austro

Ocean Currents, Islands and the South: The Conception of the Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival

Interview with KMFA Director Yulin Lee (KMFA Director and Lead Curator of the 2021 Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival)

Written by Lily Hsu

Translated by Serena Lin

 

The permanent currents of the ocean are, in a way, the most majestic of her phenomena. Reflecting upon them our minds are at once taken out from the earth so that we can regard, as from another planet, the spinning of the globe, the winds that deeply trouble its surface or gently encompass it, and the influence of the sun and the moon. For all these cosmic forces are closely linked with the great currents of the ocean, earning for them the adjective I like best of all those applied to them – the planetary currents.

-Rachel Carson (an excerpt from The Sea Around Us)

 

Western modern civilization is undoubtedly built to the human scale. Things are measured against man’s scale such as navigational indicators, or routes in urban streets, and also adjust them based on man’s goals. However, long before modern technology and civilization brought light to the world, greater forces and pulsation existed in all life on earth, including the ocean, tides, storms, constellations, or even every single plant or creature in nature. They might not understand the planet in which they live, but they were able to connect instinctively with the true nature of life, and live in harmony with surrounding organisms and non-organisms. We can even assume that, during that time, nature and people, and even between people, shared a closer and richer bond than the one we have today.

The ‘planetary currents’ elaborated by Rachel Carson–the eternal ocean currents that connect people of different islands, eras, and identities still carry inspiring beauty and strength half a century later. However, for many of us who grew self-centered and accustomed to the benefits of urban life and modern industries, we might have long forgotten the sense of modesty and the throbbing pulse of life. In fact, the planet’s history, its ebbs and flows, that traces back to ancient times far exceeds the span of time in human history.

As an island country. Taiwan enjoys warm ocean currents year-round. However, maybe because of our complicated histories or Han Chinese-centered mindset, it has not been easy for us in Taiwan to embrace an inclusive, oceanic perspective. We have fallen into the habit of regarding the west as more progressive, and thus neglected the collection and passing down of our island’s memories. Yet as we now confront directly the challenges of 2020, it is ever more urgent that we identify our own position amidst the tides of time and that we explore new ways to co-exist with our planet. This is what inspired KMFA Director Yulin Lee to propose the concept of the Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival.

 

How would you reflect upon all the challenges that have taken

place in 2020?

 

Before this year, probably nobody could have imagined what would have happened in 2020, all the crises and calamities. This also makes us wonder, how would people of future generations look back to our times?

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have seen a drastic turning point in the developments of Modernism and its associated capitalistic modern industrialization that once have blatantly declared their self-victory. The novel coronavirus spread vastly across the globe through frequent international traffic and led to mass population isolation or quarantine, which is unprecedented. As we stand at this crossroad in history, we cannot but ask: How did we come to all of this? There are a plethora of answers to this question, but to some extent, we are starting to realize a stalemate in our global development centered western Modernism. This realization also solidifies our belief in the significance of the Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival that will soon be launched by the KMFA.

 

What is the significance of these challenges that occurred in 2020?

 

Examples of how diseases caused retrogression in human civilization are not scarce. This can be applied to the Black Death, the 1918 Spanish flu during World War I, or even how the Europeans brought diseases to the New World and wiped out so many indigenous Americans. Tiny germs and viruses often creep into the crevices of human history, exposing the fundamental problems of social institutions or structures. For example, in the historical incident of how the Europeans brought infectious diseases to native Americans, we witnessed the tremendous impacts of inter-continental mobility and colonialism. The Age of Discovery created a new surge in colonization, which then led to transnational movements and economic exploitation. These are all watershed moments that transformed the modern world we live in now. I believe the year 2020 is another turning point for us to rethink our world and our relationship with her.

The issue of environmental conservation has always been dear to my heart. On top of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have also witnessed in 2020 the Australia bushfire crisis, as well as forest fires in the United States and in Brazil. While the tension still looms in the Middle East the explosion of ammonium nitrate at the Lebanese capital of Beirut shocked the world. There have also been a number of oil spills from large vessels, which could be traced back to the global trade regime and the movements of goods. While all these devastating events occurred one after another, scientists have also been warning against rising temperatures that are causing unprecedented ice-melting in the Arctic and Antarctica. Ironically, as humans have been forced to curtail economic activities and international travels in response to the pandemic, we have seen the positive impact of the environment in a very short time, including the decline in pollution and heat emission as well as freeing up more space for wild animals to thrive. The pandemic is as if a warning from the earth, and a calling for self-healing.

