6th Suwon International Photo Festival :LONG MARCH : How to Build Republic?

DURATION: 2019-11-01 ~ 2019-11-11
OPENING: 2019-11-01
VENUE: Hagguja Gallery, Korea

Curator: Feng-yi Chu (Waley Art, Taipei) Invited artists: Jui-chung Yao, Ching-yao Chen, Sean Wang, Yi-lun Lu, Ya-pang Wang, and Aming Lee The very famous Suwon International Photo Festival welcomes its 6th year in 2019. Since this year is the centennial anniversary of the Sam-il (3-1) Movement, one of the most momentous incidents for the following establishment of the Republic of Korea (ROK) in 1948, the festival sets its theme as “Independent Republic,” inviting prominent works of photographers around the world with regards to the ideas of republic, democracy, nation, and state. Indeed, the Republic of China (ROC) has a close connection with the birth of the ROK. On March 1st, 1991, a group of activists in Seoul protested against Japanese colonization, declaiming the Korean Declaration of Independence. The activity led to a huge, nationwide movement on the peninsula, in which more than two million people joined. Soon in April, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, arguably the predecessor of the ROK, was founded in Shanghai, China. Meanwhile, the Sam-il Movement is also believed to have encouraged the famous May Fourth Movement occurred in China in the same year. Establishing republic regimes and demolishing monocracies are great milestones for human’s modernization at the political aspect. However, the historical developments both of the ROC and of the ROK seem to ironically remind us: the modern task of men’s emancipation has never been fulfilled just because of the establishment of republics. The cruel February 28 Incident occurred only three years after the ROC took over Taiwan, resulting from the Kuomintang (KMT) government’s economic exploitation and discrimination against the islanders. Before long, the KMT was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and retreated to Taiwan, commencing decades of years’ dictatorship and White Terror. Not until the martial law was lifted in 1987, and the direct election of the precedent was practiced in 1996, Taiwan moved further steps toward real democracy. On the other side, the ROK was officially established in 1948, bordered by 38th latitude. Due to men’s greed for power, the newly born state suffered two military coups, experienced the April Revolution in 1960 and the Gwangju uprising in 1980, and established six republics in total. These struggles tell the lesson that liberty, democracy, and equality can never be achieved at once. After the establishment of republic, serious challenges arise. Setting “Challenges in the Republic” as the theme, Waley Art invites six outstanding Taiwanese photographers to participate the 2019 Suwon International Photo Festival. They are: Jui-chung Yao, Ching-yao Chen, Sean Wang, Yi-lun Lu, Wen-yen Wang, and Aming Lee. The works of these artists explore various issues in Taiwanese society. Jui-chung Yao’s work, Liberating Taiwan, depicts the significant background that frames the economic, social, and political developments both of the ROC and the ROK in the modern history—the Cold War. It causes the current quasi-war situations in the two regions: on the Korean Peninsula and across the Taiwan Strait. In Liberating Taiwan, a man wearing sunglasses and CCP’s traditional military clothes, rigidly jumping up in front of the miniatures of various famous authority locations in Taiwan. This rude act in taking photos refers to the violent nature of CCP’s unification by force. The works of Ching-yao Chen and Sean Wang explore the developments of different nationalisms in Taiwan. In modern history, at least three nationalist ideologies had been promoted on the island: the Japanese imperial nationalism, Chinese (ROC) nationalism, and Taiwanese nationalism. Chen’s work, Emulating Y.S. Lin’s Handing over Horses, addresses the transition between the previous two. The original painting of Lin’s Handing over Horses, which was made in the Japanese colonial period of Taiwan, drew a native Taiwanese soldier wearing Japanese military clothes and handing over two war horses. When the 228 Incidence occurred, the artist had to change Japanese flags on the horses to ROC flags, in order to show his firm support, if not loyalty, for the new nation. By means of photography, Chen emulates Lin’s famous painting and further highlights the ambiguity of nationalist identities with settings. Chen’s second work, The Perfect Family, uses Chiang Kai-shek’s family as elements, exploring a particular type of Chinese “life politics.” The work relates Chinese nationalism and