The 2025 Green Island Biennial delves into temporal and spatial isolation experienced by political prisoners in remote confinement, head curator Nobuo Takamori (高森信男) said at an opening ceremony in New Taipei City on Tuesday.
While Green Island is geographically close to Taiwan, it came to symbolize a barrier during the White Terror period, ostracizing people who were politically prosecuted and condemned from society and time, Takamori said.
That forms the backdrop of the exhibition’s theme, “Duration of 149 Sea Miles: The Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting,” the curator said, adding that the distance represents the journey the first group of political prisoners took to reach Green Island from Keelung.
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Culture
The then-authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government began sending political prisoners to Green Island for imprisonment in 1951, many of whom were subjected to forced labor, he added.
Minister of Culture Li Yuan (李遠) said that people living on Taiwan proper were similarly cut off from the outside world under the reign of a dictatorship, as they could not leave the country freely, and the flow of information was strictly controlled and censored.
The minister pledged continued government support to preserve the memories of the White Terror era and to promote human rights education in Taiwan.
From today through Sept. 21, dozens of video recordings, installations and drawings, among other artworks, are on exhibit at what is now called the Green Island White Terror Memorial Park, Takamori said.
Through the lens of 31 artists from Taiwan and overseas, and by drawing comparisons between Taiwan and other countries with turbulent pasts, the biennial seeks to promote a better understanding of the history of the White Terror era.
Among the works is For Every Freedom, Hope Remains, a series of large-scale woodcut prints made by Malaysian art group Pangrok Sulap.
Woodcut art has always been rooted in the culture of “resistance” to those in power, Pangrok Sulap member Adi said, adding that the group’s work “honors the strength of those who endured oppression” and “reminds us the struggle for freedom is never over.”
Taiwanese artist Wang Te-yu (王德瑜) is showcasing N22.40, an installation designed to pay tribute to late White Terror victim and human rights advocate Tsai Kun-lin (蔡焜霖), with the hope of inspiring visitors to reflect on the importance of freedom and human rights.
The Green Island White Terror Memorial Park — formerly a prison compound that held political prisoners, as well as serious offenders and criminal gang members — was transformed in 2018 into a museum commemorating the victims of political repression during the White Terror period from 1949 to 1992.
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