One Gaze, One Night, One Moment — Marionette Exhibition｜Online Exhibition

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Introduction

Exhibition

One Gaze, One Night, One Moment — Marionette Exhibition

Curator

Puppetry Art Center of Taipei

Duration

2023-05-19 ~ 2023-11-26

Venue

Puppetry Art Center of Taipei

Address

2F No.99,Sec.5,Civic Blvd.,Songshan Dist.,Taipei

Curatorial Statement｜Walking Grass Agriculture May the gods grant us safety throughout all four seasons and prosperity during our eight festivals. As the old saying goes, "Good days are shared by all of us (kong-ke)." Today, how do we perceive the relationship between faith and time? On and off the stage, in and out of the show, during various life rituals and practices, how do today's viewers experience and perceive the time spent on rituals and performances? The first part of the Chinese exhibition title means "Three-Act till Dawn." It refers to the religious ritual and a three-act marionette show that runs from 11 pm until "thinn-kng" or dawn at 7 am. This term is commonly used by marionette operators. The second part of the title, "Day and Night", contrasts different moments of the day to mark the diverse ritual practices in the southern and northern parts of Taiwan, as well as the variations between shows originating from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in China. It also highlights the differences between rituals of celebration and purification, between live shows and documentaries, and between heritages and creativity. The exhibition showcases marionettes collected by the Puppetry Art Center of Taipei and displays artifacts passed down by the Fu Long Hsuan Troupe of Ilan for five generations, including historical photos, archives, documentaries, and contemporary art creations. The relation between marionettes and people has transformed them from mere material objects to a crucial part of people's lifelong faith and an aspect of Taiwanese culture that needs to be preserved and passed down. To this end, the exhibition is divided into several sections, including "Rituals: The Transitional Area between People and Nature," "Quanzhou Marionettes," "Zhangzhou Marionettes," and "Scripts and Characters." The exhibition also features a video clip of Quanzhou puppet master Huang Yi-Que (1928-2007) performing on a 1993 Taiwan Television's show, as well as footage from the documentary Yilan Puppetry, directed by Taiwanese documentary director Lin Ying-Tso, which was filmed over six years from 2004. These showcases aim to illustrate how marionette performance looks in a modern-day context. In addition, Walking Grass Agriculture's video installation, Badlands and Marionettes, created with Chin Fei Feng Marionette Theatre Troupe, is on display. Filmed at Moon World, the artist group hopes that by representing traditional rituals, marionette culture in Taiwan's context can be known by more people in modern days and passed down to future generations.

About Curation

more description

Curator

Puppetry Art Center of Taipei

Organizing Institutions: Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government Taipei Culture Foundation Puppetry Art Center of Taipei was born from a passion for the art of puppetry. In 1998, Lin Ching-fu, chairman of the Taiyuan Arts and Culture Foundation, donated his personal collection of puppets, which he had gathered over several decades, to the Taipei City Government, in the hope of establishing a venue where these puppets could be preserved and exhibited in perpetuity. On August 7, 2004, the brand new Puppetry Art Center of Taipei, dedicated exclusively to the display, performance, teaching, and collection of puppets and puppetry, was opened next to the CPCity Living Mall, the biggest shopping mall in East Asia. The Puppetry Art Center of Taipei combines contemporary, topic based innovative development with rich cultural deposits of a traditional classical foundation, featuring both classical and epochal sentiments. Taiwan's unique puppetry aesthetics are combined with life in various aspects through performances, exhibitions, art education, international communication, interlibrary cooperation and community creation etc, while gradually branching out, allowing the story, literature, music, visual art, language, and culture of Taiwan to become more familiar to new generations through puppetry, thereby making a connection to the world.

Curator

Guest Curator｜Walking Grass Agriculture

Agriculture/Art; Agriculture-Art; Agronomy; Agriculture | Art. There are various possibilities between agriculture and art. Walking Grass Agriculture started in 2014 as a team focuses on visual art, design and curation. The main members are Han-Sheng CHEN and Hsing-You LIU, specialised in new media art and art history. Emphasise in resident experience and observation, full of interest in learning folk arts and its migration and generation. Their research combines the topography, modernology and material culture, moulding the farming experience into their own artistic methods. In recent years, they concern about the ecological environment, urban changes and gender issu.

Artist

CHIN FEI FENG Marionette Theatre Troupe

CHIN FEI FENG Marionette Theater Troupe founded by Xue Pu (1860-1915), commonly known as "Master Pu," originated from his apprenticeship under the renowned Chinese puppetry master "Cai Yin" in Quanzhou, China. Initially focused on performing glove puppetry, with puppetry as a supplementary element, the troupe has evolved over time.Today, it is led by the third generation, Xue Yingyuan, who is dedicated to innovating and preserving the art of puppetry. Simultaneously, they actively engage in promoting puppetry in school education, contributing tirelessly to the continuation and dissemination of this traditional art form. During the same period, puppetry troupes such as Tainan Shuang Fei Feng and Kaohsiung Qieding Jin Fu Xuan (renamed Xin Jin Fu by Liang Baoquan in the 67th year of the Republic of China) also flourished in the southern region.

Artist

Fu Lung Hsuen Troupe

Fu Lung Hsuen Troupe was founded by Hsu Yuanshui (1860-1915). He is also known as “Hsu Ahshui" or "Jialishui". He is the earliest known puppet show performer in the Yilan area. As a cgile, the saw a Chinese puppet troupe perform, and decided to become a pupil of puppet shows and traveled to China for training. After returning to Taiwan, he founded a puppet troupe under the name of Fu Lung Hsuen. The group moved from New Taipei to Yilan and was passed down to his sons Hsu Tianlai (1907-1977) and Hsu Kunyan (1911-1968).), currently hosted by the fifth generation Hsu Wen Han. In the same period, other puppet theater troupes such as Hsin Fu Hsuen and Xie Fu Hsuen were also perfroming in the Yi Lan area.