“全球化和新自由主义的“大衰退”标志着我们已进入了百年来最具革命性和颠覆性的一个时代。德国学者Heinrich Geiselberger极富洞见地指出：“如果说几个世纪以来，地图上的空白一直在一点点地变小，那么现在看来，势态在朝着相反的方向发展：在谷歌地图时代，这些地区在增长，人们对其知之甚少，而换做是古代的制图者们，也一定会标注上‘此地有狮’（hic sunt leones）。”

“hic sunt leones”（此地有狮）原本是一个拉丁词，常被古代水手用来在地图上标注一些未知的领土，这里有危险的狮子、龙和海蛇等各种野兽。因此，这句话也常被用来指那些唯有勇敢的先驱者才敢于冒险进入的危险地区。除此以外，还包括“这里没有文明人”“这是未经授权的领地”“狮子就在这里”等多个寓意。这是一个来自西方的预言，然而在今天，它已经成了一个全球性的政治态势。也即是说，我们其实早已被裹挟在其中，甚至对我们而言，所谓“此地有狮”蕴含着更加丰富的意涵。毫无疑问，我们处在一个更为复杂的情境中，甚至可以说，“此地有狮”在中国不再是应验预言，而是现实本身，且由来已久。只不过，那些一度“隐伏”的“怪力乱神”和“暴力机器”不再是“伺机出没”，而是变得“明目张胆”并“肆无忌惮”，时刻威胁着我们的日常生活、思考乃至生命安全。

上个世纪初，第一次世界大战中野蛮与非理性的爆发，促使弗洛伊德、阿比·瓦尔堡等诸多欧洲知识分子将自己的研究目光投向人类本性中的阴暗面和毁灭的冲动。一百年后，更加野蛮的全球化催生了一拨新的政治偏执狂，反过来又彻底粉碎了世界“大同”的理性承诺。这也迫使我们不得不面对：脆弱不安的现实个体是如何感知这样一个新的裂变时代的降临？是如何回应和刻画对于非理性暴力和不确定未来的恐慌和焦虑？进而，能否成为勇敢的冒险者，踏出一片新的“未经授权”的领地和生命的疆域？

“饿狮从不伤害真正的国王”。时至今日，这个古老的警世寓言依然振聋发聩。展览以“‘利维坦’的幽灵”为序曲，沿着“希望之城”“我以为我找到了凶手”“硬世界，软世界”三个单元的叙述，最后以“这是一部宣言？”结尾。展览分为两个部分并将同时举行，一部分在798艺术中心，一部分在武汉剩余空间。30余位/组艺术家的近50件/组作品为我们提供了多个隐蔽的感知视角和思考的向度，这看似是一个宏大的命题，但也是我们无法回避的最紧迫的当代议题，即：我们该如何重新审视个人与国家、个人与世界以及个人与政治偏执狂之间的分裂、紧张等复杂的关系，以及，这样一种关系又是如何在重塑着我们的感知机制和世界观。

适逢罗莎·卢森堡（Rosa Luxemburg）逝世一百周年，其于一个多世纪前的革命思想和激进行动，特别是对列宁的批判在今天似乎尤值得翻检和深思。不同于列宁的是，在卢森堡这里，革命不是机械理性的乌托邦建构，而是一种作为生命过程的行动。诚如詹姆斯·斯科特（James C. Scott）所说的：“几乎所有功能有限、目标单一的制度都具有用于试验目的的感官剥夺箱（sensory-deprivation tanks）的特征。”今天也不例外，而我们要做的无非是在不同形式的独裁与混乱中夺回感知的自由。”

“The Great Regression of globalization and neoliberalism signals the beginning of a most revolutionary and subversive era since the last century. German scholar Heinrich Geiselberger perspicaciously suggests, “While the blank spaces on the maps had grown smaller and smaller over the centuries, things now appear to be going in the opposite direction. In the age of Google Maps there are a growing number of territories of which one knows very little and which ancient cartographers would have marked with the Latin phrase ‘hic sunt leones’.’

“Hic sunt leones” was used to denote unknown territories on maps in ancient times. Dangerous beasts such as lions, dragons and serpents were believed to roamed the realm. Thus, this expression is also used when suggesting perilous territories where only brave pioneers would dare to enter. It could also mean “no civilized men here”, “prohibited territory”, and quite literally, “here be lions” etc.

It was a prophecy made by the west but has today become the global political situation. In other words, we have long been swept along by it. In China, ‘hic sunt leones’ means much more. Without a doubt, we find ourselves in a more complicated context. It could even be said that ‘hic sunt leones’ is no longer the fulfilled prophecy but the reality itself, and has been the reality for a long time, only that the lurking “extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, spiritual beings” and “the violence apparatus” would not wait in the dark any longer for their chance but have become explicit and reckless, threatening our everyday life, our thinking and even life itself.

In the early stage of the last century, the outburst of irrationality and brutality urged European intellectuals such as Sigmund Freud and Aby Warburg to focus their research on the inherent darkness and the desire for annihilation in the human. A century later, an even more brutal globalization gives rise to a new wave of political paranoia which again shatters the rational promise of a world of shared values. We are compelled to confront ourselves with the following: how do disturbed and fragile individuals perceive the arrival of a new era of fission? How do they inscribe and react in the face of fear and anxiety about irrational violence and an uncertain future? And, will they become the brave adventurers who step onto a new “prohibited” territory of life?

“Hungry lions don’t hurt the real king” is an old adage that still inspires the benighted to this day. The exhibition begins with the prelude “Leviathan’s Ghost”. It proceeds with the narratives of the three sections: “The Promising Land”, “I Thought I Saw Murderer”, “The World of the Hard and Soft” and ends with “Manifeste?”. A total of almost 40 works by 31 artists and artist groups provide us with multiple covert perspectives and dimensions for sensing and thinking. What seems to be a grand subject is actually inescapable and the most urgent issue at the present time, that is, how do we reexamine the relationship that individuals have with the state, the world, and the political paranoia? A relationship that is, amongst others, strung out and divisive. And how does this relationship reshape our sensing mechanism and our world view?

The exhibition coincides with the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Rosa Luxemburg’s death. Her revolutionary thinking and action, especially her criticism against Lenin are particularly worth savouring. Unlike Lenin, for Luxemburg, revolution is not a utopian construction by mechanical rationality but a form of action as life’s process. As James C. Scott stated, “almost all strictly functional, single-purpose institutions have some of the qualities of sensory-deprivation tanks used for experimental purposes.” Today is no exception and what we have to do is no other than winning back the freedom of perception in a time of varying forms of autocracy and chaos.”