Have you been following the “Walking the Shoreline” of the north coast trend? In the fall of this year, the “Formosa North Coast Arts Festival 2024” organized by Northguan National Scenic Area Headquarters launched pilot events and art workshops starting in May, with “Qiulantun Concert” attracting more than 3,000 people. After the concert kicked off the arts festival, art exhibits were displayed at a total of 21 exhibition venues in the North Coast region. The exhibition is about to enter its final period and members of the public are welcome to seize this final opportunity to take part.
Mass participation workshop to practice sustainable community design
The Arts Festival 2024 invited Yamazaki Ryo, a Japanese community design expert, to come to Taiwan and give a lecture on “Arts festival and Community Design” on October 15. He discussed culture, society and environment with the North Coast team, jointly identifying the unique community style and sustainable future of the North Coast.
In order to integrate the arts festival with the local area and adopt a concept of community design focused on people-to-people connections, this year’s festival invited 25 artists to take up residence and held nearly 20 artist workshops, attracting more than 300 participants. After the workshops, co-creations with the public were presented on-site, or the creative results displayed in combination with venues. For example, in Wanli Dapeng Zutang Park, the Wind Chimes Workshop invited everyone to install a wind chimes story in “Climate Station” by artist Lee Cheng-liang, making the work into a small pavilion that resonated with the sea breeze. In addition, the workshop where artist Lin Tzu-fen co-created twice with members of the public, used marine waste media to weave tassel waves into “Making Waves” and then installed the piece next to Zhongjiao Bay Visitor Center, making it a check-in highlight for the public.
Artist Liu Chih-hung led Qianhua Elementary School in Shimen District and members of the public in the creation of the “One Stone, One Ocean” workshop in June, using sweet potatoes to carve and imprint slices. After the launch, the exhibition planning included on-site collage installations for visitors to Tea & Café in Shimen. Artist Liu Tzu-ping presented the results of the “North Coast Plant Cyanotype” workshop, decorating Sunrise Ocean Café in Jinshan, allowing visitors to experience firsthand the beautiful artistic conception and its exquisite combination of artwork and space.
Artist Li Pei-yu invited community residents to participate in the “Public Hot Spring Private Domain Workshop” based on the hot spring culture of the Wanli-Jinshan area. Participants made ceramic water pipes by molding parts of their bodies and printed the short stories they heard every day in type. The exhibition was held on-site with the results exhibited at Fengyu Community hot spring bathhouse in Jinshan.
Multiple modes of artistic presentation, practicing the concept of art as life
There were many exhibitors at the arts festival, adopting multiple methods of exhibition. Starting from the concept of mountains and sea, the art duo “Too Serious” (Kuo Pai-yu and She Wen-ying) collaborated with designer Lee Ting-an, who lives in Holland, to use the new “Geopolymer” material they discovered, combined with sea collected from the north coast. Waste materials were used to conduct modeling experiments, with the resulting “Green Scale Sulfur Fire” displayed at Jinshan Huanggang Port Bridge bus stop.
Artists Hung Yun-ting and Tsai Kun-lin took the public to several “important temples” for residents of Jinshan. They then used clay to mold offerings, combined with movable offering trays and collected sounds to complete the “Moving Jinshan Soundscape” field plan, with the results presented at Jinshan Visitor Center. Wang Hsiu-ju investigated and drew the silhouettes of coastal plants and birds in “Bird Place by the Sea - Coastal Silhouette Project.” She also led a body simulation workshop with dancer Yu Ming-chu at Laomei Elementary School, and also interpreted the north coast's landscape, plants and birds in a mural at Fuguijiao Feng Art Camp in Shimen. Cheng Wan-chien used listening, observation, exploration, and association in the “Sanzhi Sound Reconstruction” Workshop to encourage participants to awaken every listening moment from sound and held a live performance at Bii Bii Village in the Sanzhi River bed.
