23
TAISHIN ARTS AWARD
Taishin Arts Award 2024/25
- News
- Finalists & Winners
Finalists & Winners
- Jury
Jury
- ARTalks
- Year By Year
Year By Year
Eligibility
Three Winners of the 23rd Taishin Arts Award Announced
Three Winners of the 23rd Taishin Arts Award Announced
CHANG Li-Ren Brings Home the Grand Prize with
Battle City: Finale Concluding a 14-Year-Long Creative Journey
NI Xiang Takes Home the Visual Arts Award with His Hoarding Aesthetics Embodied by Everyone came to see you, and flowers bloom on the dead end x HSU Peng Win the Performing Arts Award with Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring—But There Is No Landscape Painting!
On May 24th, the Taishin Arts Award, a benchmark of excellence in Taiwan’s contemporary art that honors outstanding artistry, humanistic values, and the zeitgeist, announced the winners of its 23rd edition, selected from 15 shortlisted projects.
Visual Arts Award (NT$ 1 million prize money)
Everyone came to see you—Ni Xiang Solo Exhibition by NI Xiang
Performing Arts Award (NT$ 1 million prize money)
Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring——But There Is No Landscape Painting! (White Carrot, Rat Teeth, Her Child, (And Her Child’s Child.)) by flowers bloom on the dead end x HSU Peng
Grand Prize (NT$ 1.5 million prize money)
Battle City: Finale—2023 Dreamin’ MoNTUE by CHANG Li-Ren
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award – A group photo of the laureates of the three Awards. From the left Feng Zhi-Ming (Representative of NI Xiang), CHANG Li-Ren, HSU Peng and CHANG Mien-mien (flowers bloom on the dead end)
All three awarded projects draw from personal life histories and experiences to highlight broader societal issues, including long-term care and illness care, women’s situations in a patriarchal society, and personal defiance against authoritarianism, media violence, and existential challenges. By employing various media that blend reality with virtuality, these projects prompt viewers to engage in profound reflection.
The final selection committee for this year was chaired by the esteemed U.S.-based art critic KAO Chien-Hui and comprised notable members, including art critic CHANG Yun-Ting, theatre critic CHOU, Katherine Hui-Ling and HSU, Walter Jen-Hao, French choreographer Mathilde Monnier, Korean artist Park Chan-kyong, and Singaporean curator TANG Fu Kuen. After three days of comprehensive discussions, the committee selected three award winners, which collectively amounted to a total of NT$3.5 million in prize money.
The Visual Arts Award is awarded to Everyone came to see you—Ni Xiang Solo Exhibition. NI Xiang begins with personal experiences and uses large-scale installations and video works that may appear chaotic and whimsical at first glance to confront reality and address critical social issues, such as elder care, the experience of being a patient companion, and the distinction between life and death, immersing viewers in an idiosyncratic artistic appeal through his “hoarding aesthetics.”
Jury’s Comments for the 23rd Visual Arts Award Winner:
NI Xiang has developed a singular aesthetics of disorder by recomposing found and hoarded objects from his family home. In giving the discarded items a second life, he also reveals a caregiver’s predicament in an aging society. He transforms his life situation of entrapment into a large-scale installation that summons the embodied perception and memory of the ordinary folks, and their confrontation of mortality. The project employs black humor to make a satirical and self-deprecating criticism of lived reality, society, and its institutions. The collage and assemblage of excessive objects as both material and symbol, which speak of the erosion of dreams and the state of powerlessness, are profoundly moving.
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award – Board director LIN Mun-Lee (right) presents the Visual Arts Award to Representative group of NI Xiang (From the left) Yu Ching-Jung, Tung Chai-Yun and Feng Zhi-Ming
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award – the Visual Arts Award Everyone came to see you—Ni Xiang Solo Exhibition by NI Xiang, Free Time (screenshot), Image courtesy of the artist and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The Performing Arts Award was presented to Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring——But There Is No Landscape Painting! Created by director-playwright HSU Peng, the production, which features flowers that bloom on the dead end, was staged in the century-old ancestral home of the Hsu family located in Guoling, Zhongli. It intricately weaves a magical realist narrative revolving around the lives of the women in the family. Hsu transforms mundane domestic trivialities and snippets into a richly layered theatrical text through “sui sui nian” (碎碎唸), a recitation style based on murmuring, along with a meandering performative style, skillfully merging the surrounding environment with the narrative. Utilizing witty, sharp, and surreal imagination, the piece emerges as a critique of patriarchal norms articulated from a distinct perspective informed by female poetics.
