THE EMPTY CITY
JUNE 24–JULY 3, 2011
OPENING: FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 7PM-12AM

"THE EMPTY CITY" curated by Chaong-Wen Ting(TW). The exhibition will open on June 24 and will be on view until July 3. The opening reception scheduled for Friday, June 24 at 8pm and will include a live concert by sound artist Yu-Jun Wang(TW) and Hui-Chen Lin(TW) & Max Loeb(CO), beginning at 9.00 pm.

The Empty City, No One's Left
Cities are the result of humanity, they seem to be half organic, continuously growing over time. The significance of the city extends from the center to the edge. The edge then becomes the center, forming a new edge. Due to its intricate structure, the history of a city is constantly in transition. However, like an organism, cities also age, die, and are reborn. Because of the rapid rate of change, there is not enough time for the organism to create a new shell. Once a city has become a ghost town, it also becomes a statement on contemporary human landscape. Perhaps the landscape was influenced by migrations, whether natural or because of war. These spatial transfigurations, both surreal and metaphysical, provide distinctive perspectives on culture.

The exhibition "The Empty City" reflects the artist's concern for urban life - its interpretation and reflection - by viewing the city through a series of metaphors from the summer solstice. The exhibition are brings together of "March 14, Hong Kong Coliseum" by Chia-Wei Hsu(TW),"Exploding Taiwan" by Cheng-Ta Yu(TW), "From here to Somewhere" by Yi-Chen Chang(TW), "The ghost without returns" by Pei-Shan Wu(TW) and "The Empty City" by Yu-Jun Wang(TW).


"March 14, Hong Kong Coliseum" by Chia-Wei Hsu.
Narrated by Chinese Malaysian singer Fish Leong, the project "March 14, Hong Kong Coliseum" follows her tour through different cities in Asia, including Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Malaysia, Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, and Chengdu. Shooting the tour involved a lot of time spent traveling. The traveling and shooting did not create a self- evident world of images or events. Instead, it resulted in the discovery of extraordinary locations. By focusing on a time or location unknown to the public, I am introducing it to them. And although the time and the spaces are real, the video slightly distorts reality, and the moments themselves become myths or legends.

"Exploding Taiwan" by Cheng-Ta Yu.
Yu's video works create fissures that generate disparate meanings, attempting to address the imagined relationship between the narrating Subject and the narrated Other. The subtle fractures existing within cultures, languages or identities are in fact pointing to differences among individuals. However, Yu does not aim at emphasizing cultural conflicts and contradictions, rather he employs humor as a means to make connections and/or create accidents. He participated in the Taipei Biennial in 2008 and was included in exhibitions in Linz, Austria, Vilnius, Lithuania, and the Venice Biennale in 2009.
Present in this exhibition, Yu Cheng-ta creates through the video work Exploding Taiwan a "miniaturized media." In every tent within exhibition a video is secretly played, each one with an anonymous interviewee describing in detail the first hand information they have obtained. There are discrepancies in the story of each person, explained perhaps by the confidentiality of the information itself. However, they all point to a common fictitious scenario: Taiwan's head of state is getting prepared to blow up the entire island, and plans to invite world renowned demolition artist for assistance. The event would be broadcasted live globally, in order for the world to see this historical moment of madness. In the two years during which the project had been planting explosives across the nation, those who knew had sought asylum in other nations. On the day the island sinks and disappears, the Taiwanese people would be scattered across the nations of the world. The work imitates the "repeat what others are saying" game of the media, allowing the public to experience the possibility of Taiwan as an object of fantasy.

"From here to Somewhere" by Yi-Chen Chang.
Born in 1979, photographer. Unique rough grainy, fuzzy and uncertain images revealed a faint but deep feeling, a distance both intimate and has some memories of watching can not help staring at the same time into a unique blend in among the works, Not consciously pull the frequency of slow watch the reading, now living in Taipei, Taiwan.

"The ghost without returns" by Pei-Shan Wu.
In the days of mourning, most people feel curious and confused about the rumor of "the Seventh Day," which suggests that the spirit of the deceased will return after seven days of death. This is also concerned with one?s relation to home--one?s permanent dwelling of spirit. But, the question is, how can we visualized and even embody the soul, which is absolutely abstract. This sort of symbolic sign is daily practiced already. When the night reigns, the dog in the neighbourhood will bark, and the relatives who gather in the mourning place begin to look at one another, anticipating the possibility of the spirit?s return. Some may, as the traditional ritual practice suggests, spray the lime outside of the house, anticipating that there lime on the ground will reveal the return of the spirit. The disquiet air in the sound and space inwardly corresponds to the complicated mental diagram of one?s heart. Some spirits can?t return, as the rumours go, because of their resentment, regrets or helplessness. They wander in the mortal?s world, and still attempt to search for their route of home. This explanation has already presumed the existence of "home," which is already a concrete concept. A spirit who can?t return home and it wanders in the place which doesn?t belong to it; the apparition of the spirit arrives, invites, and gives promises.

Sound artist Wang Yujun take the anthology Borderland?s Dawn (published by fembooks publishing house) as their theme to generate poetry sound and further recreations. The subject contains border thinking, gender crossing, dreams and daily life. They attempt to go beyond the genre of artistic works and explore the experimental aesthetics of poetry and sound, allowing audiences to mesmerize in a poetic space and walk into the borderland of poetry sound.

Musician, Hui-Chun Lin born 1979 in Taiwan, Classical piano and cello education, Studied with Professor Peter Bruns at Dresden
Conservatory, Postgraduate studies in improvisation with Tilo Augsten
at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, Worked as solo cellist and ensemble musician, Improvisation, theatre music, contemporary music, dance, performance, classical music, world music and cello solo with live electronics, Participated in a workshop with "Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road, Ensemble" at Carnegie Hall in New York 09/2006, also
participated the workshop "Dave Douglas: Composition and
Improvisation in New York 02/2010", Leipziger Jazztage 2007 (jazz festival) with "Beat Freisens Spelunkenorchester" Lectureship for improvisation at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig 2006-2008, Conducted an improvisation class at a middle school in Tainan/Taiwan 2008/09, World music series "Passagen" of the Bayerischer Rundfunk with Mahoott 01/2010 ans also Free Improvisation Concert at Leipjazzig Festival 03/2010, Contemporary Music, Concert at Resonanzen Festival Leipzig 04/2010 and
"Codes" Festival of Traditional and Avant-garde Music in
Lublin (Poland) 05/2010, "Artist in Residence" in Cit¡Z des Arts Paris 07/2010-01/2011


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Organized by Chun-chi, Wang