Charwei Tsai & Jen-Chih Yu
“Taiwan s’expose – Taiwan’s visual arts”
Curated by Morgan Labar
15 ~ 24 July 2024
Chapelle des Cordeliers, Avignon
Festival Off Avignon, France
In partnership with École supérieure d’art d’Avignon (ESAA)
and le Centre Culturel de Taïwan à Paris
https://www.festivaloffavignon.com/page/invite-honneur
For the first time in the festival Off Avignon history, Avignon Festival & Compagnies puts the spotlight on a guest country and offers a cultural and artistic journey at the heart of Taiwanese contemporary creation. This ambitious project aims to strengthen the cultural bonds between France and Taiwan, while offering an unprecedented visibility platform for the Taiwanese artistic scene, in as many fields as performing arts, literature, cinema or visual arts.
Curated by Morgan Labar, Director of l’École supérieure d’art d’Avignon for the visual arts section, two France based Taiwanese artists Charwei Tsai and Yu Jen-Chih will present their works at the 12th century Chapel of Cordeliers in the center of the city. The ESAA’s students will welcome guests in support of the art mediation.
Exhibited works:
Charwei Tsai
Coming Together, 2022
Hand-woven and hand-embroidered textile made with hand-spun nettle yarn and shoulang yam dye
200x300cm & 100x200cm
In collaboration with Bulaubulau community, Yilan, Taiwan
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Japanese colonizers imposed the “five year aboriginal policy” (五年理蕃計劃), which banned tattooing on the face and restricted traditional weaving. Therefore, the knowledge of hand-crafting the yarn and dye from local plants passed down from generation to generation has been lost. Almost two decades ago, the Bulaubulau family revived this knowledge starting with the grandmother recollecting the weaving techniques and passing it down to her daughters and grand-daughters. In the recent years M’l’s (pronounced as Merlers) who is one of her grand-daughters, took the process further and relearned how to make plant based dye locally from plants such guava leaves, turmeric, twigs and berries. During Tsai’s stays with the family, she learned some basic techniques of weaving and together they conceived ideas of creating new textile pieces that honors the female labour and social impact on the community of reviving the craft.
Charwei Tsai
Lanyu: Three Stories, 2012
3 HD Videos with sound, 4 min each
In collaboration with Tsering Tashi Gyalthang
The Lanyu – 3 Stories continues Tsai’s exploration of the relationship between nature, spirituality, and ritual through an examination of the Tao tribe from the Lanyu Island of Taiwan. This series consists of three videos: Hair Dance, Lanyu Seascapes, and Shi Na Paradna. Hair Dance focuses on women from the Tao tribe and their performance of ritual dance, one of which involves using their sensuous long hair to emulate the movement of waves, as a way to ensure the safe return of their men from the sea. Lanyu Seascapes captures the unpredictability of the sea that the natives have learned to live from moment to moment with. While Shi Na Paradna portrays a tale of a boy who lost his soul to the sea and his grandfather performed a ritual of call his soul back from the sea.