Jury’s Comments for the 23rd Performing Arts Award Winner:
This exuberantly fabular creation by HSU Peng and her young wacky collaborators, “flowers bloom on the dead end,” literally takes over her sprawling ancestral courtyard house in remote Guoling of Zhongli District, and breaths new and radical life into the domestic household - once constricted by the patriarchy of Hakka culture - by re-imagining the lived experiences of its women inhabitants, emancipating their sedimented voices and emotional world. By inventing a hyperbolic acting technique (filled with trivia, mundane, non-stop, and desultory dialogue and musical punctuations) and a 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 of the derelict architecture, the work produces a madcap process of both alienation and engagement for the characters and audience, at once funny yet robustly vernacular. Life and death in a Hakka family undergoes subversive episodes of a queer romance staged in the ancestral hall, a transversal romp of culinary-human-animal enactments, and a portrait of intergenerational bonds that transcend species!
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award– Board director WU Jing-Jyi (middle) presents the Performing Arts Award to HSU Peng (left) and CHANG Mienn-mien (flowers bloom on the dead end)
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award – the Performing Arts Award Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring——But There Is No Landscape Painting! by flowers bloom on the dead end x HSU Peng, Photo by WU Yu-Ying
The Grand Prize, which was announced last, was awarded to Battle City: Finale by CHANG Li-Ren. The project marks the end of a 14-year journey focused on battle narratives of resistance and defense. In 2024, the artist made a full debut at MoNTUE, showcasing all three episodes of the trilogy along with the figures, models, sets, and manuscripts from the production, quickly drawing the public’s attention. Using inexpensive materials and low-tech approaches, CHANG challenges the notion of how artists can persist, maintain autonomy, and uphold their ideals within the confines of societal norms and collective values.
Jury’s Comments for the 23rd Grand Prize Winner:
CHANG Li-Ren’s artistic practice treats art as a way of life, embodying “the autonomy of artistic creation”. Over fourteen years, his magnum opus integrates plastic arts, narrative, and moving image with sketching, puppetry, miniature model construction, and animation. Working with fragile materials, gibberish language, and driven by the ethos of independent production, he crafts “sites of memory” that explore both personal growth and collective destiny. CHANG appropriates narratives from popular culture to subvert Hollywood-style heroism. Through a parodic trilogy centered on “ordinary people,” he examines contemporary geopolitics on both microscopic and macroscopic scales. Using “battle” as a metaphor, his work conveys individual resistance against global hegemonies, media violence, and existential conundrums, offering an allegorical reflection on the complexities of our shared realities.
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award – Board director, May Wu presents the Grand Prize to GHANG Li-Ren
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award – the Grand Prize Battle City: Finale by CHANG Li-Ren, Photo by Sean Wang
Kao states that selecting a Grand Prize winner from the 15 exceptional projects was very challenging. She appreciates the jury for their gentle persistence and rational listening throughout the discussions, making it a rewarding experience of shared learning. The shortlisted projects provided both emotional impact and visual pleasure, showing us tremendous creative energy.
The award ceremony this year was coordinated and directed by theater director SU Yang-Cheng from How to Eat Faust. Esteemed theater and screen performers LIANG Hao-Lan and HUANG Di-Yang served as hosts for the event. Their month-long street interviews with more than 80 ordinary citizens throughout the city were presented as “Where Does the Audience Goes?” during the ceremony, which provided candid and humorous insights into the public’s views and imaginations of art, eliciting both laughter and reflection.
For comprehensive details on all shortlisted and winning projects, visit the dedicated webpage of the “23rd Taishin Arts Award” on the Taishin Foundation for Arts and Culture website.
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award – The laureates of the three Awards have a group photo with the board directors of the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture, and the Taishin Arts Award jurors and nominators
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award webpage: https://www.taishinart.org.tw/en/art-award-year-news/2024
The full-length video of the award ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/live/jq-WvI4eZx8
Facebook fan page of the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture: https://www.facebook.com/TAISHINART/
Taishin Arts Award—Special Talks with International Jurors
Standing on the Border of the Speech: My Dance and I
Taishin Arts Award—Special Talks with International Jurors
Standing on the Border of the Speech: My Dance and I
Date：2025, May 20th, Tuesday, 19:00-21:00
Venue：Yuan Hall, Taishin Tower (2F, No.118, Sec. 4, Ren-Ai Rd, Taipei City)
▘Speaker:
Mathilde Monnier (Choreographer, Former Director of CND Centre National de la Danse)
▘Panelists:
HO Hsiao-Mei (Dean of the Dance Department, Taipei National University of the Arts; Artistic Director of MeimageDance) Winner of the 12th Taishin Arts Award
YEH Ming-Hwa (Choreographer and dancer) Winner of the 19th Taishin Arts Award
LEE Chen-Wei (Founder of LEE\VAKULYA, independent dancer) Winner of the 21st Taishin Arts Award
KUO Liang-Ting (Art critic, Translator of Alliterations: Conversations Sur La Danse by Mathilde Monnier)
Renowned French choreographer Mathilde Monnier has consistently presented thought-provoking and diverse dance pieces while serving as Artistic Director at the Montpellier National Choreographic Center (1994–2014) and the French National Dance Center (2014–2019) for over two decades. Throughout her career, she has launched numerous experiments and collaborations that connect dance with other art forms, creating a new and influential system for the discipline. During her time in Taiwan and prior to the final selection for the Taishin Arts Award, the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture is hosting this talk featuring Monnier and three choreographers—HO Hsiao-Mei, YEH Ming-Hwa, and LEE Chen-Wei—who are recent recipients of the Taishin Arts Award. Collectively, these four female choreographers, each with over 15 years of creative experience, will share their artistic journeys, exploring various topics such as women, interdisciplinary creation, and the roles of institutions and education.
