Nakaw Putun, curator
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.
