"New Taipei and Beyond” started in 2021, as a research project prior to the official opening of the New Taipei City Art Museum (NTCAM). In the first year, it focused on reviewing the art history of New Taipei City. In 2022, the project began to examine the interaction between the development of art and culture in New Taipei City and its local life, natural scenery, industries and economies. This year, "New Taipei and Beyond 2023 – Polyphony City" will once again take the public on a tour of the different districts and cultural landscapes of New Taipei City, offering different forms of experience of the "multicentric", "polyphonic and heterogeneous" arts and cultural development unique to the vast city.
This year, the concept of "Polyphony City" is woven together with the dimensions of time and space, with six different kinds of public activities planned to explore the connections between different regional cultures, industries and arts. These include a revisiting of the 1950s coal mining industry and its support system for the production of film and art. Myanmar Street in Zhonghe, formed in the 1960s will be introduced through a workshop, led by a group of second-generation immigrants from the area and a team of video creators using the flavors of food from South East Asia to interact with the public. There will be a talk regarding the traditional paper industry, which began in the 1970s, with displays of new forms of art books made with contemporary artists after the transformation of the industry. Another event will be a talk with an open studio tour, focusing on how the experience of living in an industrial area in the 1980s influenced the artists’ practice, and how the art foundation based in the area worked with artists through artists-in-residence. A walking tour with foraging and tea-making will also be conducted, introducing how Plum Tree Creek in Tamsui reunited the residents and the creators after the 1990s, and the ecological struggle between the native and foreign elements they encountered. Finally, a talk with a screening will be held to ask the question of what kind of urban landscapes and cultural imagination of living will be brought by NTCAM located on the reclaimed land of the riverbank.
This series of events invites artists and researchers from different professional backgrounds to engage in cross-disciplinary dialogues through talks, screenings, displays, workshops, and walking tours, inviting the public to experience and understand the polyphonic art and cultural ecology of New Taipei City through a polyphonic path.
[Banqiao] Coal, Paintbrush and Film: The Support towards Film Studios and Painting in the Era of Mining Industry
Buried in Taiwan's history and mountains, the glory of the mining industry supported the development of paintings and Taiwanese films from the 1950s to the 1960s. From the painters of Ruifang Mine, such as Ni Chiang Huai and Hung Jui-Lin, to Hushan Studio in Yingge, run by Lin Tuan-Chiu, a descendant of the operator of Dabao Mine, all of whom were concerned with the cultural and artistic development of Taiwan. In the 1970s, what were the different controls put on high-end art and popular culture? At this event, researchers who have studied the history of fine art in Taiwan and the development of Taiwanese films will discuss the interactions between industrial and cultural histories in the era.
Speakers: Bai Xue Lan (Taiwanese Art History Researcher), Su Chih Heng (Taiwan's Post-war History Researcher)
Date and Time: Sunday, 30th April, 13:30-15:30
Location: Fuzhong 15, B1 Cinema (B1, No.15, Fuzhong Rd., Banqiao Dist., New Taipei City, close to MRT Fuzhong Station)
*Indoor talk
[Xindian] A Graphic Theatre Born in a Paper Mill - A New Synthesis of Contemporary Art and Traditional Paper Industry
Taiwan has the highest demand for printing and paper in Asia, with New Taipei City being the most important location for paper products. Facing the transformation, today’s operators of paper mills work with designers and artists to create books as artworks, and to inspire each other to curate interdisciplinary exhibitions, developing more and more exquisite textures and forms for works carried on flat paper. In this presentation, a paper mill owner who is also a supporter of art, together with an artist who is also a designer, will discuss and demonstrate the magic of putting paper and art together.