※French-Mandarin simultaneous interpretation is provided
(Identification required for renting interpretation devices)
※Free Admission. Please register in advance. Sing up here
About the Speaker
Mathilde Monnier
Choreographer, Former Director of CND Centre National de la Danse
After coming to dance late, Mathilde Monnier performed in dance companies before taking up choreography in 1984. Her work explores the inherent issues of composing movement and are also linked to broader questions like communality and the links to music and memory.
Her appointment as director of the Centre Choreographique National de Montpellier from 1994 to 2013 and then of the CND Centre National de la Danse from 2014 to 2019 based in Paris and Lyon marked the beginning of a period of experimentation with other fields of art, and a reflection on the role of the institution and its outreach. In these 2 establishments, she initiated reforms aimed at other artists and she created new systems still relevant to dance.
Her dances have been performed on the biggest stages, as well as at international festivals and abroad Japan, Korea, Taipei. She alternates solo projects and collaborative works with various figures from the art world, such as Katerine, Christine Angot, La Ribot and Heiner Goebbels…Since 2020, she is back to her artistic work in Montpellier. Her last piece Black Lights receive the Grand prix best performance season 23/24.
She has received awards including Prize Minister of Culture in 1983, SACD Grand Prize in 2002, decorated as a Knights of the Legion of Honor in 2013 and Officer in 2025.
Mathilde Monnier - Chorégraphe
About the Panelists
HO Hsiao-Mei
Dean of the Dance Department, Taipei National University of the Arts; Artistic Director of MeimageDance
Since founding MeimageDance in 2010, HO Hsiao-Mei has cultivated a bold, multi-dimensional choreographic language deeply rooted in female imagery. Her seminal work, New Paradise of the Silent Island, captures the raw energy of 1990s Taiwan through dynamic characters and emotions.
Ho integrates technology to craft immersive experiences bridging the real and virtual, expanding dance beyond the stage, as seen in Sister Lin-Tou and Monologue of Barbie. Since 2023, her Silent Island Movement project has redefined contemporary dance by collaborating with folk troupes to forge a living tradition.
“The world sees new dimensions through Ho Hsiao-Mei’s dance.” — Yang Kai-Lin
Recent Highlights
2023–2025: Lead Artistic Director, Dance Now Asia
2024: New Paradise of the Silent Island, Roppongi Art Night (Japan)
2024: Sister Lin-Tou, Kunstfest Weimar (Germany), SXSW (USA)
2025: Sister Lin-Tou, Bozar Immersive Cinema (Belgium)
YEH Ming-Hwa
Choreographer, dancer
An independent female choreographer and dancer born in 1983 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Ming-Hwa maps the dimensions of time and space through the body and senses. She received her BFA in Dance from Taipei National University of Arts in 2006. She was commissioned for the works: The Serene Gallery Performance X Exhibition in MoNTUE Museum (2017). Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art, Taiwan (2018-2019), the series work SHE and A Room by the Sea (2020-2022). Dancing Ballet, a commissioned creation of Taiwan Dance Platform, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) (2022). Paradise, Who?, NEXT — Taishin Arts Award 20th Anniversary Exhibition in MoNTUE Museum (2022). The House Behind the Wall by Taipei Fine Arts Museum, at Wang Da Hong House Theatre (2020) won the Grand Prize of 19th Taishin Arts Award (2021). The Ballet Concert - Into the Fantasy of Nutcracker , a commissioned creation from National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) (2023-2025). Since 2023 hold a position as an Adjunct Professor at the National Taiwan University of Arts, teaching Interdisciplinary Performance and Body Image courses.