the Confucianist imagination of family in the society, and reveals the ideological demand that “you should love our national leader as your father.” Sean Wang’s work, Taiwan Holy Mountains, addresses itself to a park with the same name that locates in the mountain area of Nantou County. The park consecrates the victims killed in the period of White Terror, and claims “Taiwanese should only worship Taiwanese gods and spirits.” Wang uses Internet as source and platform for his works, discusses how photos can be detached from original scenes and re-created into nationalist icons. Photographers Yi-lun Lu, Wen-yen Wang, and Aming Lee focus on the situations of the minorities sacrificed for the republic. Lu’s work, Romance of Wasteland, takes abandoned military villages as its theme. These villages are the residences of Chinese diaspora who came to and settled in Taiwan with the retreating KMT government in the end of 1940s. Because of engaging in the civil war and fighting for the ROC, these people were forced to migrate to Taiwan and to sever connection with their families on the mainland for decades. Wen-yen Wang’s work, Changing Wind, Lanyu, demonstrates the living condition of Taiwanese aboriginals, and thus questions the component as well as the essence of Taiwanese national identity. When Taiwanese identity is mainly constructed and referred to the largest ethnic Han group in Taiwan, Taiwanese aboriginals are considerably marginalized, if not excluded, from the nationalist discourses, and sacrificed in the developments of economy, politics, education, culture, and so on. Aming Lee’s work, Here is no God, pays attention on another minority that is usually excluded from the discourse of nationalist identity and also from society—migrant workers. If slavery used to be a necessary measure for democratic poleis, subordinated workers—especially those from foreign countries—certainly are dispensable slaves that offer basic labors for modern republic regimes. After establishing republics, after bringing down tyrants and retrieving sovereign from autocrats, we, people of a republic and the majority of a society, are still severely tested on the road to democracy and human equality. Waley Art’s curating project takes Taiwan’s historical and social developments as references, presenting a humble birthday gift to the Republic of Korea. Happy birthday! We sincerely and delightedly wish you another splendor centennium! About the Artist: 1.Yao Jui-chung (www.yaojuichung.com) was born in 1969. Lives and works in Taipei. He graduated from The National Institute of The Arts (Taipei National University of the Arts) with a degree in Art Theory. His works has been widely exhibited in numerous international exhibitions. In 1997, he represented Taiwan in “Facing Faces-Taiwan” at the Venice Biennale. After that, he took part in the International Triennale of Contemporary Art Yokohama (2005), APT6 (2009), Taipei biennial (2010), Shanghai Biennale(2012), Beijing Photo Biennale(2013), Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale(2014), Venice Architecture Biennale, Media City Seoul Biennale(2014), Asia Triennial Manchester (2014), Asia Biennale(2015), Sydney Biennale(2016) and Shanghai Biennale(2018). Yao is the winner of The Multitude Art Prize(Hong Kong) in 2013 and 2014 Asia pacific Art Prize(Singapore). 2018 is the winner of Taishin Arts Award(Taiwan). We can also find him widely involved in the fields of theatre and films. Yao specializes in photography, installation and painting. The themes of his works are varied, but most importantly they all examine the absurdity of the human condition. Representative works include Action Series. We can find the clue he explores the question of Taiwan’s identity in Military take over (1994), subverts modern Chinese political myths in Recovering Mainland China (1997), and examines post-colonialism in The World is for All (1997~2000) as well as Long March-Shifting the Universe (2002). In recent years, he has created photo installations combining the style of “gold and green landscape” with the superstitions that permeate Taiwanese folklore, expressing a false and alienated “cold reality” that is specific to Taiwan. Representative works include the series of Celestial Barbarians (2000), Savage Paradise (2000) and Heaven (2001). Another photo installation series Libido of Death (2002) and Hill (2003) tries to probe into the eternal issue of body and soul. Recently, Yao Jui-chung has assembled all the black-and-white photos of ruins he took in the past fifteen years, grouped under the themes of industry, religious idols, architecture and military bases. They reveal the enormous