Perforation City

DURATION: 2020-05-23 ~ 2020-08-09
OPENING: 2020-05-22
VENUE: MOCA, Taipei

Curator Hai-Ming Huang Co-curator Anita Hsiang-Ning Huang Perforated City: Curatorial Concept I. Disrupted Relations in Vertical Villages Approximately one year ago, MOCA Taipei invited me to curate an exhibition themed on space. I immediately thought of the four- or five-story apartment buildings that are rather outmoded and have no elevators, which bring the dynamic relations among time, space, architecture and people into an integrated whole. At first, the concept starts from the communal villages of walkup apartments, but the spectrum soon grows to include first old-street villages with one- and two-story buildings, then modern walkup apartments that are four to five stories, and eventually villages in contemporary apartments that are taller and larger. The traffic infrastructure in these villages also expand from small alleys and fire lanes to two-lane streets or even wider roads. Lower height of the architecture signals a closer distance between people as well as higher penetrability and intercommunicability. Four- and five-story walkup apartments, especially those with hallways on floors above the ground floor, mark the limit below which the aforesaid qualities can still be maintained. The villages of more advanced apartment buildings with elevators, on the other hand, see a dramatic decrease of penetrability and intercommunicability. When there are wider, larger roads and more, faster traffic going through the villages, these qualities are also affected. II. Implications of Perforation in Perforated City As the floor area and height of a building grow, the village grows even more enclosed and isolated, and it becomes more unlikely for the residents to interact with each other directly, let alone establish relationships. In addition, following the inevitable life cycle of architecture as well as the marginalization and consequent decline of an area, the living networks and relationships in these buildings have often withered prematurely long before they could flourish and before these concrete villages really turn into disserted ruins. This is the first implication of “perforation” that is most easily detected and examined in a “perforated city.” Secondly, “perforation” can be understood in a more positive way. Eric Chen’s gigantic, porous bamboo-scaffolding installation, Section Assembly Island, enables the audience to imagine and reflect on the wide spectrum of relationships between individuals and families that are essentially isolated within all these apartment villages, as well as their relationship with the external environment. The third aspect is the thinking about the infiltrating negative factors: the solid layers of concrete walls can naturally form separation, but they are not able to keep various problems away – aging, disabilities, solitude, diseases, epidemics, true or fake messages, fashion, inaccurate ideas and policies, vital interest in relation to the neighbors, and/or disasters and crises from faraway places that affect the whole globe – and stop them from penetrating the walls and exert their influences. The fourth aspect is about the myriad of forms to generate interdependence and interconnectability amidst separation enforced by countless walls due to urbanization. III. Creative Thinking of Groups of Artists in the Exhibition 1. Taoist temples and Incarnation that penetrate and intervene in the entire society: Yao Jui Chung / Incarnation Yan Chung-Hsien / Hell 2. Parallel movement disconnected from the city and even from the self: Deng Yau-Horng / Shadow of a Cocoon, Remainder and Green HSU, HUI-CHING / Border Roaming Huang Yen-Chao / Food Winger Chu ChunTeng / August 15th 3. Old apartment villages in the city and connections with art communities in these villages: Chen Po-I / Yin Yang Huajiang- Wandering Scenes of the Collective Housing Yu-Hao Hung / Wanderland Teng Wen Hsin / Murmur and Whisper Yi-Che, Chen / Stargazing : 2014-2020 4. Myths of the underworld, tribes and nations and parallel worlds of immigrants: Tang Tagn-Fa + FIDATI (PINDY WINDY) / Indonesian Grocery Store in Taiwan ZHANG XU zhan / Si So Mi LIN, Yi-Chi / Running Stitch - Bangkok Kuo Yu-Ping / There Is a Light That Enters Houses With No Other House In Sight 5. The natural urban world penetrated, distorted and altered by rapid technological advancement: KUO I-Chen / That’s One Small Step for Mankind, One Giant Leap for Species WU Yi-Hua / Inside-out D-scène 6. The project of perforated artist villages and its site-specific discussion, assemblage and production: Eric Chen / Section Assembly Island