own audience (within his room), creating a dialogue between the inseparable unity of the three rooms. Transcending the public clamor and ascending into the private realm, Chen Xi’s visual renderings and stories of the future, will engage the cognitive and emotional processes of the participating audience so to influence his own processes throughout the 24-hour duration; existing like an existential exercise contained within the home’s metaphorical “attic”. The interactive performance will invite audiences to utilize their tactile senses as a means of communication so to create a collective memory or experience.

Given the person-specific nature of memory-induced reactions, one must ask how alternatively situating these stimuli influences relations to the stimuli themselves – the artwork, the music, the performance. How do perceptions of these re-contextualized spaces and their contents influence one’s relation to habitual spaces?  And how do interactions with individuals in these unconventional environments effect those in daily life?  Perhaps relations to any given space are merely reflections of the cognitive and emotional self, attaching un-/sub-/conscious streams of thought to the physical realm so to induce an emotional reaction appropriated by the mind.

“Perceptions of Home” will be recorded for the entire 24 hours. The works produced by Meng Qi and Chen Xi during the experience will be released in published form(s) later this year.

Chen Xi  | 陈熹

Bu Yun Jun  | 卜云军

Meng Qi | 孟奇

8actagon Projects(中国北京)很荣幸为您呈献 “家的知觉”，一场为期24小时的展览体验。 此次体验将展出摄影装置、声音景观和互动表演，并会对人们安置在如家快捷酒店房间里的作品和表演重新语境话的反应提出疑问。“家的知觉”展览试图对当代艺术体验的环境提出疑问，并在新的体验当中用艺术作品来探索过去的记忆是如何塑造我们的思想和情绪的。

如家快捷酒店在北京城市景观中很为显眼。黄色和紫色相间的楼体装饰， 标识中嵌入一个金色的月亮。这个建筑提供时租和日租型服务，为出差人士和情侣提供私人化的空间。普普通通的墙壁，昏暗的灯光和批量生产出来的外形一致的家具却并未营造出一种“像家一样”的独特的感觉。“家的知觉”体验将迫使观者对人们居住的公共或者私人空间以及空间内的内容的现象学反应进行重新思考或许重新定义。而进一步对这些重新语境化过的空间里的多种元素，尤其是当代艺术，相同元素不同的空间进行提问。或许，“回家”一次便能够对这个提问进行回答——它是一个人童年时的第一次空间体验，记忆和对体验的独特反应便铭刻在心。

此次展览是对中国古代空间的构成和内在的无形能量观念的认可。展览体验“家的知觉”将联合展出摄影艺术家卜云军的摄影作品、艺术家孟奇的现场声音景观和作者陈熹的现场互动写作创作。展览体验和现场创作行为分别设计在酒店的三个不同楼层的房间当中， 展览观者受邀请进入被作品改变物理空间的房间中，并对空间，艺术家，及其现场创作的艺术作品注入新的刺激。

在如家酒店的一间标准房内，卜云军的摄影作品对观者进入的现实空间进行批判——对这个房间内是由如家酒店的白墙还是摄影师特意布置的墙壁和天花板的照片提出疑问。空间像是一个家中冰冷的毫无生气的地窖。这种异乎寻常的情绪映射出在一个公共空间中存在的多元性。孟奇作为程序编写合成器制作人和音乐人，他将对另外两个空间(在同一个如家酒店的另外两个不同的房间)中发生的声音进行采样，产生三个空间相互结合密不可分的对话。 喧嚣的公共空间转为私人的创作领域，陈熹的视觉语言和未来的故事将观者的进入和他为期24小时个人创作情绪进展相结合，这种现场写作的抽象形式暗喻好比存在于头脑中存在的创作空间的现实空间模拟。此次写作表演将邀请参与的观众使用他们的触觉作为交流手段与创作者共同完成记忆搜集和体验。

触发一个人特定记忆感应的自然本能，有人不禁要问：这些人为干预和作品本身（艺术品，音乐和表演）的关系是怎样的？ 这些重新语境化的空间和空间里的内容知觉是如何影响一个人与其居住空间的关系。 在这种非常规元素中与单独个人之间的互动是如何影响到日常生活的？这也许关系到任何设定的空间仅仅是认知和情感的自我反思，下意识/ 潜意识和物理存在空间诱发大脑情绪的反应。

“家的知觉”展览体验将24小时全程录像，孟奇和陈熹现场体验创作的作品也将在今年发表出版。