Artist lab

Watering Intimacy

Continuing the theme of Landing proposed in the 2022 ADAM Artist Lab, it uses land acknowledgment as a research method and action to re-understand embodied knowledge and history that transcends words and labels invisibly through contact with the land. The 2023 ADAM Artist Lab will continue with the spirit of Landing and further explore the connection between body intimacy with nature and queer ecology, focusing on watershed and non-human queer perspectives to re-discuss our relationship and perception with nature:

Once, in the drizzling mountain forest
I accidentally touched a tree
My hands started to feel itchy
The Elder walked up to me slowly and told me
You&l have to exchange your name with this tree to stop the itch
Then I said to the tree, "I am the lacquer tree, and the lacquer tree is Ciwas."
It turns out that the tree and I share the intimacy of skin.

Forest after rain
Once there was a stone road that said to me they were a river
Then they followed the sky, which connected to the sea
When they touched the sea
They can know every river and every mountain in this world
Now they can only wait, waiting for the return of travellers from afar
Sing them the song of the world and take their songs to the world

Date/Time: 24 August 2023 (Thur.) 14:00-18:00
Venue: 11F Stusio 1&3, Taipei Performing Arts Center
Language: In English.
Sign up: Online registration , admission by ticket.

Guest Curator

Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos)

Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos) is a visual artist of Taiwanese Indigenous Atayal and Hō-ló descent based in Taipei, Taiwan. Following a Bachelor of Fine Art in Visual Art at Simon Fraser University (Canada), Lin is currently undertaking a Master of Fine Art in New Media Art at the Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). Through her practice and interest in language, identity, gender, and the environment, Lin seeks out new forms of understanding beyond the hetero-patriarchal status quo, using video, performance, cyberspace, and sound.

Recent projects include a solo exhibition mgluw tuqiy na Temahahoi at Artscape Aotearoa (Aotearoa New Zealand, 2022), Pswagi Temahahoi as part of the Wagiwagi Project in Documenta 15 (Indonesia and Germany, 2022), Perhaps She Comes From/To__Alang in Phantasmapolis Asian Art Biennale, 2021 (Taiwan). Lin participated in the Creative Exchange Lab artist residency hosted by Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (USA) and the 1st Taiwan International Austronesian Art Triennial (Taiwan) in 2023.

Anchi Lin: www.anchilin.ca/

Photo by Chen You-Wei

Chen Chen

Chen Chen is a creator and facilitator who blends nature, art, and spirituality. She has been trained by the drumming group U-Theatre since childhood and also received training from Jerzy Grotowski's center. “What is a true performer?” is a question she continually asks herself. With her body and mind as the hall, she keeps exploring the answer.

In recent years, she has immersed herself in learning from nature. This coincides with the core of her pursuit in the performing arts. For her, theater can happen anywhere. She runs and trains in the forest at night, dances between rain and streams, and sings under the campfire and moon. She performs with amateurs, women, indigenous, and children, exploring the original and possibilities of “being human”.

While tracing back to the origins, Chen Chen realizes that the oldest and most genuine performers are the “shamans” who communicate among universe, earth, and people. Through conducting authentic rituals in the mountains and streets, she touches upon the answer to herself as a performer: a shaman clears oneself and welcomes the wisdom of heaven and earth, just as a performer serves as a channel to sincerely present their life stories. Through the process of performing to the public, experiences, wisdom, life force, and creativity are passed on.

“Remember to remember.” She has conducted authentic rituals in the forests and streets, passing on forgotten wisdom and exploring the original and potential meaning of being human.

Photo by Shimon Bokshtein