We Are Born by the River: Collaborative Notes of Millennium River Basin Culture
We Are Born by the River: Collaborative Notes of Millennium River Basin Culture
2024/07/09 10:00 ~ 2024/10/13 18:00
TAINAN ART MUSEUM
GONG Jow-jiun, HUNG Yu-cheng, YANG Zhi-bin, SHEN Chao-liang, YEN Shih-hua, CHEN Guan-jhang, JIANG Mei-ju, Joe HUANG, SHEN Yu-rung, LIU Zhen-yu
“Tell me, where is the island—" writer LAI Hsiang-yin cries out in her renowned work Island, to her hometown Tainan that she keeps returning to in her dreams, searching for the missing protagonist “Island”, but “Island” is nowhere to be found. She steps into the study room of “Island”. “She went through all the data on Island's table, her impressions of the southern city in her mind nearly reshuffled, hardly believing that between Chihkan and Anping there was once a vast ocean. Zeelandia, Provintia, the Taijiang Inner Sea, Wu Tiao Gang (the Old Five Channels), as if in a space voyage, she drifted in the southern city she had lived in, unable to touch the ground beneath her feet.” If Tainan is an “island of streaming” floating on the sea, this ever-flowing island is intimately related to the millennia-long history of the island of Taiwan. Then, “Tainan 400” could be an opportunity for us to pose a question to this floating city in southern Taiwan: Where do we come from? Where are we going? We Are Born By The River. Rivers carry all things from the forests and mountains, forming hills and plains. Of course, we also come from the sea. Ocean currents carry the changes of world history back and forth, turning into ports and harbor cities. Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, from the evolution of modern colonial wars and tribal societies, from the habitats and history of islands, deduced an important conclusion: Culture is not only created by humans but is created together with the environment. And the formation of human civilization might not depend on mountains or seas, but it cannot exist without significant rivers. Taiwan's central mountain range forms a natural water-collecting barrier, coupled with abundant rainfall, hence the island's characteristic dense network of rivers, rapidly accumulating on both the east and west sides with a steep gradient, forming a landscape of rapid topographic variations, vast differences in flood and drought flows, and short, sharply eroding rivers that flow into the sea, which are characteristic of the island of streaming. Therefore, as writer WU Ming-yi pointed out in his article Let Us Cross the River: Discussion on the Possibility of Taiwanese River Writing/Literature, the texts of Taiwanese literature have transformed Taiwan's rivers into three basic “cognitive maps” of “nurturers,” “aggressors,” and “victims.” The six rivers of Tainan not only nurtured the city of Tainan but also inflicted this land with torrential rains, debris, and floods, further making the rivers victims under the development of modern capitalism. We are born by the river, but where are we going? By 2024, the effects of climate change and extreme weather, including floods, droughts, and the retreat of coastlines, have become increasingly apparent. The relationship between the entire city and its aquatic biodiversity, after 400 years of change, now faces the millennia-old question of “We Are Born By The River” that needs rethinking. This exhibition, besides exploring artistic works and projects questioning “We Are Born By The River,” will devote more than half of its energy to collaborative explorations, co-writing and mapping, co-creating dialogues, and forming an international network of symbiosis among citizens of all levels, elementary and secondary schools, community colleges, NPOs, and international experts and artists (from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia). It aims to trace back the modern urban water body experiences of Tainan 400 to the millennia-long multicultural co-writing with diverse species. Through thousands of habitat stories and life experiences that come from the river, it directs towards the global extreme climate scenarios and the survival situations of the Anthropocene, creating a cultural and art exhibition with an action-oriented initiative and sustainable features. Therefore, water actions, water advocacy, and international forum dialogues on water bodies will be the core spirit of this city's water exhibition. The setup of the exhibition rooms will employ a series of giant photographic images of Tainan's water culture and water system flow lines to interconnect, dividing the four exhibition rooms into four major themes: Eternal Cycle, Past Wishes, Present Voices, and Future Concerns. These five parts of the exhibition are named respectively: “Gaze at Kunshen” (The Overall Presentation of Tainan's Water Culture), “Inviting Water of Deities” (Eternal Cycle), “Voyage to Discovery” (Past Wishes), “Voice the Terroir” (Present Voices), and “Retrograde the Future” (Future Concerns). Supervisor: Tainan City Government Cultural Affairs Bureau Organizer: Tainan City Museum Co-organizer: Tainan Art Museum Coordinator: Kelio Arts Co. In Collaboration With: Art Commons Tainan, Department of Fine Arts (National Kaohsiung Normal University), Foundation Historic City Conservation and Regeneration, Graduate Institute of Transdisciplinary Art (NKNC), Kaohsiung Film Archive, National Association for the Promotion of Community Universities, South Taiwan Film Festival, Tainan Municipal Liren Elementary School, VR FILM LAB, Water Resources Agency MOEA (In alphabetical order) Supporting Partner: Hong Foundation, Panasonic Taiwan AR Technical Support: Institute for Information Industry, Arcus Digital Design Ltd.
