Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB) hosted the annual special exhibition "City Flip-Flop — Multiplex. Stained. Circulation, from October 5th to December 8th, and open to the public to visit free. The development of the city represents the epitome of human evolution, culture and art play an important role in the process. Through the interpretation of many curators and artists, the exhibition shows the process of urban transformation as the history of the past, traces of the current society and the infinite possibilities of the future.
The exhibition is divided into three major themes: "Multiplex", "Stained" and "Circulation":
"Multiplex" tells about the various social operations and living modes under the changing times. To adapt to the rapid development of science and technology and the changing environment, people have been constantly developing a "Multiplex" life, taking the symbiosis of time, space and human beings as the concept, the artist's observations and actions are concretely displayed in the works, depicting the shadows and imaginations left by human civilization in the city, and bring the creation and curating of different forms that explored to the city, trying to promote the possibility of new social practices.
"Stained" points out the definition and memory of the dirt in the history of the past, and the role in urban development. With the different ethnic cultures and backgrounds of the times, the definitions, labels and impressions of the dirt are different, not only on the physical appearance, but also the problems on the social, political, religious and other aspects. The works are built around the daily life, language, space, consciousness, ritual and other aspects that the artists explore the “Stained” in the flourishing and prosperous city, to explore the relationship and influence of the whole society and culture on the existence of dirt.
The development comes with the destruction. The human being's own private cause the earth's environment unbalanced. In order to survive, humans realize that the needs for sustainable development, the concept of "Circulation" arises spontaneously. The works exhibited on "Circulation" focus on new cooperative relationships and networks between villages and towns, promote innovative recycling manufacture methods, and advocate users to attaches great importance to concepts and practices of recycling.
The "Multiplex" part of the exhibition was curated by Wu Dar-Kuen, invited the Creators team stationed in C-LAB to join, and with experimentation and trial as the concept of the exhibition. Brilliant works include KUO I-Chen's "That`s one small step for mankind, One giant leap for species.", which extends from "Shijian st. 1 Landing Program", bringing "Procambarus fallax forma virginalis" and "Archaeopteryx" into the creation, conveys the transformation of the city and society after human landing on the moon, and the evolution and variation of human beings as one of the species go through the changes of science and technology. Thai artist Torlarp LARPJAROENSOOK's work "Insignificant Meaningful". By seeing the nationalist movement that has gradually rise around the world, artists have collected everyday objects such as lunch boxes, thermos, vases, and dishes made of clay, clay and other materials, those symbolize Asia: China, India, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries. And assemble all the objects to convey that the social and cultural essence of Asian countries can be integrated. The work "Ten Thousand Spirits" is a collaboration between artist Ting-Tong CHANG and Korean wizard Bujeokchongtong. Collected the bacteria from Bujeokchongtong`s body, using biotechnology to ferment the altar rice, and made an instrument that specialized for the production of witch rice wine.
The "Stained" part of the exhibition was curated by YU Wei and WANG I-Chun, across contemporary art, historical archive and field study. C-LAB is a very good place to create, it has the historical significance of the core military command center of Taiwan during the Cold-War Era. CHIN Cheng-Te's works "Tender Soul – Cold-War Era Beitou Waitress Memorial Steles" and" The Chill of the Exquisite Twin Cities - Cold-War Era Taipei Bar Girl Memorial Steles", "Bar Girl" in the Cold War period as the subject, remake the hot spring bathtub of "Beitou Bathing Scene", and placed "Cold-War Era Beitou Waitress Memorial Steles" in the hot spring, to reflect the image of Beitou's warmth, let "Bar Girl" that was forgotten in history was once again seen by the world. "Positive Coin", LEE Tzu-Tung uses the concept of HIV Positive as a concept. In order to remove the stigma of AIDS, "disease" is compared to "currency", advocate "disease" can also be circulated, quantified and controlled. People can well know AIDS and AIDS patients by understanding the metaphor of Positive Coin.
The "Circulation" part of the exhibition is curated by CHEN Hsin-Chun. By means of vendors, teams or social networks throughout Taiwan, change and practice little by little to lead the public towards a circular society. The series "Real Mass Entrepreneurship", was created by the artist Simon DENNY that he saw a standardized glass showcase at the Huaqiangbei Electronic Market during the preparation of the solo exhibition in Shenzhen. The artist copied and remodeled into a number of life-like product display cabinets. These display cabinets reflect the market, the production and rapid replacement of products truly describe the current wave of entrepreneurship in China.
City Flip-Flop — Multiplex．Stained．Circulation
Date: 5 October -8 December 2019
Venue: Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB)
Director: LAI Hsiang
Curator: WU Dar-Kuen (Multiplex); YU Wei, WANG I-Chun (Stained); CHEN Hsin-Chu (Circulation)
Curation Advisor: LIOU Shuenn-Ren, KENG Yi-Wei (Circulation), KUNG Shu-Chang (Experimental Architecture Project)
Figure 1： Vvzela KOOK, Confidential Records, 2016-, mixed media ©cityflipflop
Figure 2 top left： Vvzela KOOK, Confidential Records, 2016-, mixed media ©cityflipflop
Figure 2 top right：Working Hard(KUO Po-Yu, SHE Wen-Ying), En-trance, 2019, Post-Production, sound, UVA/C, PET/PC, wood. Photos by YIART
Figure 2 left bottom： House Peace, Mars BUG, 2019, Exhibition, performance. Photos by YIART
Figure 2 right bottom：LI Cheng-Liang, Dio Camel in Taipei, 2019, Dio motor scooters, everyday objects ©cityflipflop
