地表層是地球系統（大氣圈、水圈、陸圈及生物圈）交匯的地帶，能量流動、物質循環及生物訊息傳遞等過程相互作用，地球在這關鍵帶創造了生命。棲居其中的人類不斷適應多變的環境演化，但在近二三百年間，卻以瞬間速度影響了整個地球生態，如聯合國氣候變遷專門委員會2022年報告指出，人類活動造成各地嚴重衝擊與不可逆的危機，不只危及社會糧食、水資源、都市及健康，也危害大量陸域及海域生物的生存。面對生態問題，我們是否重新省思人類塑造的世界，感知置身於萬物生命共同體之中，並以行動守護及修復脆弱的地球。
花蓮處於地質與地緣的關鍵帶，地質因位於歐亞大陸板塊與菲律賓海板塊的交接處，造山作用活躍導致3千公尺以上的山峰多達40座；氣候因北回歸線橫越劃為熱帶與副熱帶氣候區；水文則有東部最大的河川秀姑巒溪，以及終年帶來溫暖海水的黑潮，使花蓮擁有多元性的生態樣貎。於此同時，全球暖化及氣候變遷在這也能深刻感受，石梯坪珊瑚白化加劇、海平面上升、農業產量下滑，乃至富源出現41度高溫等，顯然，如何實踐永續生活方式花蓮成為重要的觀測站。
2022 Palafang花蓮跳浪藝術節主題「變化球」，「球」來自不同物種「眼球」觀看的視角，來自火山來自大海不同經緯翻轉的視角；「球」亦是人類賴以生存的唯一星球——地球，眼看著生態加速變化的地球，我們如何運用無限想像力與行動力，留給未來世代一個適合居住的世界。
「變化球」由總策展人Nakaw Putun 邀集李德茂、張卉君共同策展。Nakaw Putun 以生態藝術作為方法整體策劃，並藉由環境觀測者原民山海獵人，以及與之共生的動植物視角，期望重新學習看待世界的方法。張卉君呼應 Arne Naess 的深層生態學，以自然之母、海洋為視角，提出「像海一樣生活」概念，試圖翻轉以人為中心的觀點；李德茂則以全球化的視角及對照今日與未來的人類樣態，順著「變化球」這一命題的手勢，投出了「脆弱的景色」的另類空間。
巴諦斯特．莫席左在《生之奧義》提及人類生命方式「只有與我們周遭的動物、植物、細菌、生態系所擁有的成千上萬種其他生命方式交織在一起時才有意義。」本展覽試圖群聚多元視角，從花蓮出發後沈入太平洋暖流，再躍升至全球的視野，透過跨越地域及物種的籓離，聚集藝術家、生態保育者、生物學家及原住民族等，傳遞存在於關鍵帶的物種之聲，並在人類演化最艱困的時代，共同尋得萬物永續生存的智慧與力量。
The surface of the earth is the zone of convergence of the earth’s systems (the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere), where energy flows, matter circulates, and biological messages are transmitted, all of which are in constant interaction. This is the Critical Zone, where the earth generates life. Since their emergence, humans have continually adapted to changes in the environment, but over the last 200-300 years, we have rapidly impacted the global ecology. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that human activity has caused an irreversible crisis for the world that not only threatens the food/water supplies and health of humans but the survival of a great number of other species on land and in the sea. Faced with such crisis, perhaps we should rethink how we are shaping the world, be aware that we are living within a greater biological community, and act to protect and repair our fragile earth.
Hualien is located in a geological and geopolitical critical zone. It is geologically critical in that it is located at the intersection of the Eurasian and Philippine plates, which have pushed up mountains in the county such that 40 peaks reach over 3,000 meters high; it sits on the Tropic of Cancer, which divides it into tropical and subtropical climates; eastern Taiwan’s largest river, the Xiuguluan, runs through it; and the Kuroshio Current off the coast brings it warm water all year long. All of these factors contribute to Hualien’s ecological diversity. The effects of climate change are clearly visible here, as verified by the increasingly serious bleaching of coral at Shitiping, the rising sea level, a sharp decline in agricultural production, and a record-high temperature of 41°C in Fuyuan. Hualien is thus a major indicator of the importance of living sustainably.
The 2022 Palafang Art Festival is entitled Breaking Ball (or “changing ball” if translated literally). “Ball” refers to the eye, that is, the eyes (perspectives) of all kinds of animals, who trace their origins to either volcanoes or the sea. It also refers to the only home we have in the universe—Earth. As we watch the ecology changing more and more rapidly, how should we use our boundless imagination and act to leave the world in habitable condition for future generations?
Festival curator Nakaw Putun has invited CHANG Hui-chun and LEE Te-mao to co-curate the event. With ecological art as the overall event concept, Nakaw looks to help viewers relearn how they should view the world through the aid of those who are always observing the environment—Indigenous hunters on land and sea—and the perspectives of plants and animals they coexist with. In echoing the deep-ecology philosophy of Arne NAESS and based on the perspective of Mother Nature and the ocean, CHANG’s sub-exhibition, Living as the Sea, aims to overturn anthropocentrism. LEE’s inspiration for the sub-exhibition Landscape of Fragility comes from a perspective of globalization and a comparison of how humans live now and will live in the future.
Baptiste Morizot’s Manières d’être Vivant says that the way humans live only has meaning when it is intertwined with the way the animals, plants, bacteria, and everything else in our ecosystem live. This exhibition looks at diverse perspectives, first from Hualien and deep into the warm current off its coast, and then from that of the entire world, crossing over the divisions of region and species in a gathering of artists, environmentalists, biologists, and Indigenous people. Here, we give voice to all species in the Critical Zone, and, at this most difficult time in human evolution, jointly find the wisdom and power for all species to sustainably survive.
—Nakaw Putun, curator