The Taiwan International Festival of Arts, which is to start in Taipei on Thursday next week, is to feature more than 300 performances celebrating artistic adaptability during the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Theater and Concert Hall (NTCH) has said.
NTCH general and artistic director Liu Yi-ru (劉怡汝) described this years edition of the event, which has provided a stage to a diverse range of performers from home and abroad since 2010, as “a salute” to those who had been brave enough to stride forward and explore an unknown world amid the global pandemic.
The pandemic has affected the National Theater directly, with the venue forced to cancel or postpone nearly all shows of the festival’s 2020 edition after a musician tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after he had performed at a festival venue.
After in May last year causing the first-ever closure of the venue since its opening in 1987, the disease has also created disruptions this year.
On Jan. 6, the organizers announced that four of the festival’s shows produced by foreign artists would be canceled, including US artist Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music and Transverse Orientation, the latest production by Greek stage director Dimitris Papaioannou.
The National Theater said the cancelations were due to the sustained COVID-19 travel restrictions imposed by governments around the world, which had made travel for artists difficult.
Nevertheless, the festival, which runs through May 18, would this year include more than 300 performances of 10 physical and four digital shows.
Liu said that the arts sector had been left especially vulnerable by the pandemic, but added that those working in the industry had not been defeated.
Wang Jhao-cian (汪兆謙), artistic director of the Chiayi-based troupe Our Theatre (阮劇團), which is known for staging classic stories in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), said the disease had led to changes in the troupe’s creative process.
Speaking about the group’s latest work, The Prawning Decameron, which is to be performed in April, Wang said it was the first time that the troupe has incorporated traditional puppets and video into a work.
Drawing inspiration from Renaissance writer Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, a collection of novellas set in plague-ravaged 14th century Italy, Yeung Fai (楊輝), a puppet master and codirector of The Prawning Decameron, said the work focused on the ongoing pandemic, and human nature amid a volatile and chaotic world.
Cheng Tsung-lung (鄭宗龍), artistic director of award-winning contemporary Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, said that being forced to work from home for several months last year enabled him and his team to spend more time being with themselves and inspired their latest work, Send in a Cloud, which is to be shown at the Taiwan International Festival of Arts from April 15 to 17.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS