In a time of sharp polarizations and identity politics, Singaporean Tang Fu-kuen (鄧富權), now in his second year of curator of the Taipei Arts Festival (臺北藝術節), and the festival’s programming team decided to focus on relationships, collaborations and power dynamics for the 21st edition of the festival.
The theme of this year’s festival is “I (do not) Belong To You” (我們認同藝術 我們認同臺北).
The idea is to look at how power is ambivalently produced, negotiated, distributed and performed between entities.
Photo courtesy of Witjak Widhi Cahyo
The 12 programs and five “works-in-progress” that will be presented at the THINK BAR events include three music shows, five dance programs, two theater shows, two interdisciplinary programs and multi-media presentations and artist talks. Several of the artists involved in last year’s festival whose works were popular and critical hits have been invited back with new programs.
Taipei residents and visitors are invited to imagine a common future, one shaped and informed by art in all its possible permutations, organizers said.
Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs Director-General Tsai Tsai Tsung-hsiung (蔡宗雄) said the goal of the festival is to get city residents to participate in activities they might have been exposed to before, to express themselves through art and to embrace difference through dialogue.
Photo courtesy of Bryony Jackson
The festival opens next week with a new work, a Taiwanese-Indonesian collaboration between Les Petites Choses (小事製作) and Jecko Siompo entitled Before/Step/After.
It is a free outdoor show at the Xiangti Avenue Plaza on Saturday and Sunday next week that is centered on teaching dance and audience participation. The artists involved believe that anyone can dance, and they want to prove it.
Among the other dance highlights in the festival are two shows by Indonesian dancer Eko Supriyanto, who is bringing his powerful solo Salt to Wellspring Theater on Aug. 13 and Aug. 14.
Photo courtesy of Jorg Baumann
With Princess, Eisa Jocson and Russ Ligtas from the Philippines seek to subvert the Disney standard of happiness through the viewpoint of the many Filipinos who work in theme parks around the world. They will perform at the Wellspring Theater on Aug. 9 and 10. Jocson’s gender-bending show, Macho Dancer and her artist’s talk packed people in last year.
Another subversive show is a collaboration between Australian Luke George and Singaporean Daniel Kok (郭奕麟), Bunny, which explores the boundaries of desire, trust and consent. Their work mixes dance, installation and bondage. In case you were wondering, “Bunny” is a nickname for a person being tied up in rope bondage.
The show will be performed at the Umay Theater in Huashan 1914 Creative Park on Sept. 6 and 7.
Jereome Bel’s GALA was a major hit for last year’s festival, so this year his The Show Must Go On will be presented, featuring 20 performers, 19 songs and one DJ.
However, Bel handed over the directing duties to Taiwanese dancers — and husband and wife — Chen Wu-kang (陳武康) and Yeh Ming-hwa (葉名樺), who, as with last year’s show, recruited local performers and amateurs to take part.
The festival also recommissioned last year’s IsLand Bar to be this year’s Festival Collection choice, with Henry Tan from Thailand and Taiwanese Huang Ding-yun (與黃鼎) leading new immigrants who have chosen to live in “Sweet Potato Land” in mixing cocktails and performing stories.
The THINK BAR was initiated last year as a series of lectures, artist-dialogues and performance showcases, but this year the idea was to focus on the work of five artists and their creative processes.
The festival runs from Saturday next week through Sept. 9, at venues around the city.
Ticket prices run from NT$600 to NT$900, but there are several events that are free.
More information about the programs, the artists, events and ticketing details can be found on its easy-to-navigate Web site (www.artsfestival.taipei/index.aspx).
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would