• Date 2022.02.12–04.10
  • Venue Matsu Folklore Culture Museum, Nangan Stronghold No.53

Listening the Voices of Island—In The "2022 Matsu Biennial"

CHEN Xuan-Cheng(Curator), LIAO Yi-Mei (Co-Curator)

Comments on the Finalists

Curated by CHEN Xuan-Cheng, with LIAO Yi-Mei as the co-curator, this exhibition is based on the research and study of site genealogy, and transforms the landscape of Matsu into a collection of visual, auditory and tactile archives. The art project adopts the method of a long-term field investigation. The works are displayed in a way that is extensively connected with the spatial site, and demonstrates a site-specificity which seems to state that the works “only exist here and nowhere else.” The exhibition is a successful example of using art as an invitation to dialogues. Dealing with the heavy, extremely unique site of battlefield, the featured works are able to strike a harmonious resonance, which enables the audience to feel unforced and concentrate on sensory perception through the works to further engage in dialogues with the environmental context of the place.   (Commentator / CHANG Ching-Wen)


Artwork Introduction 

Listening to the Sound of the Island is a project of art collection and creation that re-think the island of Matsu. Attempting to contemplate the fluid relationships among the various islets and islands of Matsu from an oceanic perspective, the project dives into the archaeology of history to search for the contemporary meaning of self-reflection. The overall project is based on the study and survey of domain genealogy, and the results then become references for revisiting the battlefield of Matsu and recreating the historical scenes, which can be revisited and serve as a foundation for further creation. In the project, works are contextualized in the site, which allows artistic creation to embody the intricate relation of “island-settlement-ruin-ocean.” From the rediscovery of landscape resource, the context of landscape and site, and the teasing out of history, the approach of art as intervention is adopted as a way to generate new dialogues.




About the Artist 

CHEN Xuan-Cheng (b. 1978) was born in Tainan, and now lives and works in Tainan, Taichung, and Taoyuan. He holds a PhD in arts from the Tainan National University of the Arts, and is now an associate professor at the Department of Architecture, Chung Yuan Christian University. He is also the chief architect of ArchiBlur Lab and Co-Making Place, and was a visiting professor at the College of Architecture and Built Environment, UCSI University. In his practice, Chen has been exploring and developing a different scale to re-define architecture between body and landscape, and has used the most authentic bodily senses to repeatedly experience and understand the most fundamental value of things. He re-examines the role of manmade architecture, and ponders on how it can be non-destructive to natural ecology, To serve a purpose larger than only serving humans, and to facilitate an active understanding and the mending of the environment. He explores and responds to the co-existence and evolution of life through architectural creations, allowing various forms of life to accumulate into different knowledge in the process. To him, such practice is an action of repair for oneself, for life and for this land, which enables architecture to be an environment for both humans and non-humans.

 

LIAO Yi-Mei holds an MA from the Graduate Institute of Arts Administration and Management, Taipei National University of the Arts, and is the director of Cultural Diversity Studio. Liao has participated in social movements in Taiwan for a long time. In recent years, she is based on Matsu, an offshore island of Taiwan, where she engages in interdisciplinary integration of community, environment, art, and cultural assets.


Production Team 

Curator|Chen, Xuan-Cheng

Co-Curator|Liao, Yi-Mei

Artists|Wang, Wen-Shin/ Wang, Chia-Sheng/ArchiBlur Lab/Wu, Chi-Zeng/Hsu, Yu-Ni/Chang, Ching-Huan/Tsou, Hsiang-Hsiang/Tsai, Wan-Shuen/Yannick Dauby/Hsiao, Yu-Jen/Su, Hung

Visual Integral Design|Wang, Hsin-Yuan

Exhibition Space Design|Liang, Lai-Chang/Huang, Yen-Yi/Su,Yu-Chang

Exhibition Construction|ArchiBlur Lab/Yeapin Design

Exhibition Execution|Chen, Ya-Chen

Exhibition Cooperation|Lin, Po-I

Image Registration|OnePlumHorse Films

Printing Cooperation|Chen, Ching-Ju/Hsiao, Yu-Jen

Print|Dawn Cluture Enterprises


Advised by|Minstry Of Culture/National Development Council

Organized by|Lienchiang County Government

Implemented by|ArchiBlur Lab/Cultural Diversity Studio