( oversea exchange projects )

wenyau

Km.0 URBANO International Artists’ Workshop: How I Laid Back in the Tropical Sweats

After 30 hours on the flights and transits in 2 airports, I arrived at Santa Cruz and started an “exotic” adventure – the tropical sunshine and the swinging hammocks, sweats on my neck and delectable food in the back garden, singing and dancing and partying all came into my mind at the very first moments, and after all it was the friendship between artists from different parts of the world and the intensive exchange of ideas and cultures that impressed and stimulated me the most.

Almost 30 artists participated in the workshop, half of them local artists and half of them from Latin America, the USA, Sweden, Iceland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. As one of the only two participating Asian artists, the workshop offered me alienated yet very inspiring experience of meeting artists of different cultures in a focused and intensive setting. Within the two weeks of residency, artists exchanged ideas of art making and world-views in informal occasions such as meal time, hanging around in the town and resting in the hostels, and formal occasions such as presentation, discussion, working in studios and symposium. Trust and mutual support built within the group facilitated us to produce our work in an experimental and inter-disciplinary approach which widened our horizons and opened up creative possibilities and, most importantly, let us concentrate on our art-making process in a well-supported environment.

The cultural clashes I experienced in traveling in Bolivia and meeting other artists during the workshop were particularly stimulating. The participating artists in the workshop, might not have a common language, but nothing had prevented our body, our mind or even just a blink or a smile from communicating with each others. Even in a stationary shop, I only used my gestures and facial expression to show the keeper what I wanted to buy because I could not speak any languages of this country. So on and so forth, I was very inspired by these speechless moments that reverted the meaningfulness of languages and therefore created my work of installation and live performance “¡Hola, Santa Cruz!” out of my such “exotic” experience. My work, which explored the ambiguity of language in the inter-cultural communication with people from different cultures speaking different languages, received acclaims from local critics and curators and had attracted a wide range of audience in public space.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Home Affairs Bureau which financially supports some of my traveling expenses of this trip and to thank the Km.0 URBANO organizer which created such a meaningful encounter for me and other artists. Cultural exchange is not only about meeting people of different cultures, but also its result of reflection upon one’s own culture in an alienated and distant perspective. The workshop has widened my scope of artistic practice by offering me valuable experience of cultural exchange and professional development in both a creative capacity and a critical stance.

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