2025 TAF: Cruising: Traveling Tongues

How does the word “food” ring a bell?

Between soggy instant noodles during struggling college days and the ant-scattered entrée at the Noma Tokyo pop-up, Food is the cornerstone of our daily life—after all, we are what we eat.

Cruising: Travelling Tongues was first conceived during the Cruising initiative, a residency research program launched by the Taipei Arts Festival in 2023 and now entering its second year. This year, we invited the curatoria team from Kyoto Experiment as guest curators. The project brought together Taiwanese theater director Ming-Chen Lee, Taiwanese-Japanese writer Yuju Wen, Japanese theater artist Jang-Chi, and Filipino performer and dramaturg Ness Roque. Together, they embarked on a collaborative exploration with food as their central theme—investigating how it embodies national and regional identities, and how culinary traditions are shaped, translated, and hybridized across cultural contexts.
 

In their research, the artists uncovered astonishing versatilities in similar ingredients: the textures and memories evoked by cocoa differed wildly from Japan to the Philippines. As Roque observes, chocolate holds a unique gustatory memory that is inapplicable to notes of sweetness or luxury, yet Wen sees it as a symbol of freshness and delight, so much that even hearing “Chokoreito” incites the flight of butterflies in her stomach.

//The chefs are ready. You are summoned to the feast. Here’s to help you digest what lies ahead//

Imported Origins: From Kyoto’s Experimental Grounds to Taipei’s Dining Tables

The journey began with a cross-border research initiative launched in 2024 by Kyoto Experiment (KEX), a renowned platform for experimental performance in Japan. Celebrated for its commitment to pushing artistic boundaries and fostering social discourse, KEX views the arts festival as a space for collective reflection, placing value on works-in-progress and emergent ideas. This ethos became a foundational influence on Travelling Tongues.

Initially, participating artists from distinct cultural and disciplinary backgrounds first met Taiwanese audiences through research presentations held during the Taipei Arts Festival’s “Cruising” initiative in 2024. What began as brief encounters soon expanded into deeper fieldwork and dialogue across Kyoto and Taipei. These exchanges sparked unexpected synergies, unfolding themes of historical entanglement, migratory flows, global trade networks, and the subtle currents of power embedded within them.

Flavor Profile: Food as a Moving Vessel of Identity and History｜

Who are we? Where do we come from?

By tracing the origins of food, Cruising Travelling Tongues frames cuisine as a powerful vessel—one that resists fixed and flattened notions of identity. The act of digging into the layered origins of something as iconic as sushi can trigger unexpected moments of ancestral recognition.

Artist Ness Roque recalls her encounter with funazushi in Japan—a fermented carp dish that awakened memories of buro, a fermented rice-and-fish delicacy from her native Philippines. Though the flavors diverge, the preservation techniques share uncanny resonances. In performance, she brings these connections alive through a playful concoction: chocolate porridge, condensed milk, and salted fish. Meanwhile, director Ming-Chen Lee revisits his breakfast table—a tender scene from childhood filled with the warmth of his mother and the taste of alfalfa sprouts. 

Distinctive Taste: Interdisciplinary Encounters and Multisensory Experiences｜

At the heart of Travelling Tongues lies KEX’s expansive vision—one rooted in experimentation, dialogue, and transnational exchange. The project convenes a richly diverse group of core artists: Taiwanese theater director Ming-Chen Lee, known for his collective improvisations and immersive visual worlds; Japanese director Jang-Chi, whose work blends visual art, sociology, and folklore with a distinctive mix of humor and provocation; Filipino performer and artist Ness Roque, whose practice draws from interdisciplinary, feminist, and decolonial frameworks; and Taiwanese-Japanese writer Yuju Wen, whose literary investigations of cross-linguistic identity often center on food as a narrative and emotional signifier.

Kyoto Experiment 

Kyoto Experiment is a performing arts festival held in Kyoto since 2010. Dedicated to producing and presenting experimental performing arts - both from Japan and overseas - the festival aims to explore and create new dialogues and values in society. Featuring experimental works that move freely between genres such as theatre, dance, music and fine art, the festival hopes to open up new possibilities through the creations, experiences, and ideas that emerge from such a diverse combination.
 

The Japan Foundation

The Japan Foundation (JF) is Japan’s only Institution dedicated to carrying out comprehensive international cultural exchange programs throughout the world.  As part of the program, “International Creations in Performing Arts,” JF co-organizes “Cruising: Traveling Tongues” with Kyoto Experiment and Taipei Performing Arts Center.