Taipei Arts Festival - Community Services Center

artsTaipei Arts Festival 2011:Partying with PhilosophersThe centennial year of the ROC sees a feast for the senses and the mind at theannual festival for performing and visual artstext: Sunita Sue LongimageS: CourteSy of the tina Keng gaLLery (tKg) in neihu, taipeiCan an arts festival be cerebral and fun at thesame time? Do philosophy and partying gohand in hand? Well, that’s exactly what theannual Taipei Arts Festival aims to achieve thisyear, which is the 100th year of the Republic of China.In a salute to the centennial, the festival organizers haveassembled performances to stimulate critical thoughtwhile feeding the senses, such as a multimedia exhibitionby American choreographer William Forsythe, alsoknown as the “philosopher of dance.”There are also more free events this year, such as thepyrotechnic street performances by the colorful XarxaTeatre of Spain on the closing nights. The festival, nowin its 12th year, runs from July 28 through to September4. Compared to previous years, the line-up this year issmaller, and performances will be at more compact venuesso as to create a more intimate and interesting urbantheatrical experience for Taipei residents, says VictoriaWang, executive director of the Festival. “It’s very rarein Taipei to have performances with about three hundredseats and to be close to the stage and performers,” shesays. Most of this year’s festival events will take place atspecially retrofitted warehouses at the Song-Yan CulturalPark in the Songshan district.The festival opens with a play called “Ritter, Dene,Voss”, a dark comedy penned by Austrian playwrightThomas Bernhard. This non-mainstream stageperformance has won critical acclaim for its unusual andprovocative style of dialogue. The story centers on thefraught relationship between two sisters and their geniusbrother, whose character is based loosely on the Austrianphilosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.Directing the stage actors from the Narodowy StaryTeatr (or National Old Theatre) of Poland, one of thecountry’s oldest professional theater companies, isKrystian Lupa. The Polish director studied physicsat university but turned to theater and since his debutin 1976, has gained a reputation for productions thatstand out for their psychological complexity, stylisticinnovation, and humanity.The Dreamy FallacyThe musical The Dreamy Fallacy celebrates thesongs of Taiwanese musician Tai-Hsiang LeePhoto: Taipei Arts Festival8 Summer 2011 www.communitycenter.org.tw

XarxaXarxa Teatre’s El Foc del Mar is based onthe Valencian parade of Las FallasPhoto: Xarxa TeatreSynchronous ObjectsSynchronous Objects takes a scientific, multi-media approachtowards explaining what goes on in a choreographer’s mindPhoto: Synchronous Objects ProjectThe centerpiece of the Festival, meanwhile, is a seriesof choreographic objects and films by William Forsytheand the Forsythe Company. Festival director Wang,who met Forsythe in Frankfurt, describes the avantgardedance choreographer as “very intellectual andvery charming” and someone who “likes to express histhoughts in his works”.Forsythe is bringing his well-received exhibitionSynchronous Objects to the Taipei Arts Festival.Originally produced together with The Ohio StateUniversity's Advanced Computing Center for the Artsand Design, Synchronous Objects takes a multimedia,almost scientific approach towards translating what’sinside the choreographer’s mind. Besides the films andchoreographic objects, there will be an installationcalled the City of Abstract where audiences can becomechoreographers by interacting with cameras andprojectors. Wang expects this to be especially popularwith visitors.This year’s festival should also resonate with manylocals as the life and works of two Taiwanese artisteswill be celebrated. Wang and her team have chosenHung Tung, a self-taught painter, and Tai-Hsiang Lee, am u s i c i a n w h o h a sbeen dubbed the kingof Taiwan’s musicbusiness during the1970s a n d 1980s.Hung Tung was anilliterate laborer inTainan who, at theWilliam Forsythe is widely known as the“philosopher of dance”Photo: Dominik Mentzosage of 50, began to paint. His unique style – noted for itsbright colors, repetitive patterns and powerful originality– caught on in the 1980s, bringing him fame and respectboth in Taiwan and outside these shores.However, with his passing twenty years ago, Hung Tungis today no longer a name Taiwan’s younger generation isfamiliar with, says Wang. She hopes that “Who’s HungTung?” - a performance using puppets by the Puppet andits Double, a modern theater company founded in 1999 -will reignite interest in his remarkable body of work.The second event honoring a local artiste is “DreamyWrongness.” This musical turns the spotlight onto thesongs and poems of Tai-Hsiang Lee, a classically trainedmusician and one-time orchestra conductor. Now seventyyears old, Lee has won legions of fans in Taiwan for hiswww.communitycenter.org.tw Summer 20119

