Introduction of the Exhibition
To mark its opening, the New Taipei City Art Museum has commissioned a site-specific work for the grey box space of Gallery 4A, focusing on new media experimentation and encouraging inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration in contemporary visual culture. The inaugural exhibition features a collaboration between Xindian Boys (a New Taipei City art group comprising Tsong Pu, Su Hui-yu, Wu Tung-lung, and the late Chen Shun-chu) and the young art collective XTRUX, who present Project No. 5, titled Don’t Worry, Baby, utilizing algorithm and game engine technology.
As a cross-disciplinary art group, Xindian Boys prioritize the tacit understanding of everyday life as the foundation of their work. Their fifth work, “Don’t Worry, Baby”, incorporates the artists’ long-term experience and observations of living in the Xindian suburbs, employing a location-based exploration of the Xindian River basin as its point of departure. For these artists, life is the wellspring of creative inspiration; the rushing river a reflection of life, existence, and physical form. Building upon their previous four works, the exhibition combines a game engine, immersive projection, and traditional media to construct a life landscape between reality and fiction, guiding the viewer into the artists’ years-long exploration of the river basin.
Just as the title “Don’t Worry, Baby” evokes in its tone and imagery, art—even amidst a turbulent and ever-changing global landscape—serves as a declaration and sharing of life, existence, and one’s approach to the world. Here, “Don’t Worry, Baby” reveals a dual meaning: art as a sanctuary for healing and escape, where viewers are free to unwind, lose themselves, and transcend space and time. Art, however, also reflects the era’s challenges under technological progress. With prolonged gazing, the unreality of the scene and the instability of the image may provoke such self-inquiry: Are the world and I truly real?