自1990 年代以來,歐美社會出現了新一波的公共藝術論述,它將現代藝術引入一個新的對話主題︰藝術的公共性。公共藝術看似不過是現代藝術多元發展中的其中一支,但事實上它卻透露出美學領域的一項重要內涵,亦即美學實作與政治性的權力論述兩者之間存在著一種共棲共存的生產模式。本文藉由探索「藝術」在近代歐美社會發展的系譜,說明近代社會理解「藝術」與藝術公共性的方式有何變遷,藉此試圖說明作為一種美學實作的藝術與政治性的權力論述兩者之間所存在的內在關聯。此外,文中以台灣社會為例進一步說明,在藝術專業領域之外還存在著其他領域的美學實作,如民間的文化及廟會慶典活動。它們雖以不同的方式進行社會美學的建構,但也展現出與政治性的權力論述共棲共存的相同運作邏輯。本文考察藝術的公共性內涵所獲得的啟發,不僅僅讓我們瞭解到美學實作與權力論述之間所存在的相互建構模式,也讓我們瞭解到有關社會美學的討論必須回歸到身體技藝這個更基礎的面向來考察,如此才能掌握社會美學在現代社會中所扮演的角色。
A new genre of public art started appearing in western modern countries in the 1990s. This forced modern art to face a new issue: artistic publicity. Public art is more than a new form of art, and it leads us to see that there is a specific reciprocal relation between aesthetic practices and political as well as religious discourses. By examining the semantic lineage of "art" in western modern societies, this paper shows how modern societies understand "art" and construct artistic publicity. In addition, this paper takes Taiwan society as an example for showing that there is still another kind of aesthetic practice in modern society. They are various forms of cultural festivals that are run in a different way than professional art, but both have the same constructive function in social aesthetics. This theoretical discourse contributes to the viewpoint that bodily technique shall be seen as the basic operative medium of social aesthetics.