Overview｜摘要
Once upon a time, something happened in Taoyuan… What was it?
This is a creative artwork and exhibition plan based on the developmental history of Taoyuan's old town area as the exhibition theme.
With their focus on the history and alterations of urban texture in Taoyuan, the three artists and the local cultural worker hope to create a brand-new work that tells the story of the old town area from their perspective. In so doing, they hope to disrupt the narrative style of historical exhibitions, which primarily focus on the display of historical archives and texts.
Curatorial Reflection｜策展思考
This exhibition reinterpreted Taoyuan’s historic city center through painting, video, performance, and spatial installation. Rather than presenting the artists’ existing works, the project invited three artists and one local historian to learn about the area through a reading group, which was held online due to the pandemic. Over six months of field research and discussion, they gradually developed a series of new works.
Through this curatorial process, I found an approach that proved engaging for everyone involved. The artists learned about the city through conversations and site visits, but the intention was not to assign them a specific theme. Instead, the process allowed them to gradually enter into the area and take it as the central subject of their recent thinking. This approach carried a certain risk, as the final outcomes might not match the curator’s original expectations. For me, the challenge was therefore to create an exhibition capable of accommodating uncertainty while also responding to external limitations.
One unexpected development was that the number of participating artists eventually grew from three to four. The local historian, Lan Po-han, also created a new work for the exhibition. In the work, he appeared as a tour guide from the 1930s, leading visitors through “the vanished city of Taoyuan” and drawing on his extensive knowledge of the city’s history.
Exhibition Essay | 策展論述
This exhibition introduces a walking tour of Taoyuan city, which is also a journey through time: Starting from the current Taoyuan City center, the visitor sees two existing religious centers representing different eras, namely the Jing Fu Gong Temple and Taoyuan Martyrs' Shrine, as interpreted by CHOU Nylas Wu-Han’s creativity. Reading anecdotal stories of Taoyuan’s Juicheng District in old newspapers, Shake and the residents of the Juicheng District can connect the lifestyles of current residents in the area and their imaginations of the future.
The tour goes all the way to the east of the city, and travels through time. The travelers would listen to KAO Den-Huei describe public services performed by students in the Japanese colonial era, when they moved pebble stones to build the road to the shrine. The youths also participated in physical exercises such as hopscotch, which were part of the physical training designed by the colonial government. From the perspective of a mountain guide from the Japanese colonial era, LAN Po-Han continued to lead everyone forward. Passing by a shrine path that existed once upon a time, they arrived at the summit and established a triangulation station, completing a naming ceremony for the nameless mountain and marking the end for this journey across time and through the city.
Taoyuan District Civic Hall
(No. 8, Zhonghua Rd., Taoyuan Dist., Taoyuan City, Taiwan)
2021/12/01-12/26
Curator | LAI Pei-Chun
Artists |
CHOU Nylas Wu-Han
Shake
KAO Den-Huei
LAN Po-Han