Dancing around sculptures

The Shihsanhang Museum (十三行博物館), the newest addition to Taipei's lineup of museums, has already proved very popular because of its splendid location in Pali (八里), which provides beautiful vistas and links with many scenic walks.

To make greater use of this idyllic environment, the museum has organized an outdoor dance/installation event titled "The Sun -- The Beginning of Life" (太陽祭_讓心靈曬太陽). The installations, titled "The Sun: Myth" (太陽祭_神話) consists of six works by Zhang Wang (張 忘), a veteran stage designer, dancer and visual artist. The works are inspired by legends relating to the beginning of the universe as told by six of Taiwan's Aboriginal tribes. These serve as the backdrop for a series of weekend dance performances which bring together some well-known and lesser known performance groups to develop works around Aboriginal creation myths.

Shooting the Sun (射日高台) is a 4m mineral column on which stands a bronze figure of a man shooting at the sun -- a not inappropriate image given the vicious sun that beats down on the museum plaza for most of the day.

In Atayal tales, there used to be two suns in the sky. A brave tribesman chased the sun all his life, but to no avail. Finally, his son, who had followed in his father's footsteps, shot the sun, creating the somewhat dimmer moon.

The column, set up using the same technique that Aborigines used to build stone houses, is a tribute to the tribal heroes who sacrificed their lives to make life better for the fellow tribesmen.

Another work, the Fire Dance Theater (火舞劇場), is the main venue for many of the performances. It's structure derives from Bunun and Rukai legends about the origin of fire. The black steel wedge-shaped structure lining the stage brim with raw power, adding tension to the dance shows, most of which are inspired by nature and have strong Aboriginal elements.