Experts from many fields have pointed out that we are no longer capable nor should we return to the “old normal”. As the pandemic has lasted for a year without traces of ending. I really think the greatest and inescapable responsibility of our generation is to think about new social regulations and environmental ethics, a “new normal” that allows us to work and live harmoniously with the creatures in the universe. In the society in which we live, we only have a few decades or so to correct our own mistakes and seek better ways to co-exist with the planet and other living beings on this planet.

 

How did you first conceive of the Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival? How is it related to the issues you’ve mentioned earlier?

 

When I became the director in 2016, I noticed that as early as 2000 the KMFA had spearheaded research and curatorial efforts in the field of contemporary Austronesian art, leading a pioneering effort among public art museums in Taiwan. Through artist-in-residence programs and international exhibitions, we have collaborated with many indigenous artists who now enjoy great artistic achievements, and thus accumulated rich research materials in this area.

Yet in the previous framework, we looked across different Austronesian-speaking peoples based on the language grouping, attempting to explore the possibilities of connecting contemporary Austronesian artists with the museum. Such cooperation is extremely valuable both to KMFA and to the development of Taiwan’s contemporary indigenous art. In particular, since KMFA is one of the three early public art museums in Taiwan which is located in the island’s south, we make it our core goal of KMFA to strive for artistic expression that takes a perspective from the South, instead of from the capital as the center. The KMFA has accumulated over a decade of expertise in promoting contemporary Austronesian arts, while the public has also broadened their understanding and has shown increasing interests in the richness of contemporary indigenous arts in Taiwan. We thus have to take a step forward and seek new possibilities.

The concept of Pan-Austro-Nesian(PAN) is thus prompted within this thinking. In short, the concept of PAN is to loosen from the current set Austronesian framework of language and ethnicity. We all know how widely the Austronesian peoples spread out, from Taiwan the northernmost, New Zealand the southernmost, Africa the westernmost to Easter Island of South America the easternmost. If viewed from this angle, the ‘Austronesian’ concept might not include the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia or Australia. However, if we take the perspectives of colonialism or contemporary globalization, different indigenous communities from around the world, and even including the ‘southern, island” political entities in comparison to the ‘northern, continental” political powers, all share similar dilemmas concerning their own economic, political, or cultural sovereignties.

To realize greater possibilities for dialogues, we have pursued the strategy to move from local to global in recent years by leveraging the museum’s long-built foundation in Austronesian arts. We aspire to contribute to the thriving “Global South” discourses. It is with this idea that I proposed the Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival as a new potential platform under the larger scope of “South Plus” as the KMFAS new position. It is my intent to re-position/ re-brand our museum from its former mission in nurturing artists from the south (of Taiwan) to connecting the museum’s geo-political condition of the south with “Global South ” discourses.

 

Could you further elaborate on the core concept of Pan-Austro-

Nesian?

 

As above-mentioned, we have proposed “South Plus” as the new endeavor of the KMFA, when the museum faced a major administrative reform in 2017. The philosophical ideas behind the “South Plus” are fundamentally “post-modern”, that celebrate historical pluralism, namely the “South Plus.” This is related to my initial thoughts about the Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival, which is to break loose any culturally defined framework, and to allow utmost multilateral cultural discourse.

The key concept of the “Pan-Austro-Nesian arts festival” could be summarized in the three following aspects by looking into the three root words:

  • Pan( )- fluidity and non-rigid territorial concept and expansive, all-inclusive visions that transcend boundaries.
  • Austro( 5)- plural, non-center-constrained perspectives from the South, opposite to the north-centered mainstream discourse.
  • Nesian( )represents multilateral oceanic connections.

Compared to mainstream cultures of modernism, the concepts of “Austro” and “Nesian” enjoy relative “openness,” conveying fluidity and dissociation. Also, referring to the “Pan” concept, we hope to create a common ground through contemporary art, where issues are shared in a global cultural context and where communication transcends blood ties, languages, ethnic groups and national boundaries.

