Taroko Arts Residency Project IV Part 3: Family Matters in the Mountains

2021 hngkawas rbagan, smliq syakai klwaan ka COVID-19, smliq tnpusu alang dgiyaq kndsan Skangki ni Huhus uri, smliq mtgiyaq-pspuan Truku klgan qpahun Qtaun ka ndaan nii o karat rnabaw 2023hngkwasan, brahau IV Part 2, babaw wada mnhdu meytaq qowmi quri meeru narux siida o, prajing duri ka qpahun euda nii maxal idas siida, musa ku alang pnsliyan qqpahun uuda, miing ku smluhay qpahun nii siida, niqan ka pgkla lnglungan mu, qntaan mu ka Bnu, gisu mniq bukuy sapah niya, empririh bgurah smalu bukuy sapah na. lmlung ddjiyun smluun na, duri o qtaan na ka hligan lukus nii o, mdka saw msriqu balay. Paah tbarah miyah breenux hini dga, hligan lukus nii o niqan empusal hngkawas, ida wana hiya ka lnglungan mu da, nasi hmrinas ka hngkwasan 2022, dha idas siida dga, ngalun mu ka pila dnayaw quri qpahun quri emqdgiyaq, asi ta pddayi smalu hiya ka pila nii da.

Asaw saw qpahun nii o, psliyaun kana ka kykuyuh Bnu Pasang、Yuri Pasang、Simat Qurang、Yaya Huwat、Cumey Hrosi、Tumun Masaw、Yeyku Likaw、Qurug Tumiyu, maspat hiyi kuyuh alang nii mseupu qmpah, pwoda dha saw qpahun qtaan kana seejiq nii o, pdaun maspat kykuyuh nii, dha idas mniq 關渡美術館, duri ni mlswa pnrhulan Skangku mseupu qmeepah euda IV Part 2 nii.

Prjingan qpahun nii o 2022hngkawas nii o, psliyan mngari kykuyuh psmalu qpahun nii, ptlutut kari sapah qhuni(家庭樹:序言) Part 1 qpahun quri daya. Mlawa seejiq muda gmaaw, manu ka qpahun dha mniq daya ka COVID-19 siida? Mniq dxgal rudan nii o msupu lmnglung mseusa ni balay.

Mgaaw seejiq rnaaw

Ida mha mdka euda kykuyuh nii ka euda. Kana mgaaw ni empqpah o empseupu 「太魯閣藝駐計劃」將與「關渡美術館駐館計畫」muda. Pusu dmudul nii o kykuyuh maspat hiyi nii ni seejiq 美術館,empseupu mgaaw seejiq miyah powsa patas.

Nasi gnegan ka tru qmpringan o, mha niqan kingal idas ka nniqan dgiyaq ni empqita 關渡美術館 dha sngayan. Dusa nanak mkug ka nniqan jiyax, bitqa mnhdu hhngkawan nii. Qtaun ka ndaan nii o jiyax 2023 hngkawas karat srnabaw. Brahaw namu balay iyah powsa patas. Qpahun alang nii o tduwa powsa patas samaw https://bit.ly/3HJRoam.

Paah sayang bitaq 2022hngkawas 5 idas31jiyax ka powsa patas, nasi namu wada mowda du, pbiqun djiyun quri uuqun tru kbuhug mrimal kbkuy, djiyun slhayan o pbiqun pila kingal kbuhug, pqita alang Skangki ni 美術館 o aji mduuy pila kida.

*Taroko translation was assisted by Ms. Nac Hijiyu and Ms. Yaya Huwat.

#

“Family Matters in the Mountains” announces open call for mountain residency research projects scheduled in 2022.

In the summer 2021, COVID-19 impacted the operation of the society in Taiwan, the lives of the Datong Village and Dali Village in the mountains of Taroko, and the execution of “Tree Tree Tree Person – Taroko Arts Residency Project IV Part 2.” After all the known elders in the tribe were verified as having received their second dose, Tree Tree Tree Person resumed the arrangements and residencies of the researchers in the mountains. During one revisit to the tribal community beneath the mountains in October while searching for inspirations for the art residency project, we found Auntie Bnu troubled by the replacement for the balcony extension supports behind her place, which collapsed due to aging. It was in part because of the construction cost as well as the terrible inconvenience and extreme danger with the surviving half of the balcony. Also, we learned that the balcony was in service for over twenty years since she had relocated beneath the mountains. This conversation has been lingering in our minds ever since. We are wondering if we could allocate a portion of the fund of the exhibition at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (KdMoFA) next year (2022) to the housework of the women in the mountains, can we depict a different labor landscape?

