A tribe in need of a space

Wedged at the base of a tall cliff on the pristine beach at Jintsun (金嶟), Taitung County, is a patch of abandoned primitive dwellings hidden in dense foliage. Some of the homes are built in the trees, while others are spread across the sandy ground. There is plenty of evidence of recent habitation like empty beer bottles, plastic bags and ash-filled fire pits. But no one lives there now, its inhabitants having recently dispersed along the coast.

The people who lived on the beach are a group of mostly Aboriginal artists who collectively call themselves the Consciousness Tribe (意識部落). They established a temporary settlement at Jintsun in May and lived there until last month when Typhoon Ramasun washed away the art they had built on the beach along with several of their makeshift houses.

Inspired by the creative energy generated at the beach community, where the group made art and tried to revive and teach each other Aboriginal traditions, some of the artists have regrouped in the nearby village of Dulan (都蘭). There they have begun squatting a disused privately owned sugar factory hoping to make it a permanent site for the Consciousness Tribe.

"The Consciousness Tribe started as a short-term project that we all knew wouldn't last. We were sort of waiting to see our work get washed out to sea. But eventually some of us began to think that we should find ways to make it last beyond the first couple of months," said Siki, an Amis tribe member and artist from Dulan.

Most of the art created at Jintsun were sculptures made from driftwood that washed up onto the beach, so the artists saw it as fitting that the ocean would eventually take them back. The 2,000-ping sugar factory site, by contrast, was chosen because it would provide a fixed and protected location at which to exhibit and hopefully sell works.

The Dulan artists envision spaces for workshops, exhibition areas and a space for performing arts. They also plan to rip up the concrete courtyard of the factory complex to make green areas, pavilions and even a cafe that would offer a panoramic view of the ocean across the East Coast Highway that runs in front of the factory.

"We have lots of ideas about how to use the space. It will be open to tourists, but it will mainly be a place for the resident artists to begin a cultural and artistic interaction," said Shih Ying-yuan (石瑛媴), another of the Dulan artists.

There are a number of hurdles, however, that the "tribe" will need to first overcome before the sugar factory becomes their base of operations. The site has been abandoned since 1990 and since then its three main buildings have fallen into a grave state of disrepair. Renovating the place to eventually open it to the public would be a huge and costly job.

Then, there's the factory site's owner Huang Tsan-hui (黃燦輝), who would need to approve of any proposal to transform the factory into an artists' village along the lines of Taipei's Huashan Arts District. A long-time friend of Siki's, he is supportive of the idea and is working with the group to refine their proposals for the site.

"The contents of the plan sound great, but they've overlooked several of the practical details. If attention isn't paid to those details then the whole project will be in vain," Huang said.

The "details" are the exact costs of renovation and a clear view of who will manage the space.