Fri, Nov 23, 2001 - Page 9 News List

Urban Outdoor Art Show

By David Frazier  /  STAFF REPORTER

What's so lovable about Manray Hsu(許文瑞) and Hungjohn Lin (林宏章) is

that they can come up with the most long-winded and incomprehensible

babble-filled excuses to hold a party that can be found anywhere in

Taiwan. And in the end, they still have a party, or curate an art

exhibition, or just hold something weird. Last summer, for example, they

were responsible for a short string of all-night drum circles, film

festivals and philosophically justified bacchanalia held under the open

sky in Taipei's Whashang Arts District.

Tonight they're having the opening celebration for The Good Place(好地

方), an exhibition of Canadian and Taiwanese artists to be held in

Taichung's streets and commercial districts from Dec. 2 to Dec. 16. You

may note that the opening party and the exhibition are actually a

weekend apart, but that's not stopping them. In fact, there will be

another party next weekend on Dec. 2 for the actual opening.

Tonight, though, they will be outside again with a line-up that includes

an old Chinese man playing the erhu, Broadway-style tap dancing to the

sounds of a hip hop scracth artist, a performance by the band Milk,

music by DJ RainboWarrior (who, by the way, did a nice job last week

with the party atop Taichung's Jinsha Department Store) and works by two

video artists. Films by the Taiwanese duo Pitch Peach will kick in while

Milk is on stage, and films by Canadian Michael Snow will accompany

RainboWarrior.

According to Hsu, all this is supposed to express the "trans-site," or

"the notion of geographical space as a socio-cultural expression in the

context of globalization." In layman's terms, events surrounding The

Good Place will look at how two different cultures mix in the context of

Taichung, a place like every other with its own status quo.

And this will happen by staging performances (including one called "urban massage" and featuring works that spill out of the museums and

into everyday life. Tonight's events will be held outdoors from 7pm to

10pm in the plaza in front of the Taichung City Cultural Center (台中市

立文化中心), located at 600 Yingtsai Rd. (台中巿英才路600號).

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