The Critical Zone is basically the surface of the earth: where the atmosphere, water, land, and all living things converge, where energy flows, where matter circulates, and where biological messages are transmitted, all of which are in constant interaction. The earth generates life here. Since their emergence about 200,000 years ago, Homo sapiens have continually adapted to changes in the environment, but over the last 200-300 years, we have rapidly impacted the global ecology. 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, we must rethink and reconceptualize the biological community in the Critical Zone and take action to protect our changing 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, the line dividing the tropical from the subtropical; the warm Kuroshio Current off the coast adds to its tropical monsoon climate; and eastern Taiwan’s largest river, the Xiuguluan, runs through it. All of these factors contribute to Hualien’s biological 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.
This second Palafang Hualien Art Festival entitled Breaking Ball (or “changing ball” if translated literally), is focused on the relationship between the earth’s ecology and human wisdom. “Ball” refers to the animal eye, that is, the perspective animals have, as opposed to looking only from the human viewpoint. It also refers to the only home we have in the universe—Earth. As we watch the ecology changing more and more rapidly, do we have the wisdom to leave the world in good 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, Nakaw transmits the profound significance of how humans and nature depend on each other via 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 the lines and patterns seen in Hualien. If viewed from high up, we seem to live on a planet whose surface is basically as fragile as an eggshell and is continually being pushed toward the breaking point, as verified by diseases, wars, and climate change in recent years.
With the variety of viewpoints on display at Breaking Ball, viewers will spring from Hualien deep into the warm Kuroshio Current and then on to obtain a global perspective, crossing over the divisions of region and species in a gathering of artists, art activists, environmentalists, biologists, and Indigenous people. Here, we give voice to all species in the Critical Zone in an effort to allow the people of the Anthropocene Epoch to find the macro view, wisdom, and power we and the environment need to survive and live sustainably.