With that, the project invited Bnu Pasang, Yuri Pasang, Simat Qurang, Yaya Huwat, Cumey Hrosi, Tumun Masaw, Yeyku Likaw, and Qurug Tumiyu, totally eight tribal women, for collaboration. The production fund for art exhibition is entrusted at their disposal on a condition that they are required to share their thinking in the exhibition at KdMoFA in February as to how they use the fund. Meanwhile, extending the discourse and spirit of Taroko Arts Residency Project IV Part 2, the Shakadang Church was invited to this funded exchange project as well.

Tree Tree Tree Person – Taroko Arts Residency Project IV began with Family Tree: Preface produced collectively by nine females in 2020 as its Part 1. In 2022, themed with Family Matters in the Mountains, the Part 3 calls for residency research projects. The housework labor in the mountains during the pandemic shall be brought into focus, extending the imagination for the relationships between nature and art in the traditional arena.

Call for Entries for Tree Tree Tree Person – Taroko Arts Residency Project Following the previous direction with tribal women to handle the curating works, responsible for entry selection and project development. The “Taroko Arts Residency Project” this year, in partnership with “KdMoFA Residency Program,” invites the tribal women and the museum staff to vote and decide on the submitted entries together.

The three research projects selected shall be granted with the opportunities to one-month residency at Taroko in Hualien and two-week residency at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts. The artists may arrange their schedule at will as long as they complete their projects no later than the end of 2022. The residency reflections shall be presented in spring 2023. Individuals with expertise in the contemporary arts, cultural and historical studies, or community works are welcome to apply, a good match for those skilled in domestic matters. The registration link: https://bit.ly/3HJRoam.

The call for entries will be due on 31 May 2022. The results will be notified individually upon decision. Each selected research projects will be awarded with a living allowance of NT$35,000, a research grant of NT$10,000, free accommodation space, and a chance to public presentations in both Hualien and Taipei.

Collaborators

Bnu Pasang, Yuri Pasang, Simat Qurang, Yaya Huwat, Chumay Haloshi, Masow Dumuan, Yeyku Licaw, Qurug Tumiyu, Yan-Xiang Lin, Shang-Chiao Li, Dorothy Wong Ka-Chung & Benjamin Ryser, Jing Y. & Lou Mo, Nan-Hsun Lin, Chan-Zhi Chang, Cheng-Te Chin, Wo-Chen Chang, Cheng-Tao Chen, Shakadang Church

About The Projects

The Three-legged Cat and the Hunter, by Yan-Xiang Lin

“During the few days I lived on the mountain, a tabby cat would always accompany me to sleep, sometimes at my feet, sometimes next to my pillow, and I would listen to its breathing until I fell asleep. It would nest in the corner of the warehouse, or curled up on the top of the solar battery. It was always bullied by other cats because it only had three legs.”

Participate in the life of tribal residents during this period, starting from the clues in life, such as eating, chatting, taking pictures, hunting, climbing, receiving climbers, etc., and understand the daily life on the “mountain” during the interaction process. Starting from a three-legged cat, understand the relationship between the Taroko people and the environment, then further explore the state of interaction between mountains and forests after modernization.

Every time I look at this jumping three-legged cat, I am reminded of the conflict between modern hunting equipment and traditional hunting culture. Sometimes I feel lke I can’t help too much, and I seem to have lost an arm here.

A Lectures and Podcast Projects on Out of Taiwan Hypothesis, by Shang-Chiao Li

The core objective of this residency project is to explore the impact of the discourse surrounding Out of Taiwan Hypothesis. It seeks to investigate how this discourse, under government guidance, transforms the exchange and creation of art and culture, thereby shaping new forms of identity. This project will take the form of podcasts and lectures, examining the influence of the hypothesis from multiple perspectives. Additionally, it will reference the historical context of Pacific Island nations or regional identity construction, comparing it with Taiwan’s current identity status, to interpret the significance of the hypothesis from an objective standpoint. The goal of this project is to deepen our understanding and analysis of Out of Taiwan Hypothesis, encouraging Taiwanese society to contemplate and explore its diverse cultural identities more profoundly.

Orchid, by Dorothy Wong Ka-Chung & Benjamin Ryser

This is the fourth time we have returned to the Taroko tribe for a residency, and this year we have been working and researching with Yuri Pasang and her family to continue to listen to and revisit the family history and memories of the community. We followed the collective memories of the tribe that harvested rare orchids in the mountains forty years ago and sold them on to Japan, searching for their whereabouts.