LEE Chen-Wei
Founder of LEE\VAKULYA, independent dancer
LEE Chen-Wei graduated from the Dance Department of Taipei National University of the Arts. She is now an independent dancer, choreographer, and Gaga instructor based in Europe. She is also the recipient of the TECO Award in the dance category. As the former principal dancer with Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company (2009–2014), Lee is praised by renowned choreographer Ohad Naharin as “one of the most attractive dancers.” Her explosive physicality and infectious energy earned her acclaim as “a sexpot soloist” from The New York Times and as “Amazing!” twice by Göteborgs-Posten. As a guest dancer, she collaborated with the Gothenburg Opera Dance Company (Sweden, 2015-2016), Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (Germany, 2017), Peeping Tom (Belgium, 2020-2022), VOETVOLK/Lisbeth Gruwez (Belgium, 2018-2025), and Baro d’Evel Circus (2024-present).
Her notable choreographic works include Elephant, which was recognized as the “Outstanding Performance of the Year” by The Jerusalem Post, and Black Box (2014), a solo piece created for the “New Choreographer” program, which was lauded by Taipei Times as a “memorable performance.” In 2016, she formed the dance duo LEE\VAKULYA with Hungarian artist Vakulya Zoltán. Their piece, Together Alone, was a finalist for both the 15th Taishin Arts Award and the Total Theatre Award. Their later works, including the solo dance performance, kNOwn FACE, and the group piece, Ride the Beat, earned their recognition as a four-time finalist for the Taishin Arts Award within seven years. In 2023, LEE\VAKULYA won the Taishin Arts Award for Performing Arts for Burnt [the eternal long now].
About the Moderator
KUO Liang-Ting
Art critic, Translator of Alliterations: Conversations Sur La Danse by Mathilde Monnier
KUO Liang-Ting, adjunct lecturer at Taipei National University of the Arts, art critic and translator, graduated from the Taipei National University of the Arts, the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and the University Rennes 2 – Upper Brittany. He translated Un ethnologue dans le métro of Marc Augé and Alliterations: Conversations Sur La Danse, and writes for Artalks, Performance Arts Review and Ink Literary Magazine.
Collaborative Institutions:
Organizer:
Support:
23rd Taishin Arts Award Shortlist Announced
A Diverse Selection Spanning Personal, Cultural, and Transnational Themes A Blend of Humanity, Spirits, and Deities—Rich with Allegorical Reflections
23rd Taishin Arts Award Shortlist Announced
23rd Taishin Arts Award Shortlist Announced
A Diverse Selection Spanning Personal, Cultural, and Transnational Themes
A Blend of Humanity, Spirits, and Deities—Rich with Allegorical Reflections
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award, Taiwan’s premier contemporary arts accolade, has announced its shortlist. This year’s finalists were selected by a panel of nine nominators: ROAN Ching-Yueh, LIN Yi-Hsiu, SUN Ping, CHEN Pin-Hsiu, Jen-Hao Walter HSU, CHANG Yun-Ting, ZHANG You-Sheng, CHANG Yin-Fang, and CHENG Sheng-Hua. The selection process involved year-round observation of exhibitions and performances in 2024, critical reviews, independent quarterly nominations, joint discussions and deliberations during the final selection meetings. From 80 nominated works that consented to compete, 15 were shortlisted to contend for three major awards: the Visual Arts Award and Performing Arts Award (each with a prize of NT$1 million), and the Annual Grand Prize, awarded across all categories (NT$1.5 million).
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award Finalists
Visual Arts Works
1.Everyone came to see you—Ni Xiang Solo Exhibition/ NI Xiang
2.Beitou Palimpsest/ YEH Wei-Li
3.Earthquake Sketch—Featured in the 2024 Hualien Palafang Art Festival: Planet Explosion Observatory/ The Earthquake Sketching Group
4.The Place of Beginning—Hsieh Mu-Chi Solo Exhibition/ HSIEH Mu-Chi
5.Vietnamese Immigrating Garden —A Silent Process: Tuan Mami Solo Exhibition/ TUAN Mami
6.Hensan Pear Trees & Hosui Pears—Chen Liang-Hsuan Solo Exhibition/ CHEN Liang-Hsuan
7.Battle City: Finale—2023 Dreamin’ MoNTUE/ CHANG Li-Ren
Performing Arts Works
8.Turn Out—NTCH Ideas Lab 2024/ LIU I-Ling
9.Islands—Artquake in Autumn 2024/ WANG Yeu-Kwn
10.That's Possible, But Not Now—2024 Tainan Arts Festival/Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company
11.So that ye weep as well for gladness as for pain—Lîm Tsīng -Gān SOLO/ Seven KOLO Society
12.This is not an Embassy—2024 Taiwan International Festival of Arts/ National Theatre & Concert Hall x Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Rimini Protokoll
13.The Temple of Resonance—2024 Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival/ Uni Percussion
14.Ghostopia—Artquake in Autumn 2024/ approaching theatre
15.Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring—— But There Is No Landscape Painting! (White Carrot, Rat Teeth, Her Child, (And Her Child’s Child.)) / flowers bloom on the dead end x HSU Peng
Among this year’s 15 shortlisted works are seven in the visual arts category and eight in the performing arts category. The works are rich and diverse in themes, ranging from introspections on personal life journeys and values to reflections on family, local communities, national identity, and cultural identity.
