2021
In 2017, Fang Si-Chi's First Love Paradise was published. Its distinct literary style immediately captivated readers, but the brutal reality and agonizing introspection presented beneath the exquisite yet sharp prose caused an even greater storm when the author, Lin Yi-Han, chose to take her own life shortly after the novel's release. To this day, this novel is constantly referenced whenever Taiwanese people discuss gender issues. For eight years, no one has forgotten Fang Si-Chi and Lin Yi-Han. However, even after the wounds have been exposed, we still hope for the possibility of repair and healing—not only for Si-Chi and Yi-Han but also for all the real pains that have been spoken and those yet to be uttered. If stories once brought dark wounds into the light, then in 2025, we hope to use the power of stories to rise powerfully from heartbreak, becoming a light for ourselves and for others.
Every day, we're redefining time: measuring the distance of a walk or commute in time, that socially awkward moment on a Monday or Friday, climate anomalies causing red maples to arrive early and fade late, the tense of making a takeaway coffee, the excessively long summer days in Europe, the timezone of late-night runs along riverbanks or tracks, the time difference making long-distance relationships between New Zealand and France so difficult. Time in its myriad forms, time in the plural, a museum of time. I love contemplating how artists think about time: spinning, leaping, with eyes closed; sometimes between waking and sleeping, but more often, collecting time itself.
Taipei Dangdai may have come to a close, but the brilliance of art never stops. A curated selection of outstanding independent films from around the world continues to expand the boundaries of your imagination. Discover how photographers, graffiti artists, performance artists, architects, and rock musicians from diverse backgrounds have forged their own artistic languages—each rooted in lived experience.
In Taipei, literature is free—and always has been. Precisely because literature has no fixed answers or interpretations, its boundaries are omnipresent throughout life. What we need, perhaps, is a pair of wild eyes—to confront directly or approach obliquely the myriad forms of literature. Lo Fu pioneered a new landscape in Chinese poetry with his unique narrative style; director Chen Yu-hsun cultivated a distinctive Taiwanese romance with his focus on ordinary people and fantastical black comedies; performance art godmother Marina Abramović, fashion maverick Alexander McQueen, and acclaimed director Emir Kusturica all unleashed their thoughts from their bodies, transforming them into immortal art itself. Even a farm can become a rock base, mind-bending animated masterpieces, with minds ready to blossom. The Taipei Literature Festival presents a selection of 7 works, inviting you to freely roam and unearth the vibrant literary energy within visual storytelling.
In the month of 9/11 in the early 2000s, graphic design master Milton Glaser, creator of "I ❤️ NY," powerfully expressed the hopeful and fearless spirit of New Yorkers with a new poster: "I ❤️ NY MORE THAN EVER." The magic of New York's spirit captivated me, drawing me to move to the city two years later. In 2005, I lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, across the river—a dreamland for hippies and artists. Shepard Fairey's graffiti adorned the streets, and at night, for just five dollars, you could slip through a small door into a food warehouse by the river to hear all sorts of wild music performances. At that time, there was no social media, and artists expressed themselves to the world in a very pure way. Banksy secretly hung his work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, only to be discovered by security two hours later. Marina Abramović and her partner Ulay finally gazed into each other's eyes amidst the sprawling queues at MoMA. After Alexander McQueen passed away, "Savage Beauty" at the Metropolitan Museum became a city-wide sensation. These slightly aged, yet fortunately experienced, New York moments—their initial shock and emotion—have been permanently sealed as scenes, shaping my future attitude towards art and design.