In addition to the presentation of pieces co-created with the public, “Mountain and Sea Ensemble 25-121” by Lu Mu-ren combines natural elements such as wind and waves with artificial induction devices to refine irregular natural sounds. It then transforms these into pure piano music, displayed in Jinshan’s Juming Museum, to attract tourists to stop and admire.
From the road to the seaside, from the beach to hiking trails, Arts festivals are everywhere
This year’s arts festival embraces the community and more actively connects with local places, bringing art participation to large and small venues along the North Coast; artists Chien Jun-cheng, Luo Jing-chung and Chen Chi-jen together with students from Fuxing High School and Jinshan High School completed “The Gorgeous Transformation of 12 Bus Stops” project along Provincial Highway 2. This combined environmental education and artistic while enabling students to actively participate in the transformation of public spaces on the North Coast.
Artist Lee Tzu-mei installed “Dead Words, Living Rhymes” in a pavilion on the Shitou Mountain hiking trail in Jinshan. He turned the collected Basay phonetic rhymes into a sound installation of contemporary experimental electronic music for listeners to experience how even a dead language can continue to resonate to this day. Artist Shih Meng-hsin presented his work “Feather” in Huhai Bay, Keelung. He noted that looking from the bay to the sea, the small island in the distance is Keelung Islet, which fires the imagination and makes people wonder what the view is like from the Islet.
Artist Chen Chao-hua transformed the common driftwood on the beach of Jinshan old street into a mobile device that reflects the tides in “Uneven Water, Troubled Mind,” like a giant spirit level, forcing us to think about the meaning of stability and balance. Lee Yong-chih installed six painted iron plates in the intertidal zone of Shimen Cave to present “Lunar Eclipse,” highlighting the waxing and waning of the moon. Chiang Hui-lin used Spinifex littoreus growing on the sandy ground near the tidal line in a military bunker on Shuangwan Bikeway in Sanzhi to respond to the extended scenery of the north coast with her work “The Wind,” and recalled the memories of family daily trips to the coast in summer afternoons.
Artist Yang Ching-yao used his expertise to transform his personal studio in Hongqiao, Sanzhi, into an immersive writing and painting space, injecting the concept of combined characters into his work “Ground, Symbol, Word Beast,” integrating text and images to create a seemingly living “Word Beast.”
Expert-guided art tours, and immersion is one way to participate in the arts festival
In addition to the presentation of art works, this arts festival also takes the public to multiple art spaces based on tour itineraries, such as “Visit to Zhilansanbao Art Settlement” led by Yangzhu International Art Center, which connects the past and present through artistic visits, allowing the public to learn more about the active development of local artistic life. Artist Yao Jui-chung took the public on visits to three temples on the north coast with the theme “From Huge Statues of Gods and Dragon Palaces to Hell,” echoing the photographs on display at the “Hell Plus: from Eight Immortals crossing the sea to Dragon Palace and Muddy Buddha” exhibition at Sanzhi Visitor Center.
The “TESA Creative Center” in Sanzhi is also connected to the arts festival, inviting visitors to experience Chang Tzu-Lung's sculptures permanently installed at the center through on-site visits, interact with the resident artist, and experience the unique integration of art and nature. The local “Wave in Jinshan” team introduced events at the festival in the “North Coast Art Podcast.” This included conversations with curators, artists and participants talking about the various events at the event.
The Formosa North Coast Arts festival 2024 started on September 28, and ended on October 20. However, as Taiwan was hit by a typhoon during that period and many people were unable to enjoy the event the Northguan National Scenic Area Headquarters extended the exhibition of “Mountain and Sea Ensemble 25-121” at Juming Museum in Jinshan, “Making Waves” at Zhongjiao Bay Visitor Center, and “Climate Station” at Wanli Dapeng Zutang Park until November 20. Visitors are welcome to take advantage of the cooler autumn weather in the Jinshan-Wanli area for bathing and visit the exhibitions.
