Translated by: Ashley, Intern
Edited by: Zoe Wang and April, Intern
Protecting Ecological Systems and Creating Resilient Communities | Flow Art in Action - "Let’s Move! Let’s Go Back Home Together" Exhibition
Exhibition period: June 24, 2023 - October 24, 2023
Venue: Jianghu Open Studio's Permaculture Experimental Farm, Greenbird Forest, No. 1535, Zhongzheng Road, Taoyuan District, Interdependent Cultural Community
The opening ceremony of this year's Flow Art in Action festival took place on June 24th at 10:00 AM at Jianghu Open Studio's Pumen Experimental Farm. The festival showcases four art installations that invite people to reconnect with nature, protect the rural ecosystem, and create resilient communities together. At the same time, through these artworks, the festival aims to reflect how current urban planning processes lack public participation due to information asymmetry, which then negatively impacts the environment and local communities.
Curatorial Concept: "Let’s Move! Let’s Go Back Home Together", Return to Nature, Where You Feel Most at Ease
Li Jialun (李佳倫), the head curator of the Flow Art in Action festival, explained that this year's theme is "Let’s Move! Let’s Go Back Home Together" to evoke memories of a carefree childhood, the warm embrace of nature, and the place where you feel most at ease.
Li further explained that the curatorial team observed that many native Taoyuan residents, due to career and living circumstances, had to leave their familiar hometowns. Even after leaving home to create better opportunities for their families and hometowns, their hometowns remain a safe haven in the hearts of these wanderers. However, as Taoyuan serves as a satellite city supporting the development of Taipei and Hsinchu, the city itself is often overlooked. Whether continuously sending locals away to make a living elsewhere or constantly receiving incoming immigrants, the city lacks a distinct identity, making it difficult for its residents to connect with their place of residence, let alone establish roots. Based on this observation, the curatorial team mobilized various organizations, calling on the younger generation to return to their hometowns, rediscover the gift of nature, and protect the rural ecological system through diverse strategies. In aiming to create resilient communities together, the curatorial team hopes it will allow wanderers to reconnect with their childhood memories, use nature to remind viewers of their heritage, and provide a place for migrants and newcomers to rest and establish new roots amidst the rapid development of their cities.
Lee stated that this edition of Flow Art in Action features four art installations that incorporate the theme of "Let’s Move! Let’s Go Back Home Together”, recognize the problems that their hometowns are facing, and actively participate in discussions to envision a better future together.
Installation Art and Clay Sculpture 【Uprooting】
Created by two German artists, Jakob Wlodarczyk and Matthias Gebhardt, “Uprooting” an interaction an installation art and a clay sculpture, aims to convey their understanding of the urban planning for the development of the Taoyuan MRT Green Line in Taiwan. The artists seek to communicate the importance of environmental and cultural concerns that must not be erased in urban development, especially considering the potential chain reactions that might occur when the local environment is uprooted due to such projects.
Photo source: Watershed Action Art Festival Curator Team
The Creative Action of Intervention Through Performance Art: "Roaming the Flaming Battlefield at the Other End of Green Line." 【走盜綠捷彼端的遍地烽火】
Led by the art collective "Taoyuan Aerotropolis Ghost Town" (空城現場), which has been closely observing the development of Taoyuan Aerotropolis, this creative action involves artistic intervention. Artists Lin Yanxiang (林彦翔) and Wang Zhengxiang (王正祥) led participants to venture into the development area of the Taoyuan MRT Green Line's eastern stations, such as G14, G32, and G31. They visualized the potential future location of the Taoyuan MRT Green Line through the exhibition—located in a section yet to be acquired for development—serving as a simulation of the looming change. Participants become aware of the ever-changing landscapes as they are guided through it, collectively co-creating "objects with perception” with the aim of raising awareness about the ongoing, harmful transformation of the urban environment.
Photo source: Watershed Action Art Festival Curator Team
Illustration “Here” 【佇遮】
Esther, a local illustrator, portrays the beauty of the local scenery with a keen eye and free-spirited brushstrokes. It captures the essence of beautiful moments, akin to a collection of memories, silently yet powerfully expressing the splendor of the local environment. Esther believes that the rural countryside is a vital space within the city, where people, heritage sites, ponds, rustling bamboo groves, vast rice paddies, and vegetable gardens can all coexist harmoniously—where the environment and people are interdependent, forming a meaningful connection.
Photo source: Watershed Action Art Festival Curator Team
Participatory Art "Habitat" 【棲地】
This project is led by Li Yijie (李意婕), an artist who has long focused on human rights issues. Through viewer participation, she shapes a "Habitat" where plants and soil intertwine and flourish along the watershed. Even though these creations may face the risk of withering or being removed in the future, they continue to demonstrate the power of survival, nonviolent resistance, and the vibrancy of life. The piece will continue to thrive and evolve with the watershed, much like the people: "As long as the land remains, people will find ways to survive on it." This statement deeply moved Li Yijie during her field research, and it reflects the enduring spirit of the project.
Photo source: Watershed Action Art Festival Curator Team
Development Without Sacrificing Culture and Land Should Be Seen as a Possibility
Lin Yuede (林岳德), representing the Qing Dynasty Archeological Site Preservationists (搶救清代鐵道遺址群小組), explains that during the activity "Untold Stories of the MRT: A Glimpse into the Stories of G07 to G13A Stations," participants will bike along the Green Line from G07 station to Jianghu Open Studio. Each station's story will be explained: at G07, the destruction caused by moving Taoyuan Railway Station; at G08, the fading memories of the former No . 1 Taoyuan consumer market; at G09, expropriation issues; at G10 and G11, the soaring property prices. All of these are sacrifices that are often overlooked in the construction of the MRT. Even the site of the art festival, a vast area of farmland next to the urban cityscape, may disappear in the face of sectional expropriation. The price we will have to pay is much greater than what everyone imagined. Lin Yuede emphasizes that the shared hopes expressed through the Watershed Action Art Festival lie in a different vision of development – one that does not sacrifice culture and land but aims to preserve and respect cultural history while providing people with natural, healthy food and a place to rest in contact with the land. This vision of development should be recognized as a possibility.
Yu Yicha (余宜家), Deputy Secretary-General of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, points out that the surroundings of the Taoyuan Green Line MRT stations G12 to G13a are situated at the intersection of two densely populated urban areas. On one side is the high-density development of Taoyuan City, and on the other is the high-intensity development of the Aerotropolis. The Taoyuan City Government has long intended to develop the area around G12 to G13a through acquisition in order to create a high-intensity urban development zone. However, this one-sided approach to development ignores the basic needs of local residents. If the area is developed through zone land expropriation, it will not only deprive local residents of their land, put an end to local agriculture, and disrupt the existing geological pattern, but also eradicate important living and green spaces for nearby residents. When urban planning is top-down, driven solely by vague “economic interests”, it often does more harm than good to local communities in the long run. Only by allowing meaningful participation of local residents and jointly developing future blueprints from the bottom up can urban planning incorporate diverse values and create an urban life that is people-oriented and promotes coexistence and prosperity.
The Watershed Action Art Festival is organized jointly by local civic groups and human rights advocacy organizations in Taoyuan Eco Valley (生態戲谷), Yoshida Citizen Farm (吉田市民農園), Jianghu Open Studio (江湖開放工作室), Taoyuan Green MRT Farmland Guardians Alliance (綠捷農地守護聯盟), Taiwan Association for Human Rights (台灣人權促進會), and Qing Dynasty Archeological Site Preservationists (搶救清代鐵道遺址群小組)). Through artistic participation and offering, the festival aims to connect people with the land.
