A murder mystery-themed coffee shop, the attic of an old bed & breakfast and the rooftop of a rundown textile factory recently turned into a co-working/gallery space for artists are among the 35 venues that Taipei Fringe Festival has picked for their performances this year. In its eighth year, the festival seeks to bring art, dance, music, theater and the like, out of the traditional confines of museum walls and concert halls, and make it more accessible to the public by hosting interactive performances in unconventional venues. Artists and troupes need not be professionals to perform, although performances tend to be at least of a certain caliber.
“Different groups sign up every year, so the performances are different each time — this ensures that the festival is always fresh and innovative,” says Associate Curator Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡).
This year, Fringe Festival has 154 groups performing — an increase from 130 from last year. Moreover, this year will see more “site-specific projects,” namely, performances that draw on connections to the venue, whether by treating it as a backdrop to drive a plot, or by alluding to the history of the place and its surrounding area.
Photos courtesy of Taipei Fringe Festival
Lin tells the Taipei Times that a lot of the venues were chosen because they encouraged close contact with audiences.
“The highly interactive nature of many of the performances is meant to better facilitate the audience’s grasp of a particular issue,” she adds.
Among the popular performances last year were a comedy act on a yacht docked at the wharf of the historic Dadaocheng area (大稻埕) — “the combination of open space and the interactive nature of the act synced well,” Lin says.
In 2013, Red Top Artists Theater (紅頂藝人劇場) held a performance at the Red Envelope Club (紅包場) in Ximending (西門町) which was well received. Their cabaret-style a capella act helped revive interest in cabaret, which has been perceived as a dying art for a long time.
FROM FRINGE TO MAINSTREAM
One of the quirkier venues this year is the attic of the 60-year-old Solo Singer bed & breakfast in Beitou District (北投). Previously a rundown hot spring hotel, the place has been renovated and the attic revamped into a retro-themed layout with large vanity mirrors.
Murder Ink coffee shop in Dadaocheng will also host an act by the Detectives Wannabe who will take audiences on a trip back in time to the 1950s to solve a murder.
Another venue which the festival’s organizers believe will draw large crowds is Polymer Art Space (空場Polymer) in Beitou. Once a dilapidated textile factory, it was converted last year into a space for artists to create and exhibit artwork. Their rooftop, which has since hosted a number of cozy mix and mingles, will also serve as a performance venue.
“The combination of Polymer being a co-working studio and an exhibition space lent artists to come up with lots of creative ideas such as ‘black box theater’ acts,” Lin adds, referring to experimental acts which rely on minimalist staging.
Although this year’s acts seem quite promising, Fringe Festival has not always went without a hitch. In previous years, some of the acts, such as the BDSM Company (皮繩愉虐邦), have been harangued by the public and local media for being too raunchy. Although acts like this are slowly gaining more acceptance, Lin says that when there’s nudity or erotic themes involved, they still receive complaints from people.
“But freedom of expression is an important tenet of the Fringe Festival,” she says. “We wish to give voice to various types of urban subcultures, and BDSM is one of them.”
Fringe Festival may still be far from the edges of what you might see at the Venice Biennale, but to Lin, providing a platform for artists to speak freely and just be themselves is of utmost importance. Relatedly, it’s also a good starting point for young artists who wish to launch creative careers.
“We hope that gradually, artists who partake in Fringe Festival will help to change the nature of the performing arts in Taiwan, and to make it more inclusive” Lin adds.
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