Labay Eyong, My Traditional Costumes Are Not Traditional-Seediq Bale? 2012, Photograph, Fine Art, Baryta, 25.4 x 38.1 cm

In other words, Pan-Austro-Nesian embodies broader perspectives and possibilities. It departs from solely focusing on indigenous cultures and also challenges the public to become more flexible in interpreting the world from perspectives other than the dominant western narrative. The exhibition and viewer experience are designed to initiate further thoughts on cultural accessibility. What we care about is how contemporary ideas may mingle and intersect with memories, beliefs and traditions of the local land, including the use of the ocean as a metaphor to create linkages and foster communications. Taking a southern perspective that reflects upon linearity and centralization in the progressive history, we attempt to resist the paradigms dominated by modern consumption and industrial civilization. Meanwhile, we pay close attention to the encounters, contacts and conflicts of different scenarios and possibilities introduced by the flowing of the ocean, as well as explore the hidden exchanges of pluralistic cultures, in the past history. In the end, with the first “Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival” we hope to, find new route that may lead us into a future, against the present consumerist society.

Thus, we will focus on three main themes. The first theme, “From Known to Unknown,” uses artistic creation as a medium to explore how people define their own world view through interpersonal contacts, exchanges and conflicts. Here, we emphasize each individual’s definition of his/her own environment, as well as cultural accumulation, instead of the dominant forms of “measurement or overwriting.” In the “Dark lsland” theme, we touch upon the dark colonial past of the Pacific region, looking into how artists understand and comb through the past histories, and even mend memories with the present reality. Finally. The “Circle of Life” theme proposes new possibilities for mankind and nature, as well as with mankind, to reconstruct their relations.

 

Could you share with the readers about the role that the Pan-Austro-Nesian Art Festival plays in KMFA’s transformation into a non-departmental public body?

 

Since I became Director and led the KMFA in transforming into an administrative corporation, we have steadily brought in excellent international exhibitions to Taiwan through co-branding strategies. These collaborations were intentionally built to reposition the KMFA’s international image, so that our visibility and significance can be heightened as we undertake new transitions, while also demonstrating to the public how we aspire to grow both locally and internationally.

The themes of our international exhibitions also align with KMFA’s long-term thinking. From the Nude: Masterpieces from Tate in 2018 to SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now and the TATTOO exhibitions in 2019, the KMFA respectively collaborated with the Tate Museum in London, the Mori Museum in Tokyo, and the Musée du quai Branly in Paris to carefully craft these parallel perspectives of history that transcend different cultures and to turn KMFA into an art museum with pluralistic viewpoints of history. Based on our “South Plus” strategy, we connect with international exhibitions like SUNSHOWER and TATTOO to expand our achievements rooted in Austronesian/indigenous art and to respond to the shifting landscape of global contemporary art.

In 2017, the Still Waters Run Deep exhibition was the grand opening that marked the KMFAS first spatial re-configuration, using the Love River basin as a metaphor to evoke a poetic sense and connect the museum to the city. In 2019, in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the KMFA, we launched unprecedented permanent collection gallery entitled South Plus: Constructing Historical Pluralism from the KMFA Collection, which highlighted our local collections and our role in connecting the city and its people.

And now in 2021, the Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival signifies our new commitment to bring together what we have achieved so far since our administrative reform. We strive to construct a cultural brand that belongs uniquely to the city of Kaohsiung and, through fluid interactions and open-minded dialogues, to bring forth pluralistic communication.

Furthermore, extending from the previous experience collaborating with international museum partners, Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival also endeavors at starting a different way of curating. Unlike the more common practice of commissioning guest curator/s from outside for international exhibition of this intent, we try to organize this first arts festival with our own inhouse curators and researchers, together with international curatorial expertise, respectively from the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia Gallery and the Pataka + Museum in New Zealand. With this effort, I am also hoping to further integrate and refresh the curatorial expertise from different generations who are now working together for this 26-year-old institution.

 

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Map, Route, Trail: From Chang En-Man’s Snail Paradise to redraw culture-ecological imagination

Text by Fang Yen-Hsiang

Translated by Jo Ying Peng

 

Coming in sight of a cross-totem tattoo on artist Chang En-Man’s left arm, it is made by Dion Kaszas, a Native American tattoo artist, using a special technique of skin stitch. This unique traditional tattoo technique originally stemmed from the Pacific coast indigenous peoples in North America (especially the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Alaska). Use a needle and ink thread to pierce the skin surface, then the pattern left after the thread is removed. The visual effect is as sewing a tattoo on the skin. In ancient traditions, whale bones and antlers were used as stitching tools implying that piercing one species through another, a ritual body engineering.

