“When We Are Here/ No Longer” Manifesto When our set-up no longer an exhibition, not exhibiting here is not no exhibition. presence no longer present, not being present here is not no presence. sounds no longer audible, inaudible here is not no sound. representation no longer representable, non-representable here is not no representation. visibility no longer visible, invisibility here is not no visibility. aphasia here lies not in the aphasic, the aphasic no longer speechless. when after we are no longer present in repetitive labor when after we are no longer present in repetitive art when after we are no longer repetitively present in labor when after we are no longer repetitively present in art When we are no longer present When we are here/ no longer Chen Guan-Zhong and Ko Ta-Sheng who set up exhibitions as their side jobs find installation techniques have nourished them from the outset on levels of technicality and creativity every time an exhibition program finishes. These fruits of labor ferment in them, sometimes resulting effects of healing or suspense. But soon after when Chen and Ko complete programs again and again, it dawns on them that learning installation techniques repetitively may imply a homogenizing in methods of exhibiting artworks. Nevertheless, these experiences continue to grow imperceptibly onto each of their artistic practices. As a result of such self-censorship, creative expression for Chen and Ko fall into a predicament. By letting their artworks elucidate their dilemma, Chen and Ko put aside their primary and carefully developed contexts of artistic practices, and constitute this exhibition by their reflection on the usual modes of exhibiting. “What if we detached ourselves from the habitual methods and identities to execute artworks and exhibitions, what would that make of us? What if an exhibition was no longer subjected to the context of the artwork, what would that look like?” In these questions, what is concerned here is not taking the excluded aesthetics in setting up exhibitions as veracious, but more importantly to arouse doubts about the mechanism of exhibitions, and to contemplate the hidden potentiality in the unseen details. Chen Guan-Zhong’s Sound Image Project enters into a state of speechlessness. Through a peculiar dialectic of inaudible sounds, Chen allows inaudible sounds to travel and transform between the image and the installation. Ko Ta-Sheng’s The Language Orthodontic Clinic provides correction services for the language of exhibitions. By contemplating on the language of exhibitions and its corrections, Ko expounds on how things are edited behind the production of exhibitions.