The recently opened Bunker Museum of Contemporary Art in Kinmen consists of 18 solo exhibitions by predominantly Chinese and Taiwanese artists and is on view until Jan. 10. Most of the art works are installed in abandoned bunkers, which for many of the local residents are filled with tragic memories and ghosts.
Artist Cai Guo-qiang (
PHOTOS: SUSAN KENDZULAK, TAIPEI TIMES
Under military rule until 1992, Kinmen was off-limits to Taiwanese with the exception of its 60,000 inhabitants and military conscripts who had to travel 17 hours by boat to get there. Now no longer off-limits, big plans are afoot to turn the island into a touristy place for historical sightseeing and cultural activities. But while there are still minefields and dangerous sections of beaches, the plan seems to be specious at best. However, artists tend to be an idealistic sort and it is with this intention that the exhibition is determined that art's healing powers can help to obliterate Kinmen's ghosts and dangers.
NY-based Taiwanese filmmaker Wu Tung-wang's (吳東旺) poignant experimental film Surrender consisted of interviews with Taiwanese children who were asked big issue questions about life and death, dignity, surrender, and national/ethnic identity. In one powerful scene, a voiceover asked if it was shameful to surrender, while an image of an elderly woman begged for money on a busy city street, alluding to the various capitulations we experience in our lifetimes.
Chiayi-based Wang Wen-Chih (
Sound was one important element in this show as artists referred to the large military speakers in China that broadcasted propaganda to Kinmen during the Cold War years. Chinese artist Shen Yuan (
Music's healing powers were eloquently displayed by Taiwanese popular songwriter Yao Chien (姚謙), who provided a karaoke area under a banyan tree where one could sing Chinese love songs that unites people on both sides. It was a simple, yet moving piece.
A native Kinmen artist, Lee Shi-chi's (
The inclusion of erotic performer Yin Ling (垠淩) who was born in Taiwan and lives in Japan created an interesting position on Asian post-war identity, while her suggestive performance "lovemaking for World Peace" in which she cavorted with the spirits of Chiang Kai-shek(蔣介石) and Mao Zedong (毛澤東) was extremely well attended.
For Taiwanese artist Lee Ming-wei (
Instead, he has an interactive tour in the restored ancient village of Shuito in which motion-activated speakers tell part of the residents' stories. In order to hear the rest of the stories, visitors are encouraged to ask the locals; an empowering work that allows them to take on the role of artist/author to reclaim their history.
Liu Xiaodong's (
This exhibition has the potential to be a kind of art gentrification wherein famous artists came, installed and left. A heartening part of the exhibition was the inclusion of each of the 18 elementary schools to create their own works of art for a bunker. The results showed that there was a lot of in-depth discussion in the classroom about politics, war and peace, life and death and Taiwanese identity.
An ambitious show with lots of provocative ideas, in other words: dynamite!
Exhibition notes:
For detailed info, maps, hotels, travel, etc. go to http://bmoca.kinmen.gov.tw, or pick up a BMOCA passport at the National Museum of History, 49 Nanhai Road, Taipei (
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