ideological black hole in Taiwan hidden behind the trends of globalization and Taiwan’s specific historical background as a continuation of the main theme of his work: the absurdity of the historical destiny of humanity. Since 2007, Yao has started to create a series of works including Wonderful (2007), Dust in the Wind (2008~2010), Dreamy (2008~2010), Romance (2009) and Honeymoon (2010~2011). He appropriates masterpieces from Chinese art history and recreates them in his own way, transforming them into his personal history or real stories in an attempt to turn grand narratives into the trivial affairs of his individual life. Yao intends to usurp so called orthodoxy with his recreated landscapes. In 2010, Yao grouped his students into a team of photography workshop called “Lost Society Document”(LSD). He encouraged them to photograph and survey in their hometowns. Through the way of field survey, they attempt to draw the outline of “mosquito houses” which have been widely criticized, publish three books named “Mirage: Disused Public Property in Taiwan”, and practice the possibility of observing the society by the meaning of art until now. 2.CHEN Ching-Yao, Born in Taipei in 1976, Chen Ching-Yao received his MFA in Fine Arts from Taipei National University of the Arts in 2006. He has won the Award of Newly Emerging Artists in Taiwan and the First Prize of Taipei Arts Award. He was also the recipient of Asian Cultural Council’s grant in 2009, which enabled him to conduct a residency in New York. In recent years, Chen’s work centers around photography and painting. The range of his subject matter is very wide, and his work focuses on the deconstruction of power and symbols. He often appropriates symbols of popular culture, especially those of the Japanese and Korean pop culture, and even the portraits of Asian politicians, and drastically recreates and transforms them into humorous, amusing images and behaviors, or simply assumes the roles of these figures himself in his work. By doing so, he creates a strong sense of contrast to the original subject and produces laughter. His downplaying the symbols of power is undoubtedly a sarcastic satire against modern society. While making his audience laugh about the situation, he also aims to make them reflect upon the absurdity of different actions of power in their surroundings. 3.WANG Sean (http://seanwang.format.com/), a Taipei native, holds both a BA and MA in History from the National Taiwan University. He later received his MFA education in photography from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Sean spends his time traveling between Bitan and Taipei and actively engages with photography and criticism. 4.Lu Yi-lun, 1988 born in Changhua, graduated from Taipei National University of Arts, group of Mix-media. He uses photography as his main medium, trying to dialectize and reflect on the nature of the image before proceeding to production. The characteristic of photography enables him to look into topographic spaces, and to summon the landscapes and issues that might be eliminated or neglected. He tries to extract the visible and invisible modules of sociology and anthropology. Lu’s works have been invited to many curated exhibitions, received several art awards, and put into collections. 5.LEE Aming, Graduated from the Depart of Theatre, National Taiwan University of Arts, Lee Aming had been working as a journalist photographer for three newspapers, and was the Vice Director of chinatimes.com. He has been awarded for the Photography Prize of Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, and exhibited his works at various international exhibitions held in Taipei and Kaohsiung. His photo album Here is No God was openbook’s Top 10 Books of the Year. Now he continues working as a part-time worker and living with foreign fishers at various fishing ports in Taiwan. Using a small camera (SONY RX100), he takes photos of them, and is taken by them. 6.WANG Wen-yen, Born in 1982 in Kaohsiung, Wang Wen-yen was growing up in a big family as the youngest child. For that reason, he always lacked of voice of power in the family, and has been used to be an observer and listener. After learning photography, camera naturally becomes the medium for him to observe and listen to the world. Rather than a photographer, he would expect himself more to be an image storyteller. Image represents every encountering moment in life; through photos, he wants to show not only beautiful images, but also the stories behind them.He has published two books, and is currently a freelance photographer and a free diver. He is also the editor-in-chief of online magazine, Ms Ocean.