A complete sensory experience
In addition to the more common silent forms of art like sculpture, installations, graffiti, and photographs, the artists also worked with sound, using recordings, musical performances, and techno-logical tools such as augmented and virtual reality to create complete sensory experiences. Some even developed cultural education classes. Mixing sight, taste, soundscapes and landscapes, they created rich and comprehensive depictions of place.
Moon Rising on the Sea
Somanana Rain / performance art / Dawu Coast Park
Shuochang artist Somanana Rain shared folk tales about the relationship between the world’s nations and the sea from in front of Chiu Chen-hung’s installation The Balcony on the wide beach at Dawu. Somanana Rain related the stories using an undulating delivery that harkened back to the oral culture of the local villages. Behind him, the moon slowly rose over the dark ocean, giving a sense of the seemingly isolated Nanhui region connecting to the rest of the world via the sea.
Moving Scenery, Streaming Summer
Lee Shih-yang / performance art / South Link Line, Train 3672
Train 3672, which is soon to be withdrawn from service, passes through Taitung’s Nanhui townships on its journey from Taitung City to Fangliao in Pingtung, traveling from Taimali to Dawu in roughly 40 minutes. The diesel-hauled train is one of the last in Taiwan still to use the 1970s-era blue-and-white railcars, which have no air-conditioning but instead rely on ceiling fans for cooling. The sound of the train’s horn, the smell of the diesel and the whir of the fans make for a highly nostalgic atmosphere. For this work, the train served as a stage for pianist Lee Shih-yang, who adapted an old Paiwan melody into a new piece more suited to modern ears. The work as a whole combined shuochang (folk storytelling with a rhythmic accompaniment) and dance with a trip across the local landscape to create something magical.
Migratory music gathering
Cultural education event / Tjuabal Village, beneath the Xinxing Bridge
The event, which replicated aspects of traditional life, was held by the Dazhu Creek in secluded Tjuabal Village. It began with a collectively prepared communal lunch, followed in the afternoon by instruction in traditional crafts, including the making of flower garlands, paperweights, and rattan balls. In the evening the participants, more than half of them village residents, gathered on the riverbank to hear musicians of different ethnicities and nationalities take turns performing. The very intimate gathering concentrated the pleasures of days gone by, offering, as Eva Lin puts it, “a return to childhood for everyone there.”
My Name? I Have a Lot of Names, Wu Sih-chin / mixed-media installation / bank of the Daniao Creek