Several of the performing arts finalists this year explore their creative themes in solo or duet performances. Among these are LIU I-Ling’s Turn Out, a retrospective on her career as a dancer, and Lîm Tsīng-Gān’s So that ye weep as well for gladness as for pain. Both solo performances guide audiences through the creators’ personal experiences, evoking both laughter and tears. Uni Percussion’s The Temple of Resonance is a work that integrates sound art, folk beliefs, and theatrical language in a one-person percussion performance. The duet piece Islands, jointly choreographed by WANG Yeu-Kwn and his longtime friend and collaborator, Indonesian dancer Danang Pamungkas, is a mutual exploration of their bodily contexts and the relationship between humanity and nature.
Last year’s Taishin Arts Award Grand Prize winner, approaching theatre, has returned to the shortlist with their new work, Ghostopia, a humorous ghost-story performance by Koh Choon Eiow and CHENG Yin-Chen, presented in the Shuānghuáng tradition of comedic two-person dialogue. This is not an Embassy, a transnational collaboration between Taiwan’s National Theater & Concert Hall, Lausanne Vidy Theatre (Switzerland), and Rimini Protokoll (Germany). This production features three non-professional performers who narrate their personal stories while subtly addressing Taiwan’s diplomatic and geopolitical complexities.
Also nominated is the distinctive collaboration between flowers bloom on the dead end and playwright HSU Peng’s Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring—— But There Is No Landscape Painting!, which constructs a feminist allegory rooted in traditional Hakka ethical values. Its immersive format effectively integrates the production into the surrounding environment, creating a humorous otherworldly vision. Inspired by Kafka’s short stories, Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company’s That's Possible, But Not Now draws on a three-act structure in which the scene is intricately connected, to translate the original work’s themes of existential absurdity and contradiction into a reflection on the artist’s creative struggles and perseverance.
Among the seven visual arts nominees, six are solo exhibitions and one is a group exhibition. Their themes range from aging and elder care, post-disaster documentation, migration and identity, political allegory, and even a rare embedded study of Taiwan’s high-precision agricultural industry. NI Xiang’s Everyone came to see you—Ni Xiang Solo Exhibition constructs an immersive installation from hoarded everyday objects, shedding light on mental health issues and elderly care. TUAN Mami’s Vietnamese Immigrating Garden—A Silent Process: Tuan Mami Solo Exhibition reflects on cultural identity and diasporic experiences through the act of growing herbs used in Vietnamese cuisine. CHEN Liang-Hsuan’s Hensan Pear Trees & Hosui Pears—Chen Liang-Hsuan Solo Exhibition focuses on the cultivation of Hengshan pears, capturing the aesthetics of refined agricultural production through poetic visual documentation. YEH Wei-Li’s Beitou Palimpsest employs photography, installations, and textual works to interrogate the definition of "sense of place" and trace the journey of personal migration. CHANG Li-Ren’s Battle City: Finale, a culmination of 14 years of artistic exploration, presents a distinctive multi-narrative installation that showcases his unique creative language, reexamines his resonant experiences with art history and painting themes as he embarks on a new approach to painting. Fifteen young artists of the Earthquake Sketching Group document the aftermath of last year’s earthquake in Earthquake Sketch, epitomizing the power of art in sculpting societal resilience.
The winners will be chosen from the 15 shortlisted works in late May, and announced during the award ceremony on May 24th. Audiences are invited to tune in to the proceedings in real time via a livestream on the Taishin Arts Foundation’s official website and Facebook page. To give the public a better understanding of the shortlisted works, the foundation has planned a series of promotional events from April to May, including video and media interviews, a video exhibition in the first-floor lobby of Taishin Financial Holdings, the "Four Rolling Nights – Meet the Artists" event, and an online public voting campaign, “Audience Choice Winner.” Please visit the foundation’s website and social media platforms for activity details and updates.
