Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Jury’s Comments for the Annual Shortlist Award Winner

With minimalist staging, color, and theatrical elements, The Monk from Tang Dynasty gradually unfurls the virtual and the real, and reveals their infinite conversions within nothingness. The artist is physically present to paint on site, using different tactile symbols to highlight the material structure of graphite and paper. The meditator is physically present to meditate on site, opposing the quotidian with the impermanent, and successfully demonstrating the passage of time in the silence of the theater space. This theater performance showcases TSAI Ming-liang’s signature slow, nostalgic style that presents a highly magical “reality” and a sensitive “real(time)ism” through an approach closest to “actuality.” The work brings in the element of paper that can be painted on, sat on, folded into a futon, or crinkled to resemble mountain peaks – imbuing paper with the endless possibilities of contemporary manifold perceptual space.

The Monk from Tang Dynasty traverses action and installation art, painting and theater; it transcends the limitations of category and cultural boundaries, and showcases the stellar performances of LEE Kang-sheng and KAO Jun-Honn. 

Comments on the Finalist

This is a work by TSAI Ming-Liang, but it transcends action and installation art, painting or film. It is an amalgamation that follows his earlier film Walker and theater production, Only You. The Monk from Tang Dynasty departs from categorization and cultural boundaries. Exceptional performances by Lee Kang-sheng and Kao Jun-Honn are both worthy of accolade. The work embodies TSAI Ming-Liang’s concerns about the politics of individual desires. Images rich in allegory, and physical movements that are a heavenly combination of nature and design maneuver freely in the psyche, surpassing the combustion of the imagination of ancient narratives and the spirit of contemporary man. Among contemporary Taiwanese film directors, he is undoubtedly a creative force whose artistic vision is the most comprehensive with a depth of interdisciplinary strength. (Commentator /  CHEN Tai-Song)

About the Artist

Born in Malaysia in 1957, TSAI Ming-Liang is one of the most prominent film directors of the new cinema movement in Taiwan. In 1994, his film Vive L’ amour was awarded the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, and this helped establish a place for him in the world of international film. In 2009, Face became the first film to be included in the collection of the Louvre Museum’s “Le Louvre s'offre aux cineastes.” It has since become the benchmark for films venturing into the world of art galleries. Tsai’s films, such as Rebels of the Neon God, The River, The Hole, What Time Is It There?, The Wayward Cloud, Goodbye, Dragon Inn, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, Stray Dogs and more, have won worldwide recognition at significant international film awards and festivals. In recent years, TSAI Ming-Liang has also moved on to installation art. His works have been well-received in Venice, Shanghai, and Nagoya.