Foc del MarXarxa Teatre from Spain will bring its own brand of fiery street theater to Taipei’s streetsPhoto: Henry Krulspirited love songs. “Dreamy Wrongness” will featurepopular singer Yu Qi and will be performed by QuantaTheater, which was formed in 2010 by the Quanta ArtsFoundation, a part of Quanta Computer Inc of Taiwan.A third production out of Taiwan is “Eastern Tale,”which creatively fuses modern dance and music withtraditional Chinese music. Instruments such as the erhu,guqin and pipa merge with contemporary electronicm u s i c a s d a n c e r s r e e n a c tthe story of Xiang Yu, oneof China’s greatest militarycommanders, and Yu Ji, hisbeloved concubine and one ofChina’s most beautiful women.B a c k t o p h i l o s o p h y,m o r e t h o u g h t-p r o v o k i n gperformances are on offerwith “ A n A n t h o l o g y o fOptimism.” C r e a t e d b yCanadian writer and maker ofeccentric performances, JacobWren, and Belgian writer andphilosopher Pieter De Buysser,this is a performance with adifference. There are no fancysets, says Wang, just cleverand humorous scripts. Anoptimist and a pessimist collideon stage to search for criticaloptimism. Critical optimism,as the playwrights see it, isan optimism that looks at theworld with open eyes. It asks,how do we find sources forgenuine optimism in our world,with its many horrors andconstant cruelty?To cap this year’s Festival,there is sheer fun and sensorystimulation from Spain. XarxaTeatre from Valencia hastaken its hometown’s famousTaipei Arts Festival Ticketing• Early Bird Special, from June 10th toJuly 11th, 25% off of all tickets, exceptfor the lowest price tickets of eachperformance. Performances of singleprice tickets are eligible for the 25% offdiscount.• Special Package entitles you to anearly bird discount with an additionalcoupon to win an HTC smartphone or alimited TAF designer poster!From June 10th to July 11th, anypurchase of 3 different TAF programsqualifies as a Special Package.The purchase will receive 25% offof all tickets and a coupon valid forweekly drawings of a chance to win anHTC smartphone or TAF poster. Thediscount does not apply to the lowestprice tickets. Weekly winners will beannounced on the TAF website.For details of all the ticketing service,please refer to www.taipeifestival.orgTo purchase tickets, please go to NTCHTicketing at www.artsticket.com.tw.For information, please call Festival Officeat (02)2528-9580#196parades and turned them into spectacular street theaterby throwing in music, fireworks and themes revolvingaround social and political issues. There will be twoninety-minute performances, one on September 3 and theother on the closing night of September 4. Both will be atthe Civic Square in front of Taipei City Hall.El Foc del Mar (Fire of the Sea) recreates the popularValencian celebration, Las Fallas, which is a grandparade of giant paper- mâchésculptures in praise of SaintJoseph. Pyrotechnics accompanytraditional Mediterranean musicwith visual references to theworks of artists Joan Mirò andAlexander Calder. Nit Màgica,meanwhile, is a floating,animated show in which firemoves through the street whereit is staged, encouraging activeaudience participation.This year’s array of creativespectacles from Wang and herteam connect both mind andheart and should prove thatphilosophy and partying cango hand in hand. Or, at thevery least, with the help ofsome Spanish flair and magic,it should mean that this year’sTaipei Arts Festival ends withplenty of bang.Sunita is originally fromMalaysia and moved to Taipeiin 2008. She has worked asa journalist with The EdgeSingapore, and now freelanceswith a business weekly. Sheloves good food and wine,hiking and dogs.10 Summer 2011 www.communitycenter.org.tw