We learnt from the tribal elders and their children that an orchid can live for several decades. If this orchid could talk, what would it tell us about their migration down the mountain and their encounters and stories along the way?

Project participants and voice recording: Bnu Pasang, Icyang Pasang, Yuri Pasang

Translation: Charlotte Lee

Writing Mothers from Taroko, by Jing Y. & Lou Mo

The Writing Mother co-creation project has entered its sixth year and touches on complex topics such as family and private relationships, as well as gender equality. When the artists came to the Datong tribe, they found that most of the homes of tribal mothers in the mountains were also homestays for mountaineers. Home and public space begin to be connected, and different people, the natural environment, animals and plants come and go simultaneously with the home and the various family matters.

About the Resident Researchers

Yan-Xiang Lin

The methods of artistic creation are mainly video, action and writing. Focus on how people respond to their own biopolitics through issues such as the ecological environment, geopolitics, and religious beliefs. Produce perceptual experiences and texts through field practice and artistic research. And through image production as a visual act of action, in order to respond to the social phenomena and self-feelings of concern.

Shang-Chiao Li

XR programer for the 2023 Kaohsiung Film Festival XR Dreamland. She is also a writer and short film director. Collaborating as a writer, she partnered with the comic artist Evergreen Yeh on Mayfly Island, which was honored with the Bronze Award at the Japan International Manga Awards. The screenplay adaptation was nominated for the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion. Her work March: the Southern South was supported by Kaohsiung Shorts.

Dorothy WONG Ka-Chung and Benjamin Ryser

Dorothy Wong Ka-Chung (1991, born in British Hong Kong) and Benjamin Ryser (1989, born in Switzerland); in the Taroko tribe also known as Qurug and Lowking.The artists, who have been staying in Europe, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in recent years, often intervene in local communities in different countries with images and sounds. They are concerned with displaced communities in different places, investigating the sense of belonging, identity, imagined homelands, as well as issues related to politics and history. In recent years, their works often collect the stories of different individuals to accumulate the urban memory of the community.

Jing Y.

In 2017, he launched the Writing Mother project, advocating civic writing from family issues. In 2019, the Sweat project was launched to help people who lack resources in writing and painting learn these two creative methods, and create with them from time to time. Under the concept of “ordinary people’s creations”, she constantly tries to explore the boundaries between professionals and non-professionals, and also relies on her creative power to promote the possibility of mutual understanding and mutual assistance among different voices under privilege and exploitation.

Lou Mo

Lou Mo (born in France in 1990) is a Chinese-Canadian artist and curator currently living in Taipei. Her research mainly focuses on modern and contemporary Asian-African exchanges and the creations of Third World artists. She is also interested in the differences in diaspora, identity, and perception between the center and the periphery, and post-colonial history. She is also a member of the artist collective Mutant School.

Curatorial Team | Bnu Pasang, Cumey Hrosi, Icyang Pasang, Kumu Unang, Qurug Tumiyu, Simat Qurang, Tumun Masaw, Yeyku Rikaw, Yaya Huwat, Yuri Pasang

 
#Part 1
VICE VERSA Dual Solo Exhibition | Research Approach to Art in Residence II: What Are We Talking About When We Talk About “AIR”?
Dates|2022.02.25 – ​05.22
Venue|Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (No.1, Syueyuan Rd., Beitou Dist., Taipei City 112, Taiwan)​
Artsits|​Antinomy Company, Tree Tree Tree Person
 
#Part 2
AUSTRONESIAN INTERNATIONAL ARTS AWARD 2022
Dates|2022.12.17 – ​ 2023.01.29
Venue|Taitung Art Museum(No. 350, Zhejiang Rd, Taitung City, Taitung County 950, Taiwan)
 
#Part 3
Tree Tree Tree Person – Taroko Arts Residency Project IV Part 3: Family Matters in the Mountains
Dates | 2023.10.21~12.10
Resident Researchers | Yan-Xiang Lin, Shang-Chiao Li, Dorothy Wong Ka-Chung & Benjamin Ryser, and Jing Y. & Lou Mo.
Opening | 2023.10.21 (Sat.), 3~6pm
Venue | TheCube Project Space (2F, No13, Aly 1, Ln 136, Sec 4, Roosevelt Rd, Taipei City)
Organizer | Tree Tree Tree Person
Co-organizer | TheCube Project Space
Sponsor | National Culture and Arts Foundation, Hong Kong Arts Development Council