Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

Since Stray Dogs at the Museum, No No Sleep once again comes to the Museum of National Taipei University of Education, and showcases two films, Walker and Autumn Days, in the form of a minimalistic exhibition. It goes without saying that time is still at the core of TSAI Ming-Liang's work. It manifests itself in the slow pace of the great monk from the Tang dynasty, in the hesitation of a winter night, and in the calmness of submerging under water. In the interplay of light and shadow, the projection screen and the cityscape outside the museum have become one. As another approach to such a cinematic exhibition, time guides the audience into the exhibition space and to appreciate the moving and still images sitting or lying down. In the meantime, No No Sleep transforms the museum into a site where public culture (performances by singers) and serious culture (movie as a form of art) encounter and integrate, rendering it a den of slumber for the audience. (Commentator: SING Song-Yong)

Artwork Introduction

The three short films screened in the exhibition were TSAI Ming-Liang's latest works in two years. Journey to the West and No No Sleep are the 6th and 7th films in the Walking Series. LEE Kang-Sheng was dressed in a red robe, head shaved and barefoot. He walked to different places around the world in his very own unique pace, manifesting a long-lost spirit of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who journeyed to the West for his pilgrimage and preaching journey in the Tang Dynasty. Autumn Days was a portrayal of Teruyo Nogami, who was Akira Kurosawa’s script supervisor as well as a writer and movie producer.

According to Tsai: “The curatorial concept of the exhibition remains minimalist without employing any special installations. I purposely constructed the impression that the city in the film was immersed in the exhibition hall in the atmosphere of the late night. I chose various kinds of materials as the projecting medium. The papered screen showed subtle lines and mottled traces, whereas the metal projection wall displayed a sense of transparency reminiscent of celluloid. Both made a tremendously different effect for projecting and viewing. During the four-week exhibition, we held a series of midnight lectures, concerts, and museum-sleep-over events, which appealed to many students, the public, and even parents and children. The exhibition expanded the participation in art making and created more possibilities to experience beauty.”

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 at the Venice Film Festival, and established his position in international filmdom. In recent years, TSAI has also moved on to installation art, and has his exhibitions and interdisciplinary works in Taipei, Venice, Shanghai, Nagoya, etc. In 2009, Face became the first film to be included in the collection of the Louvre Museum’s “Le Louvre s'offre aux cineastes,” setting the benchmark for films venturing into the world of art galleries. Since 2012, he has been working on a long project to film LEE Kang-Sheng's slow walk. To date, he has completed seven short films. In 2013, his latest full-length feature, "Stray Dogs," was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 70th Venice Film Festival and Best Director at the Gold Horse Awards. In 2014, he presented the critically acclaimed theater work, The Monk from Tang Dynasty, in arts festivals in Brussels, Vienna, and Taipei. That same year, TSAI made history by bringing his movie, Stray Dogs at the Museum, into the Museum of National Taipei University of Education (MoNTUE).