April 27–June 23, 2013
Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
No. 39, Chang-An West Road
Taipei, Taiwan 103
www.mocataipei.org.tw
www.taishinart.org.tw
Winner of the 11th Annual Performing Arts Award:
UTUX, Pan-Spirit’s Men for Music and Dance for Her Silent Innermost
Winner of the 11th Annual Visual Arts Award:
WU Mali & Bamboo Curtain Studio for Art as Environment—A Cultural Action at the Plum Tree Creek
Winner of the 11th Jury’s Special Award:
1/2 Q Theatre for Peach Blossom Rain
Sponsored by Taishin Financial Holdings, the prize in contemporary Taiwanese art known as the Taishin Arts Award is now entering its 11th year, and it will mark the last time that the current selection system is in use. All eyes were on the winner of the 11th Annual Performing Arts Award, Atayal artist Pisui Ciyo, who founded UTUX, Pan-Spirit’s Men for Music and Dance, which won for the inaugural work Her Silent Innermost. The winner of the 11th Annual Visual Arts Award was Wu Mali & Bamboo Curtain Studio, who took the natural environment as the starting point for developing Art as Environment—A Cultural Action at the Plum Tree Creek. The 11th Jury’s Special Award went to 1/2 Q Theatre for Peach Blossom Rain, which combined Kunqu theater and the spiritual plight of intellectuals during an age of violent upheaval.
This year’s award presentation ceremony was presided by the Chairman of the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture, Simon Cheng, who delivered an introductory speech. As Chairman Cheng noted, “This year’s prize serves as a crucial link between past and future. In the past 11 years of the award, we have collectively witnessed the tremendous diversity and vigorous development of Taiwanese artistic creativity. This year’s award, its 11th iteration, marks the last time that the Taishin Arts Award will follow its old system. Special thanks over the years are due to those who have served as nominators and observation committee members for lending their expertise to the Taishin Arts Award, as well as to the officials and nongovernmental organizations that have provided their unwavering support throughout the entire process. With the 12th iteration, a brand new system will be launched. The Taishin Arts Award, beginning now and continuing in the future, will pay greater attention to becoming more inclusive to all. The creative power of artists, the insight of critics and experts, and relevance to the general public are the most important forces that allow the award to continue.”
The Annual Performing Arts Award was given to UTUX, Pan-Spirit’s Men for Music and Dance for Her Silent Innermost. According to the jury: “Pisui Ciyo’s work stands at a cross point between anthropological research, contemporary life, and sustainability. Her work is a personal, intimate, individual search. The haunting melodies and the clear conflicts speak of the loss that modern society is experiencing. Loss of identity. Loss of connection to what is important. Yet, it is also a work of survival. Pisui Ciyo is a contemporary artist who pulls from her traditions while inserting and layering other traditions. The work encompasses multiple creative disciplines and theatricalities.” This marked not only the first time the Annual Performing Arts Award was awarded for a work on the aboriginal peoples, but the first time any prize in the Taishin Arts Award was awarded to an inaugural work of a certain group.
The Annual Visual Arts Award was awarded to Wu Mali & Bamboo Curtain Studio for Art as Environment—A Cultural Action at the Plum Creek. The judges agreed: “Art as Environment—A Cultural Action at the Plum Creek demonstrates an outstanding example of the exploration of social issues through artistic practice, addressing sustainable development, environmental protection and encouraging community participation. Wu Mali and Hsiao Li-Hung’s cross-border collaboration reaches a level of dialogue, giving rise to a new type of public art. The fact that the project has already aroused attentions from various governmental agencies also proves its potential to become an encouraging case study for other practitioners and communities that confront similar conditions.” The jury unanimously voted for this project as the winner of the Annual Visual Arts Award.
The Jury’s Special Award was given to 1/2 Q Theatre for Peach Blossom Rain. The jury said: “1/2 Q Theatre is committed to expanding the modern vitality of Kunqu theater, and its achievement is outstanding. The work Peach Blossom Rain has managed to cross various strains of operatic tradition, simultaneously implementing the vocabularies of traditional opera and modern theater, of both the performing arts and the visual arts, in a multicultural dialogue. It achieves a profound interaction between the medium and the meaning of the text, illustrating an underlying layer of universal human nature, namely self-realization or questioning. It echoes the distinct plight of contemporary Taiwanese society.”
This year’s award ceremony featured Tainaner Ensemble’s TSAI Pao-Chang as the director of the ceremony. Widely acclaimed for his theatrical gifts, Tsai not only personally organized the program, but starred in it as well, hosting the program along with the troupe’s prima donna, rising star Clara Lee. They also invited the cutting-edge composer Wang Xi-Wen, whose credits include the film The Soul of Bread, and winner of a Golden Bell Award for the Jump! Boys soundtrack, to compose two new musical contributions—”Born This Way” and “Incredible Imperfection of a Perfect World”— especially for the ceremony.
The Taishin Arts Award exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei will run until June 23, 2013, with related activities that will take place at the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture. Members of the general public are invited to visit the exhibition to witness the dazzling achievements of Taiwanese artists and performance groups.
