Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

The work is a collaboration between the director, YAO Lee-Chun, three physically challenged Taiwanese and Korean performers (CHENG Chih-Chung, LEE Hsin-Bao, and KANG Sung-Kuk), actor HUANG Chi-Yung, and pianist HUANG Rou-Ming. One could say that the work documents how different lives converge and interact at the site of "theatre" in their individual appearances.

Before the performance starts, audience members are asked to say their own names, commencing a viewing process that incorporates individuals in the whole audience while reversing the position of power in the traditional viewing relation. The text of the performance returns to the emanation and refinement of the essential energy housed by bodily movements. Facing the incongruous desires and conflicts in life as well as life's cruelness and beauty, the work emphasizes and amplifies multiple psychological and perceptual details, synchronizing the breathing, panting, trembling and praising of the viewers and the performers. It is a physical performance that demonstrates an indescribable force of power. (Commentator: Yang Mei-Ying)

Artwork Introduction

The social meaning conveyed through the three actors in Intermezzo is inherently manifested through their physical bodies. KANG Sung-Kuk from South Korea cannot remain still and silent due to cerebral palsy. CHENG Chi-Chung's leg atrophied due to polio disease. LI Hsin-Pao went entirely blind in adulthood, and due to a recent traffic accident, has suffered from comminuted fracture in his right ankle and fracture in his left calf bone. Most people in this world might not be able to relate to the actors’ everyday life fully. Because of their physical conditions and psychological states, their nights seem to be shorter in real life. For this reason, theatre becomes an imaginable open realm where they may reach out to one another from their solitude. It may seem incredibly challenging to reconcile their physical differences, but as the elements change and evolve, the "scenes" become different. Meanwhile, theatre serves as a voyeuristic site, in which the actors and audience explore the faces and concept of loneliness, or to put it in other words, the indulgence and resistance of those who are alone.

About the Artist

Body Phase Studio

The Body Phase Studio is a revolutionary non-profit Taiwanese arts group dedicated to international cultural exchange. It was founded by WANG Mo-Lin, a pioneer of independent theatre in Taiwan in 1991. Since its establishment, through hosting various international arts festivals and theatrical productions, it has enabled Taiwanese artists to exchange aesthetic ideas and perspectives with their international counterparts, opening up a window to the world for local theatre professionals following the Independent Theatre Movement in Taiwan.

In 2001, The Sixth Sense in Performance Arts Festival was founded in the attempt to develop performance art by visually challenged people and introduce “the right to perform” into the discourse of performance art in Taiwan. The festival went on an international public tour in Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, etc., and created new records as it progressed. In 2005, The Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre Executive Committee was founded by the Body Phase Studio to operate the Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre and promote avant-garde performances, experimental interdisciplinary arts and creative forms. It also advocates the convergence, interaction and opinionating of different groups that uphold the same contemporary spirit, so that culture can truly be shared by the public and that Taiwan can grow into a stronghold of creative performance art in Asia. In this way, younger-generation performance artists shall then be able to further express their innovation and creativity.

The Sixth Sense in performance Arts Festival

In 2001, WANG Mo-Lin founded The Sixth Sense in Performance Arts Festival. The idea originated from eliciting "the performers and practitioners' alternative language of movements other than the five senses" to create "the performance arts of the sixth sense." The idea gradually developed into a distinctive international performance arts festival in Taiwan. Throughout the years, the festival has presented a comprehensive integration of performances, forums, and workshops. Each time, the festival tackles multiple aspects of its targeted issues, be it the differences of the physically and mentally challenged people or the identification and exclusion resulting from identity and social class, along with their mechanism and context. These rich images are introduced by the performers and researchers through theatre. Not only the disadvantaged or physically and mentally challenged people are able to alter the stereotypical impression that their challenged bodies prevent them from any autonomous activities, a type of new and local aesthetic thinking of physical performance can be developed and accumulated from the experiences.