The 23rd Taishin Arts Award Comments on the Finalists:
Everyone came to see you—Ni Xiang Solo Exhibition/ NI Xiang | Beginning with his personal, everyday life involving hoarding and caregiving, NI Xiang creates a compelling depiction of hoarding syndrome by juxtaposing and exploring various contradictions. The piles and stacks of old items in the exhibition space form a winding viewing route, evoking a reversal of roles in which humans lose control to the surrounding objects. Medical supplies, assistive devices, and installations that provide a chance to experience the physical perceptions of patients vividly illustrate the challenges of long-term care in an aging society. This collection of everyday items, out-of-fashion decorations, caregiving supplies, and sculptures made of cardboard boxes culminates in a large-scale installation that is intensely expressive. NI’s work is significantly affective and deeply engages with the topic of long-term care, while his idiosyncratic use of discarded materials embodies his unique “hoarding aesthetics.” (Commentator: CHANG Yun-Ting) |
Beitou Palimpsest/ YEH Wei-Li | Examining the “displacement” of individuals in contemporary society, YEH Wei-Li challenges the idea of place defined by collective consciousness or power. This prompts reflections and inquiries about personal memories while rejecting a simplistic view of place and reassessing implicit factors such as time, people, events, and objects that shape a place. YEH's solo exhibition embodies this reflective perspective. Furthermore, his re-engagement with and revitalization of abandoned spaces in his creative work evokes a spiritual dimension in which the place serves as a quintessential physical mediator, and the performers become drifting people, events, and objects free from temporal boundaries. The creator, as the orchestrator of this spatial-temporal performance, aims to forge new interpretations of place through the author, text, and readers. (Commentator: ROAN Ching-Yueh)
|
Earthquake Sketch—Featured in the 2024 Hualien Palafang Art Festival: Planet Explosion Observatory/ The Earthquake Sketching Group | The “Earthquake Sketching Group,” comprising fifteen local youths from Hualien, took the initiative to visually document the aftermath of the 2024 Hualien earthquake. They recorded the drastically altered landscape following the disaster. They seized the opportunity to showcase their sketches at the satellite exhibition of the art festival, presenting works created over months from various locations, including the Guofu Construction Residual Treatment Plant, hot springs in Wanrong, the College of Science and Engineering at National Dong Hwa University, Dongshan Cemetery, and Qingshui Cliff. They also displayed photographs of the disaster-stricken and demolition sites captured by local photographer HUANG Ting-Yun. Their action genuinely and powerfully illustrated the emotional bonds that local residents have with the land and the complex feelings experienced after the disaster. The exhibition has transcended the typical “painting/photography exhibition.” It embodies the agency and healing power of art and represents a highly proactive effort to shape society. (Commentator: CHANG Yun-Ting)
|
The Place of Beginning—Hsieh Mu-Chi Solo Exhibition/ HSIEH Mu-Chi | From the exhibition title, HSIEH Mu-Chi begins to tease out his ideas about the intrinsic nature of painting. Covering nearly twenty years of his art—from The Place Without Beginning in 2006 to the solo exhibition The Place of Beginning in 2024—HSIEH has consistently employed diverse creative works to further his inquiry into painting, the contemporary landscape, and his self-exploration of responding to, capturing, or reimagining the local creative language. This exhibition underscores HSIEH’s emphatic resonance with his surroundings, art history, and the works of his predecessors in art, re-establishing the connection between his art, contemporary society, and historical contexts. Through the interplay of his vibrant palette and dynamic brushstrokes, he has captured a relaxed, controlled, yet fluid state of expression. (Commentator: LIN Yi-Hsiu)
|
Vietnamese Immigrating Garden —A Silent Process: Tuan Mami Solo Exhibition/ TUAN Mami | The “Vietnamese Immigrating Garden” project combines influences from various social environments on immigrant communities, along with TUAN Mami’s recent research during his residency in Taiwan, which involved extensive fieldwork across the country. The project captures the experiences of Vietnamese migrant workers, international students, and new residents as they cultivate hometown vegetables and herbs in their living spaces, transforming these activities into a gathering of personal stories, seed sharing, and cultural distribution. In doing so, it tenderly brings together the self-identity and relationships of these migrants and laborers. Through this quiet yet powerful process that fosters a sense of stability and belonging, TUAN uses artistic actions to connect the lives of migrants, encouraging different communities to share resources, spread information, and create a space that fosters an alternative dialogue and attentive listening. (Commentator: LIN Yi-Hsiu)
|
