The Flying Land – A Reflection on Our Migratory Existence
“The Universe is a temporary inn for all living beings.
Time is the transit visitors over the span of one hundred generations.”
Li Bai, in Preface to the Feast in Peach and Plum Garden on a Spring Night
Vision
In more ways than one, this contemporary art exhibition, The Flying Land, encapsulates our existence as drifters who wander through our existence, looking for an emotional and physical mooring, where we can remove our cruddy, threadbare shoes that have seen better days, where we can shed our coats that have weathered the tempests on the road.
Inspired by the growingly-popular Airbnb, which touts “Belonging Anywhere” as its brand campaign focus, its polished, shiny image contrasting sharply with the staggering scale of the international refugee crisis that sees massive human migration on haunting, perilous journeys, The Flying Land hopes to expose the two polar-opposite existences in contemporary society.
Core
The Flying Land seeks to echo the increasingly large movements of displaced people worldwide. It features artworks by seven artists and an artist duo hailed from six countries, their creative visions spanning those drawn from the Age of Exploration – which signaled the beginning of globalization, to the Urban Heterotopia. Elements curated from artists’ homes, and outlands they inhabit, are included in the exhibition, ranging from the migration experience, food, and discarded flipflops. The exhibits are displayed in the forms of installation, videos, and photographs. Also, as an allusion to human displacement caused by war, an anti-aircraft gun is combined with a generic living room; in addition, don’t miss a massive, memorable installation piece by Germany’s award-winning artist, Ulla von Brandenberg, who, in her debut exhibition in Taiwan, uses layers of oversized curtains to reference the unknowns in our journey.
The Flying Land is a thought-provoking experience diffused with recurring themes sourced from literary and photographic expressions of a longing to anchor our hearts, to belong; the images cross-references back and forth between different media, creating a language that loops back on itself: we migrate, exile, travel, and wander; at one time or another, in this lifetime or last, you and I have been an outlander.
Where do I belong? The Flying Land presented by artists from six countries
Airbnb’s corporate brand created in 2015 was all about a sense of belonging and community: “Looking out of their window, you’ll understand their perspectives; sleep in their beds, you’ll start dreaming their dreams.” Airbnb’s product features were reshaped around this core message about “belonging anywhere,” that “a home away from home” can be pre-ordered online.
But on the other side of the world, 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide because of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations in 2017, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The Flying Land gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration, elucidating both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact.
Between October 6, 2018 and January 20, 2019, The Flying Land would be staged at the Jut Art Museum to echo the migratory human condition of our time: it signifies this loop-like human existence permeated by endless roaming and displacement, and a deep-rooted yearning for belonging, and an assuring connection to a piece of land to call our own; yet it's a yearning that could never be met.
Ms. Shan-Shan Huang serves as the curator of the exhibition, graced by eight teams of artists: Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan from the Philippines, Ulla von Brandenburg from Germany, Heidi Vogels from the Netherlands, Tatzu Nishi from Japan, Wei Leng Tay from Singapore, and Taiwan’s very own Lin Shu-Kai, Cheng Jen-Pei and Lo Yi-Chun.
From the Age of Exploration to the Urban Heterotopia
The artists hailed from six countries deliver thought-provoking images of displaced human existence with installation art pieces, videos and photographs to retell the heart-rending journeys of the migrants.
Taiwan’s up-and-coming artist Lo Yi-Chun strung together a fleet of five rafts and hung them midair in Jut Art Museum’s courtyard, referencing the pilgrimage to the terrifying unknown; with tens and thousands of banana peels as her medium, the work guides the audience back to the Age of Exploration, while mirroring the European migrant crisis to illustrate the history defining mankind’s migratory movement and transnational trade activities.
Show-Stealing Large-Size Installation Pieces by Japanese and German Artists
German artist Ulla von Brandenburg chose to be part of The Flying Land ensemble by the Jut Art Museum to stage her debut show in Taiwan, and the acclaim she received was astounding: her Two Times Seven II consists of 14 gargantuan curtains and several haphazard items, enticing the viewer into a trance-like space that suggests incidents already took place, events currently pervading our airwaves, and things about to happen.
This piece hints at the basic human instinct to explore the uncharted territory, while noting the lack of destination in our journey.
The most striking showpiece in The Flying Land is a 40MM/L60 anti-aircraft gun used during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, resurrected for Vase of an Anti-aircraft Gun by Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi, who made his installation debut in Taiwan.
Nishi juxtaposed a cozy living room with the anti-aircraft gun, guised as two minimalist vases that penetrate through the floorboards and pierce the small coffee table to hold two large bouquets of lilies. Vase of an Anti-aircraft Gun is an impactful statement that hits the viewer with cognitive dissonance, making us wonder how and why we combine real and illusory perceptions and wrap ourselves in this incongruent space. What comes across as an ordinary living space the center is an allusion to Taiwan’s status-quo uncertainties, and regarded as the general existence of mankind in today’s international community, rife with unease and the lurking fear of displacement.
The Flying Land: An Infinite Wandering
Our hunt for emotional belonging and self-consciousness and self-clarity does not end with the ever-advancing technologies and social media encounters; we move, wander, migrate, travel, and roam, becoming a stranger, an outlander, in this lifetime or the next.
So how do we define “home” and “destination”?
Does our “home” promise us rest, or is it merely a temporary adobe, a stage where we role-play, or a prison? In the gray area between “place” and “non-place,” artists clue us in on a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more.
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The Flying Land
- Date: 6th Oct. 2018.- 20th Jan. 2019
- Venue: Jut Art Museum (No.178, Sec. 3, Civic Blvd., Daan Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan) and the outdoor park area
- Opening Hours: TUE-SUN 10:00-18:00 Closed on Mondays
- Admission: for the indoor exhibition area – General TWD 100, Concessions TWD 80 (student, seniors aged 65 and above, and groups of 10 or more); Free Admission for the disabled and a companion, children aged 12 and under (Concessions or Free Admission upon presentation of valid proof). The outdoor exhibition area is open to the public for free
- Artists:
Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan (Philippines)
Ulla von Brandenburg (Germany)
Heidi Vogels (Netherlands)
Tatzu Nishi (Japan)
Lin Shu-Kai (Taiwan)
Cheng Jen-Pei (Taiwan)
Wei Leng Tay (Singapore)
Lo Yi-Chun (Taiwan)
- Curator: Huang Shan-Shan
- Organizer: Jut Art Museum
- Coordinator: Zero in Art
- Sponsor: National Culture and Arts Foundation
- Co-orgnaizer: Parks and Street Lights Office, Public Works Department, Taipei City Government
- Event Partner: Netherlands Trade and Investment office, Eslite Bookstore, MOT CAFÉ
- Official Hotel Partner: HUA SHAN DIN BY COSMOS CREATION
- Special Thanks: Ministry of National Defense / Legislator, Wu Si-Yao / New Construction Office, Public Works Department, Taipei City Government / Changlong Village Office (Da'an Dist., Taipei) / Jiantan Village Office (Zhongshan Dist., Taipei) / Association of Comrades of Second Taiwan Strait Crisis R.O.C