2024/07/09 10:00 ~ 2024/10/13 18:00
TAINAN ART MUSEUM
GONG Jow-jiun, HUNG Yu-cheng, YANG Zhi-bin, SHEN Chao-liang, YEN Shih-hua, CHEN Guan-jhang, JIANG Mei-ju, Joe HUANG, SHEN Yu-rung, LIU Zhen-yu
“Tell me, where is the island—" writer LAI Hsiang-yin cries out in her renowned work Island, to her hometown Tainan that she keeps returning to in her dreams, searching for the missing protagonist “Island”, but “Island” is nowhere to be found. She steps into the study room of “Island”. “She went through all the data on Island's table, her impressions of the southern city in her mind nearly reshuffled, hardly believing that between Chihkan and Anping there was once a vast ocean. Zeelandia, Provintia, the Taijiang Inner Sea, Wu Tiao Gang (the Old Five Channels), as if in a space voyage, she drifted in the southern city she had lived in, unable to touch the ground beneath her feet.” If Tainan is an “island of streaming” floating on the sea, this ever-flowing island is intimately related to the millennia-long history of the island of Taiwan. Then, “Tainan 400” could be an opportunity for us to pose a question to this floating city in southern Taiwan: Where do we come from? Where are we going? We Are Born By The River. Rivers carry all things from the forests and mountains, forming hills and plains. Of course, we also come from the sea. Ocean currents carry the changes of world history back and forth, turning into ports and harbor cities. Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, from the evolution of modern colonial wars and tribal societies, from the habitats and history of islands, deduced an important conclusion: Culture is not only created by humans but is created together with the environment. And the formation of human civilization might not depend on mountains or seas, but it cannot exist without significant rivers. Taiwan's central mountain range forms a natural water-collecting barrier, coupled with abundant rainfall, hence the island's characteristic dense network of rivers, rapidly accumulating on both the east and west sides with a steep gradient, forming a landscape of rapid topographic variations, vast differences in flood and drought flows, and short, sharply eroding rivers that flow into the sea, which are characteristic of the island of streaming. Therefore, as writer WU Ming-yi pointed out in his article Let Us Cross the River: Discussion on the Possibility of Taiwanese River Writing/Literature, the texts of Taiwanese literature have transformed Taiwan's rivers into three basic “cognitive maps” of “nurturers,” “aggressors,” and “victims.” The six rivers of Tainan not only nurtured the city of Tainan but also inflicted this land with torrential rains, debris, and floods, further making the rivers victims under the development of modern capitalism. We are born by the river, but where are we going? By 2024, the effects of climate change and extreme weather, including floods, droughts, and the retreat of coastlines, have become increasingly apparent. The relationship between the entire city and its aquatic biodiversity, after 400 years of change, now faces the millennia-old question of “We Are Born By The River” that needs rethinking. This exhibition, besides exploring artistic works and projects questioning “We Are Born By The River,” will devote more than half of its energy to collaborative explorations, co-writing and mapping, co-creating dialogues, and forming an international network of symbiosis among citizens of all levels, elementary and secondary schools, community colleges, NPOs, and international experts and artists (from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia). It aims to trace back the modern urban water body experiences of Tainan 400 to the millennia-long multicultural co-writing with diverse species. Through thousands of habitat stories and life experiences that come from the river, it directs towards the global extreme climate scenarios and the survival situations of the Anthropocene, creating a cultural and art exhibition with an action-oriented initiative and sustainable features. Therefore, water actions, water advocacy, and international forum dialogues on water bodies will be the core spirit of this city's water exhibition. The setup of the exhibition rooms will employ a series of giant photographic images of Tainan's water culture and water system flow lines to interconnect, dividing the four exhibition rooms into four major themes: Eternal Cycle, Past Wishes, Present Voices, and Future Concerns. These five parts of the exhibition are named respectively: “Gaze at Kunshen” (The Overall Presentation of Tainan's Water Culture), “Inviting Water of Deities” (Eternal Cycle), “Voyage to Discovery” (Past Wishes), “Voice the Terroir” (Present Voices), and “Retrograde the Future” (Future Concerns). Supervisor: Tainan City Government Cultural Affairs Bureau Organizer: Tainan City Museum Co-organizer: Tainan Art Museum Coordinator: Kelio Arts Co. In Collaboration With: Art Commons Tainan, Department of Fine Arts (National Kaohsiung Normal University), Foundation Historic City Conservation and Regeneration, Graduate Institute of Transdisciplinary Art (NKNC), Kaohsiung Film Archive, National Association for the Promotion of Community Universities, South Taiwan Film Festival, Tainan Municipal Liren Elementary School, VR FILM LAB, Water Resources Agency MOEA (In alphabetical order) Supporting Partner: Hong Foundation, Panasonic Taiwan AR Technical Support: Institute for Information Industry, Arcus Digital Design Ltd.