Hensan Pear Trees & Hosui Pears—Chen Liang-Hsuan Solo Exhibition/ CHEN Liang-Hsuan | The exhibition delves into the production processes and history of Taiwan’s grafted pears, allowing the audience to understand the delicate and complex agricultural grafting techniques illustrated by the orchard’s micro-histories while showcasing video art's aesthetic skills and expressiveness. CHEN Liang-Hsuan affectively edits the nuanced changes of light and shadow over time, showcasing the vibrancy of nature and embracing the captivating qualities of video as a medium. The narrative, use of sound, and forms of projection or imaging are intricately woven together. The thoughtful design of interface materials, dimensions, and height variations enables the work to integrate or shift between chapters smoothly. This approach provides diverse expressions and interrelations of the video content, leading to an overflowing sense of poetry. (Commentator: SUN Ping)
|
Battle City: Finale—2023 Dreamin’ MoNTUE/ CHANG Li-Ren | In Battle City: Finale, CHANG Li-Ren develops a distinctive type of work that weaves various narrative threads into storylines, encompassing international political scenarios, social issues, sci-fi fantasies, fiction, fables, and storytelling. Additionally, he employs diverse expressive methods by appropriating (poor) images, comics, films, paintings, theater, and installations, making it challenging to categorize or interpret his work in a single manner. Nevertheless, it is this multi-faceted, crystalline quality that captivates the audience and draws them into a miniature, spectacular realm of familiar daily wonders while provoking attention and discussion on serious, real-world topics. The work effectively demonstrates art’s ability to simulate, fostering a deeper perception and nuanced understanding of reality among viewers. (Commentator: CHENG Sheng-Hua)
|
Turn Out—NTCH Ideas Lab 2024/ LIU I-Ling | Turn Out is an experiment that challenges classification boundaries, featuring dancer LIU Yi-Ling performing solo and embodying captivating bodily expressions. Beginning with an exploration of the various interpretations of “turn out,” the piece delves into the dancer’s physical techniques, the differences between the perceptions of professional artists and those of the general audience, and the mental journey of career growth. LIU humorously dismantles common stereotypes, blurring the lines between dance, theater, and stand-up comedy, even incorporating elements of lecture performances, allowing mutual interpretations of bodily movements and language. This piece serves as both her personal revelation and a quest for the true essence of dance, inviting viewers to rediscover the potential of the performing arts through laughter and contemplation. (Commentator: ZHANG You-Sheng)
|
Islands—Artquake in Autumn 2024/ WANG Yeu-Kwn | Choreographer WANG Yeu-Kwn’s Islands draws from the cultural heritage and dance backgrounds of both himself and Indonesian dancer Danang Pamungkas, developing a piece that features the body as a solitary island and explores the connection between humanity and nature. In this poetic journey of life, they represent two islands in the vast ocean, using their bodies to redefine the boundary between land and sea on a black plastic surface. They also symbolize two pure forces that physically re-measure the borders between the body and imagination. This piece, with its enigmatic and poetic realm and the heartfelt, moving dance, blends life with the rituals of theater, crafting a unique island odyssey. (Commentator: CHEN Pin-Hsiu)
|
That's Possible, But Not Now—2024 Tainan Arts Festival/Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company | Choreographer LUO Wen-Jinn and dramaturg CHEN Hung-Chun’s collaboration, That’s Possible, But Not Now, draws inspiration from Franz Kafka’s short stories. The production unfolds through three interconnected scenes, translating the absurdities and contradictions depicted by Kafka into the creative anxieties and internal conflicts faced by artists. The narrative develops as the scenes shift between the front of a doctor’s office, the courthouse, and an apartment door, delving into the creator’s examination of social injustice and the meaning of one’s life. A large movable door on stage adds subtle symbolic depth to the piece. The dance cleverly incorporates elements of mime into physical expressions, effectively delivering a satirical commentary on human nature through superb dance skills and humorous portrayals of characters. (Commentator: CHEN Pin-Hsiu)
|
So that ye weep as well for gladness as for pain—Lîm Tsīng -Gān SOLO/ Seven KOLO Society | By merging the roles of playwright, director, and actor, Lîm Tsīng -Gān conducts a profound and structural examination of the realities and illusions, as well as the appearances and inner realms of life and theater. Behind what appears to be delicate sincerity lies a strong determination. He adeptly combines live performance with visual narratives from multiple viewpoints and timelines, providing a nearly clinical examination of existential challenges and stitching them together. The performance is sharp and precise; the pacing flows smoothly, and the spatial elements and imagery enhance both the external and internal conflicts and struggles. By focusing on the creator’s experiences with illness, the production conveys modern alienation while prompting deeper concern and introspection, making it a poignant solo performance born from the collaborative efforts of many. (Commentator: SUN Ping)
|