 

However, we can regard this special tattoo and body imprint as the artist’s life/biological mapping act. While Chang traveled around halfway of the globe reaching Salmon Arm in British Columbia, Canada, she has passed through geographically and physiologically by stitching the tribe’s most common cross totem on her body. During this research journey, in addition to completing her solo exhibition at Center A (As Heavy As A Feather, 2016), Chang attempted to unfold more issues related to the survival of Taiwan aborigines, the discussion regarding traditional territories, and the indigenous land justice movements in North American (including the Anti Coastal GasLink Movement). This personal mapping engineering is to some degree corresponding to circumstances of different scopes, scales, and definitions. Throughout physical, material, and territorial to ethnic and cultural boundaries, the show proposed to suture certain fragments or wounds.

 

Throughout extending the act of tattoo/embroidery to Snail Paradise, the overall context of “route mapping” is revealed by the artist.

In the series Snail Paradise, Chang En-Man aims to knit a route of two different species (non-human). The propagation path of the first protagonist, the Giant African Snail (the scientific name: Achatina fulica), and its place of origin can be traced back to Kenya and Tanzania. Approximately in 1800 AD, it spread from East Africa or Madagascar to Mauritius. It gradually spread to Seychelles, French Reunion, Calcutta, and North Bengal in the next century and continuously moved toward the east across the Indian Ocean. Between 1911 and 1920 it arrived in Singapore, which became the spreading center of the Giant African snail in Southeast Asia. Until the late 1920s and 1930s, it spread to North Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Hanoi and Hong Kong, and was bred and disseminated massively for duck feed. The rapid propagation caused serious ecological problems after the 1930s, and was culled vastly later. Undoubtedly the expansion and occupation of the Japanese Empire played a key force in the following process: In 1932 (Showa 7), Shimojo Kumaichi (1891-?), a medical doctor of infectious diseases and a professor at Taipei Imperial University (now National Taiwan University), introduced the Giant African Snail to Taiwan from Singapore for the purpose of food and its commercial potential. Due to the failures of management and finance, the Giant African Snail, as an exotic species, damaged local ecological balance and agriculture. However, it was widely used as a food ingredient.[1]

[1] According to Albert R. Mead, The Giant African Snail: A Problem in Economic Malacology, The University of Chicago Press, 1961

 

The second protagonist is Paper Mulberry, the common Moraceae in Taiwan. From fruits to roots, forage to medicinal value, are all applicable for artificial use. Here the operation in contrast is that the dense fluff of the leaves happen to be a handy tool to remove the snail slime while preparing food. This is different from the common usage as beating it into barkcloth by the Austronesians.

The Austronesian nautical network behind the paper mulberry is demonstrated in the research of the genome sequence from professor Kuo-fang Chung and his team. By tracking the paper mulberry species with the gene haplotype CP-17 and using molecular markers, they prove that the majority of the Pacific Broussonetia papyrifera is the female phase that reproduces asexually by root sprouts. It tells the differentiation from Taiwan paper mulberry that spreads and multiplies by flowering pollinated seeds. As a significant substance, the paper mulberry was hand-carried by the Austronesian ancestors across the Pacific islands. Afterward, it spreads to Sulawesi in Indonesia, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Rapa Nui(Easter Island), and Hawaii.[1]

[1] According to The Great Paper Mulberry: Anthropological journey of a botanist (Open Museum), Plant DNA Actually Records History! The Paper Mulberry Tells Migration History of Austronesian (Popular Science Media of Academia Sinica: Research.Sinica), What does folklore plants say about “out of Taiwan”? Taiwan is the hometown of Pacific paper mulberry (Kuo-Fang Chung)

 

Taking the two species of snail and paper mulberry as the guide, it pointed out the juxtaposition of two migrant tracks during the age of discovery in marine times. It is not merely to propose a naturalistic pastoral scene of the multi-species encounter, but to unveil the nature involved behind it which is a re-excavating reflection of “coloniality” that has been embedded for a long time, spanning regions, times, regimes, and bodies.

