The interactive video installation, Die Wege:Darkroom and Poetry, which connects the third floor of the museum and the basement space, draws on Wang Bai-yuan’s A Path with Briars, the first left-wing poetry collection published in Taiwan in 1931. At the time, militarism had risen in Japan and the social movements under colonial rule had been repeatedly suppressed. Being outside the system, Wang conveyed his political ideals in writing. The title of the poetry collection beckoned at the faith of those living under the colonial regime who had been crawling forward in the darkness and believed that they could one day see the light that slit up the darkness. The team led by Huang Pang-Chuan and Lin Chunni invites the audience to develop historical images with their own hands and turn silver particles into memory landscapes of the Taiwan Cultural Association.
For the documentary, Kam Lōo Tsui (Water of Immortality), the directors use 16mm film to microscopically observe the marble texture and trace the history of the sculpture - from Huang Tu-shui’s hammering the work into shape, to the honor of being selected into the Teiten, to being cast aside and eventually taken in by a member of the gentry class who had his family guard the work throughout the years, to its returning to glory after conservators finally clean up years of dust and dirt. As the camera fares through the river of time, the documentary reveals how Water of Immortality has mirrored the centennial fate of Taiwan as well as Taiwanese people’s quest of art and its historical trajectory.
The Taiwan Cultural Association had actively used cultural dramas and appropriated non-local scripts incorporated with educated youths’ criticisms of and reflection on the feudal patriarchal system and class oppression while expressing their views and pursuits of personal liberation and free love. For this exhibition, the Our Theatre troupe pays homage to the modern theater pioneers with the theatrical play, Those from Association B. While performing the script, they will also reveal the fierce argument, reconciliation, split and progression behind the stage of theater troupes at the time.
The Taiwan Cultural Association had actively called people to take part in cultural activities, hoping to enlighten the public and foster their self-awakening. One century later, contemporary artists now use their works to guide the audience to experience the power in culture through actual participation.