Speakers: Lin Guan-Ming (Artist and Designer), Wayne Cheng (Chairman of Auspic Paper)
Date and Time: Saturday, 6th May, 14:00-16:00
Location: Auspic Paper (1F, No. 9, Ln. 130, Minquan Rd., Xindian Dist., New Taipei City, close to MRT Dapinglin Station)
*Indoor talk with an exhibition of physical art books
[Xizhi] Contemporary Art Made in Industrial Areas - A Borderland of Modernity that Nourishes Creativity
The iron nails picked up and boxed up, the cement blocks crushed by mixers, the industrial area pushed to the edge of the city during the urbanization process, the daily waste falling from the mechanized production line and left behind, like a dream, they were woven into the medium and the design of the artist's works. In this talk, artists and researchers living and working in industrial areas are invited to retrace the development of the industrial zone in New Taipei City, as well as the connection and observation between the surrounding environment and their own practices, in an alternative art space transformed from a factory in Xizhi. The talk will be followed by an open studio tour of Yonghe Art Factory.
Speakers: Lee Yung-Chih (Artist), Mia Liu (Artist), Yu-Chih Hsiao (Artist and Researcher of Architecture)
Date and Time: Sunday, 7th May, 14:00-17:00
Location: Yonghe Art Factory (No. 386, Fude 1st Rd., Xizhi Dist., New Taipei City)
*Indoor talk with an open studio tour
[Tamsui] Brewing a Pot of Eco-tea at Plum Tree Creek – Foraging, Walking and Learning of Native and Foreign Species
Cementation has transformed the river while native and foreign species compete with each other in the forest. In the age of Anthropocene, what kind of ecosystem has been left in the middle and upper reaches of the river after the environmental art action at Plum Tree Creek ten years ago? How did it encourage the local residents to stay, and to cultivate and protect their home? How do the artists invite us to look back at our surroundings through contemporary foraging? In this walking tour, two groups of artists will take the audience through the ecological changes in the middle and upper reaches of Plum Tree Creek in Zhuwei, collecting the weeds and plants on the way, and making a pot of eco tea together.
Tour Guides: Mali Wu (Artist and Curator), Weed Day (Contemporary Foraging Art Collective)
Date and Time: Saturday, 13th May, 13:30-16:30
Meeting Point: Miao Jue Temple (No. 6-2, Shumeikeng, Tamsui Dist., New Taipei City)
*Ecological walking tour with foraging and sharing
[Zhonghe] Body, Land, Diaspora and (Re-)Localization – Making A Bowl of Mixed Salad with Ingredients from South East Asia
The intergenerational and transnational movement of migrants continues over time, telling the stories of not only the experience of separation, but the re-identification of the other and the self. Since its formation in the 1960s, Myanmar Street has become a slice of Burmese and Southeast Asian culture. More than half a century later, transnational migrants from all over the world have come to Taiwan, including 700,000 migrant workers from Southeast Asia. These migrants and their descendants have transformed the (exotic) ingredients and the (non-)everyday life into a new form of heritage. This workshop will be led by a team of video creators and a local cultural worker, using food and video as a guide to the multiple voices of geographical dimensions and life experiences.
Workshop Facilitators: Your Bros. Filmmaking Group, Lily Yang (Co-founder of Mingalarpar Culture Studio)
Date and Time: Saturday, 20th May, 14:00-16:00
Location: Learning Market (5F., No. 111, Sec. 1, Xingnan Rd., Zhonghe Dist., New Taipei City, close to MRT Nanshijiao Station)
*Food workshop with a screening
[Yingge] Building a Foundation of Artistic Living from the Edge - Habitat and Cultural Landscapes of the Floodplain in Sanxia and Yingge
When we trace the history of our land, when we discuss art and culture, we are in fact talking about ourselves. NTCAM is located on a piece of reclaimed land as a result of the movement of the soil created by the ceramic waste and urban public construction. The riverbank opposite was once home to the indigenous people from the Sanying Tribe who lived in the city, as a memorial of the urban inclusivity. In this session, we will look at the memories of urban demolition through the lens of a filmmaker and dig into the soil at the edge of the reclaimed land as well as the riverbank, to understand the changing landscapes of the city through the sharing from the filmmaker and the researcher. If living in a city is a choice, how do we build our community?
Speakers: Singing Chen (Filmmaker), Huang Jui Mao (Researcher of Urban Planning)
Date and Time: Saturday, 27th May, 14:00-16:00
Location: New Taipei City Art Museum - Creative Cluster C3 (No. 300, Guanqian Road, Yingge District, New Taipei City, close to TRA Yingge Station)
*Indoor talk with a screening