The proliferation of the Giant African snail has been following the trace of colonialism and the dualistic concept of nature categorization behind it. Following the biological science method as a pioneer of European colonialism in early-stage, biologists introduced the Giant African snail to the Indian Ocean. It thus enabled colonialism closely integrating biological science with resource exploitation.

 

 

Tracing that trail of sticky drag, it can be found not only in the cross-regional path but also in the interior land in Taiwan, somehow with an alike attitude. Through the depicted path from Chang En-Man’s work 414km of Highway No. 9, the giant snail appeared on the local development progress and had become the free protein supply for the Paiwan tribe. However, this path can also be embodied as a certain land gap that has been cut and dug to reveal the survival issues of the Paiwan ethnic group in terms of living conditions, environmental destruction, and cultural conflicts. Crawling along the savage footpath, the snail comes to be a body image that has transformed from abjection to rebirth.

The concept of “route mapping” through Chang En-Man’s practice is also represented by the collection and creation of cross-stitch patterns. An imagination and depiction of cultural-ecological system is carried out with sewing.

In Snail Paradise: Preface (2019) exhibited in TKG+, the aboriginal male trousers from the Pacavalj tribe were used as a carrier for the artist’s rewritten history. Chang adopted the non-hierarchical common floral pattern from the Paiwan cross-stitch — Compared with aristocratic patterns such as the totem of the hundred-pacer snake(deinagkistrodon), the usage of existing floral patterns allows the artist incorporating the image from personal perspectives[1] — Part of the design is integrated with the herb ingredients of snail dish: shell ginger, wild chrysanthemum, millet, and miscanthus, etc. The other part is combined with historical symbolic images: two individual suns – Blue Sky with a White Sun and Hinomaru. It implies the history of the two regimes.

[1] The cross-stitch that is commonly used by the Paiwan tribe and other Taiwanese aborigines is said to have been introduced to Taiwan by the Dutch in the 17th century. The Silaya and Dawulong tribes of the Pingpu are the most influenced. The relevant clues can be compared to the similarity of the patterns and stitches between the two tribes.

 

 

In the 2019 Singapore Biennale, Snail Paradise retraces the route by stitching up “a scene of cuisine”. Food as a method of aggregation. Besides, through cooking, it allows the work entering the shortcut of the relationship between culture and environment, the ecological clues of natural, and the long-term evolution between anthropology and ecology that depending, adapting and altering in between. A negotiation among species.

Although Singapore was once the distribution of the Giant African snail, there is no longer any dishes or recipes using snails as ingredients locally. Chang thus collaborated with two Singaporean artists ila and Kin Chui for a new recipe under the topic of “How to make a snail food?” Similar to the snail cuisines in Taiwan that are used as an exotic ingredient in many traditional dishes, these recipes have traditional Malaysia–Singapore cuisines adopt snail ingredients. The idea of the cross-stitch totem as foodscape began from the Taiwanese herbs, then it has added up buah keluak, tamarind, butterfly pea, and mountain paulownia, etc. Chang tried to expand the mapping of route and pedigree in edible herb to construct engineering of the multi-species ethnographic atlas.

 

 

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Varhung: The Infinite Body of Sound

by Tsui Tsai-Shan (Assistant Curator at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Department)

 

Sounds of breath and reverberation circulate throughout the space, ripples of amniotic fluid within the womb, palpitating into our hearts. Here, the breath is not merely the pulsation of life but also speaks of the harmony between humans and all living beings, bringing forth the cultural resonance in our heartbeats and blood. 

Having staged 2 Gather with Black Grace Dance Company and collaborated in the presentation of Go Paiwan with choreographer Lin Wen-Chung, Tjimur Dance Theatre has explored the connection between human beings and the Motherland for many years. Gathering inspiration from Austronesian culture and local living, Tjimur Dance Theatre centers its creative vision around the concept of “Varhung,” allowing their dancers to leave their professional training behind and retrieve the authentic bodily movements of Paiwan culture. The dancers of Tjimur Dance Theatre develop unique contemporary expressions through chanting traditional ballads and transform the theatre into a platform for interaction and life into art.

