Adjectives like "experimental" and "avant-garde" don't normally describe the Taipei Beer Factory, but they will over the next two weekends when it hosts the fifth annual City on the Move Art Festival.
Called City Fables, this year's festival pairs musicians with multimedia artists in live performances that combine cutting-edge music, sounds and digital images. Unlike most local music festivals, which feel like random mixes of artists and genres, City Fables focuses exclusively on multimedia art music. The lineup includes some of the country's best DJs, underground electronic music groups and post-rock bands, along with experimental composers and musicians from Japan, Austria, Brazil, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
"It's like a digital peace festival," said Jerry Fang (方宜正), one of the festival's organizers and a member of electronica collective KbN (凱比鳥), which performs at the festival Sunday afternoon.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE 5TH CITY ON THE MOVIE ART FESTIVAL
"This festival is important because there aren't that many avenues for multi-media artists and musicians in Taiwan," said KbN member Nathan Davis. "It promotes something that's relatively unknown and different in Taiwan."
Among the participating artists are Yoshimitsu Ichiraku, a Japanese drummer who rigs his drum kit with impact sensors that he uses to control images on a video screen; Ryoichi Kurokawa, an audiovisual artist from Osaka who composes "time-based sculpture" using three-dimensional objects and digital images; and Bernhard Gal, an Austrian composer and artist who creates music for electro-acoustic compositions and art installations. In addition to KbN, other notable Taiwanese performers include Sugar Plum Ferry (甜梅號) and 8mm Sky (八厘米天空), two of the country's best post-rock bands, and Lim Giong (林強), a former pop star-turned DJ who has long been at the forefront of Taiwan's electronic music scene.
City Fables opens at 8pm tonight with performances by Lim and Kurokawa, who visited Taiwan last year for the annual Weather in My Brain Sound-Visual Art Festival (腦天氣影音藝術季). The audiovisual portion of the festival continues over the following two weekends with performances from 3pm to 9:30pm. There are also two areas with multimedia installations that will be open to the public between 9am and 9pm. And the Taipei Brewery will be open to the public during the festival, with guided tours available at 10am, 2:30pm and 3:30pm. Those interested in touring the brewery should call (02) 2771-9131, X433 or X431.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE 5TH CITY ON THE MOVIE ART FESTIVAL
The performance stage and art installations are both located inside the Taipei Beer Factory complex. The entrance is on Bade Road (八德路) next to Jianguo South Road (建國南路), just down the street from the beer factory's bar. Enter through the main gate and follow the signs that say "346," past warehouses filled with yellow beer palettes, to the back of the complex.
Event information:
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE 5TH CITY ON THE MOVIE ART FESTIVAL
What: City Fables: The 5th City on the Move Art Festival
Where: Taipei Brewery, also called Taipei Beer Factory, 85, Bade Rd Sec 2, Taipei (台北市八德路二段85號)
When: Today, tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 24 and Nov. 25
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE 5TH CITY ON THE MOVIE ART FESTIVAL
On the Net: cityfables.culture.gov.tw
Entrance: Admission to the festival is free
Audiovisual concerts:
Today
8pm Lim Giong (林強) (Taiwan, electronica)
9pm Ryoichi Kurokawa (Japan, electronica)
Tomorrow
3pm Sugar Plum Ferry (甜梅號) (Taiwan,
post-rock)
4:20pm Colorir (Brazil, post-rock)
7pm DJ Dee (李勁松) (Hong Kong, electronica)
8:20pm Zephec (徐聖羲) (Taiwan, electronica)
Sunday
3pm KbN (凱比鳥) (Taiwan, electronica)
4:20pm Yoshimitsu Ichiraku (Japan, electronica)
7pm Yoshihiro Hanno (Japan, electronica)
8:20pm Yoshihiro Hanno (Japan, electronica)
Nov. 24
3pm Weather Man (氣象人) (Taiwan, post-rock)
4:20pm DJ Point (許志遠) (Taiwan, electronica)
7pm Bernhard Gal and Christof Cargnelli (Austria, electronica)
8:20pm DJ Code (吳鍇帆) (Taiwan, electronica)
Nov. 25
3pm Tri Minh (Vietnam, electronica)
4:20pm 8mm Sky (八厘米天空) (Taiwan,
post-rock)
7pm 7pm Bernhard Gal and Christof Cargnelli (Austria, electronica)
8:20pm DJ Elvis (涂孝華) (Taiwan, electronica)
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