This is not an Embassy—2024 Taiwan International Festival of Arts/ National Theatre & Concert Hall x Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Rimini Protokoll | The central theme explores the ongoing ambiguity and embarrassment inside and outside Taiwan’s society regarding its identity and name. The theater company embraces the challenge of this mission, along with its complexities and difficulties. Three actors alternate on stage and engage in dialectical exchanges, delivering the performance at a brisk pace that balances seriousness and humor, establishing a fundamental tone. They present various stances from objective and diverse perspectives while expressing their genuine and subjective circumstances in life. At the same time, they avoid turning the subject into political propaganda or inciting intense confrontations between differing social views. Ultimately, this allows both Taiwanese and non-Taiwanese audiences to better understand their social context, strengthening the connection between drama and society.” (Commentator: ROAN Ching-Yueh)
|
The Temple of Resonance—2024 Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival/ Uni Percussion | This innovative production revolves around sound and music as its core narrative medium, effectively merging sound art, folk beliefs, and theatrical language to interpret the connections between the tangible and the intangible, the traditional and the modern, as well as the senses and the intellect. Featuring a powerful Western percussion performance, it integrates an extensive study of Taiwan’s temple music, resulting in an original composition/musical text. For musicians, sound embodies their beliefs, and the musical temple translates auditory experiences into a cross-cultural, perceivable artistic expression. It breaks down the barriers between language and culture, inviting audiences from varied backgrounds to intuitively engage with its spiritual dimension through sound narratives and a visceral connection to the body. This piece unveils new potential in music theater while showcasing the distinct aesthetic expression of Taiwanese artists. (Commentator: CHANG Yin-Fang)
|
Ghostopia—Artquake in Autumn 2024/ approaching theatre | Exploring history through ghost stories is not a new concept in Taiwanese theater, but approaching theatre unveils a novel dimension with the use of this approach by utilizing a double act. KOH Choon Eiow and CHENG Yin-Chen showcase their skills in speech, performance, and singing, intertwining history and reality along with legends and facts to craft a performance featuring anecdotes from the Malaysian Communist Party that is both hilarious and incisive, witty and poignant. Ghostopia blends post-colonial parody, the acting style of Hong Kong cinema, improvisation from street theater, the rhythm of double acts, and the physical techniques of Poor Theatre, creating a rift in time and space. Amid flickering lights, ventriloquism and personal stories open a gateway into Cold War history. We are surprised to discover that the past is never truly over. Instead, in the dreamscape of Western modernity, shaped by our desires, the specter of history still lingers. (Commentator: HSU, Walter Jen-Hao)
|
Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring—— But There Is No Landscape Painting! (White Carrot, Rat Teeth, Her Child, (And Her Child’s Child.)) / flowers bloom on the dead end x HSU Peng | Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring—— But There Is No Landscape Painting! is a remarkable collaboration between flowers bloom on the dead end and HSU Peng. HSU’s script skillfully refines everyday trivialities into surreal black humor through the magical power of words and imagination. Co-creating with flowers bloom on the dead end at the historic Hsu family home in Guolin, they weave legends from history and craft a fable about women featuring the “Rat-Po-Tai (Mouse Great-Grandma)” within the ethical context of a Hakka village. This immersive performance blends text, visuals, and actors’ performances, successfully incorporating the surroundings into the performance text while providing a re-interpretation of this environment. Through humorous and sharp, other-dimensional imagination, the heavy reality is transformed into a questioning of the patriarchal order framed within feminist poetics. (Commentator: HSU, Walter Jen-Hao)
|
Everyone came to see you—Ni Xiang Solo Exhibition photo by TFAM
Beitou Palimpsest photo by YAN Gang
Earthquake Sketch—Featured in the 2024 Hualien Palafang Art Festival: Planet Explosion Observatory photo by 2024 PALAFANG
The Place of Beginning—Hsieh Mu-Chi Solo Exhibition photo by LIN Guan-Ming
Vietnamese Immigrating Garden —A Silent Process: Tuan Mami Solo Exhibition photo by JHU Ci-Hong
Hensan Pear Trees & Hosui Pears—Chen Liang-Hsuan Solo Exhibition photo by HU Bo-Yan
Battle City: Finale—2023 Dreamin’ MoNTUE photo by CHANG Li-Ren
Turn Out—NTCH Ideas Lab 2024 photo by LIOU Jhen-Siang
Islands—Artquake in Autumn 2024 photo by LI Jia-Ye
That's Possible, But Not Now—2024 Tainan Arts Festival photo by LIOU Ren-Hao
So that ye weep as well for gladness as for pain—Lîm Tsīng -Gān SOLO photo by YANG Yong-Yu
This is not an Embassy—2024 Taiwan International Festival of Arts photo by Claudia Ndebele
The Temple of Resonance—2024 Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival photo by WU Bo-Yuan
Ghostopia—Artquake in Autumn 2024 photo by KANG Jhih-Hao
Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next To A Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring—— But There Is No Landscape Painting! (White Carrot, Rat Teeth, Her Child, (And Her Child’s Child.)) photo by WU Yu-Ying