In Paiwan, “varhung” not only refers to the “heart” but also the expression of inner emotions. The concept of “voice” is repeated and expanded in the works of Tjimur Dance Theatre and is even used as a metaphor for “life.” Varhung: The Body of Sound is the dance troupe’s exploration of ancient culture through “integrating song with dance,” “guidance through voice,” “breathing transformation,” and “voice creation,” an exhibition with performing arts at its core. The bodies and steps of the dancers are guided with their breaths, responding to their modesty and love towards the land by sinking the bodyweight to create unique “bodily movements,” echoing the chanting with movements of the body, seeping deep into the essence of life. Varhung: The Body of Sound is an exploration of the origin of life and the intertwinement of the heart, each other, tradition, and the contemporary, an ode to the intimacy between humans and the land.

The People of the Slopes

Showing stark differences with the mindsets of urban societies, Paiwan people have been referred to as “the people of the slopes” and apply their “slope philosophy” to acknowledge the changes of different generation. In the age of Capitalism, the tension between modern living and their indigenous roots has presented a tug of war between “traditional confrontation” and “cultural preservation.” For Ljuzem Madiljin, the artistic director of Tjimur Dance Theatre, the task is to balance the two forces. Devoted to interpreting Paiwan culture through contemporary discourses, Ljuzem Madiljin is concerned about finding ways of retracing the roots of the tribe, either through the spirit that traditional dance steps inspire or the souls of tribal songs. Through bodily movements, Ljuzem Madiljin responds to life and the humbleness of the land by giving tangible expression to intangible blessings qualities. Ljuzem Madiljin also brings forth the energy that dwells in the blood, connecting the lives of dancers and viewers.

Coming back to Room 104 of “Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival,” the steps on stage seem to reiterate the bodily sensations and culture of Paiwan’s “the people of the slopes,” while the ongoing breath not only acts as guidance to viewers but its lingering acoustics also indicate “the cycle of breath and life.” Tjimur Dance Theatre also awakens the life forces that exist within our bodies through the sounds of heavy nasal breathing, penetrating the minds and inspiring viewers to join. 

Contemporary and Tradition: Each Complementing the Other

What then appears before viewers is a projection of dancers wearing traditional and modern dancing attire, each accentuating and complementing the other. The bodily rhythms of Paiwan culture are beckoned by the breath while the projection of images mirrors the souls of dancers, resulting in an interlaced staging of tradition and the contemporary. The projected, virtual images are metaphors of not only tribal memories and contemporary choreography but also the souls of the dancers distilling space and time into cultural connotations. The visual features are edited through the Montage technique with theatrical lighting as the backdrop, highlighting the dancers’ breathing rhythm and close-ups of the dancer’s bodies, complementing the live physical performance with virtual presentations.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concentric Light

“The breath is like concentric waves rippling outwards.” This is the poetics of the works by Tjimur Dance Theatre. Whether it is the breaths among the steps or the moving bodies of dancers in the images, they all follow the same frequency, portraying the legacy of Paiwan culture. A ray of theatrical spotlight represents the coming together of the concentric circle, which surrounds and coats the image segments within. The flow of “voice creation” is intertwined with the gaze, hinting at the humbleness of the body towards the land when entering the Umaq (slate houses) while invoking the rhythms of the Zemiyan (traditional Paiwan four-step dance). The steps of Zemiyan emerge in both on-site performances and video recordings, alluding to the concentric circles in Paiwan tribes, aggregating and blossoming with each breath. 

 

 

The Body and Life of Sound

Let’s return to the breath. Ljuzem Madiljin once stated: “Contemporary Paiwan bodies present an underlying attempt to integrate with tradition. But what is this integration? I contemplated this and told the dancers: ‘Let’s start with studying ancient Paiwan ballads.’ This also became what was later known as the Tjimur system teaching method, which brings forth the Paiwan body through the breath and sound.” The essence of breath is the interaction and codependence between humans and the land. Through each inhale and exhale, the heart continues to beat, and the blood is transfused throughout the entire body, which leads to movements, memory, and cultural legacy. In The Body of Sound, bodily movements are guided by the breath and are physical manifestations of inner pulses, which further generates “integrating song with dance” and “breathing transformation,” interpreting Paiwan’s “Varhung” through contemporary expressions. The “life of sound” uses the breath to channel the inner “life” and brings out the exchange between indigenous tradition and “contemporization” through “guidance through voice” and “voice creation,” finally revealing the core substance of Paiwan culture.

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