Hsinchu County Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun traveled to Japan to observe the opening ceremony of the Setouchi Triennale 2016’s Asia Village for reference when holding the Romantic Provincial Highway 3 International Arts Festival in future. While there, he called on local government and festival officials, including the governor of Kagawa Prefecture Keizo Hamada, the director and deputy director of the prefecture’s Bureau of Culture and Arts, and the director of the Promotion Section of the festival, and discussed including Hsinchu as one of the venues of the Setouchi Triennale, to let the world see Taiwan and Hsinchu.
President Tsai Ing-wen put forward the idea of turning Provincial Highway 3 into a romantic road when she first ran for president in 2012. Provincial Highway 3 is a romantic road with many Hakka settlement stories. By linking the townships on the highway with the arts and revitalizing Hakka culture and industry with the arts, the stories of the highway can continue to develop and occur, the beautiful atmosphere of Hakka settlements will be emanated and a wonderful home built.
Magistrate Chiu said that he hopes to invite the Setouchi Triennale and Echigo-Tsumari Art Field to use the arts to invigorate Hakka settlements, send arts into the community, enrich the landscape of Provincial Highway 3 and, as well as driving the development of arts, culture and tourism in Hsinchu County, promote international arts and culture exchange, raising the county’s international profile.
Lin, Shuen-Long’s Beyond the Borders series was once again invited to take part in the Setouchi Triennale, receiving subsidy from the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan under the cross-field joint creativity program. Drifting Through the Mountain Forest was performed in front of the work Beyond the Borders-the Ocean at Takamatsu harbor, with time-honored Hsinchu local store Du, Xiao Yue conducting traditional food culture island–hopping arts action; modern dancers Wu, Si-ai and Lin, Bei-ni performed together with the village children of the Atayal Inka MBing & Ensemble. This plan echoed the work of artist Lin, Shuen-Long, Beyond the Borders-Tide , displayed at the Obe harbor.
It featured Seed Ship with driftwood in the shape of the seeds of the floating marine plan Small-leaved barringtonia. The materials were pieces of driftwood from the August 8 typhoon disaster in Taiwan, marble from Hualian, with added aboriginal elements. It took six months to make and is nine meters high, nine meters deep and weighs 60 tons. It will be displayed permanently at the venue. There was also a Hsinchu County shape made from beech. It was very eye-catching and also left Taiwan’s official representative to Japan, Frank Hsieh, who visited the site, with a deep impression, and he was also pleased to see the friendly exchange between Hsinchu and Kagawa.
At the Obe harbor, Beyond the Borders-Tide. Sea featured 196 children made from sea sand, mud, brown sugar, glutinous rice and hemp. Lin, Shuen-Long, father of four children, said that he was deeply shocked by the image of the Syrian refugee baby, Yalan, dead on the beach in Turkey two years ago. Yalan resembles his second child and this event inspired him to create this work.
He said that the world children work represents hope for mankind. 196 is the number of countries in the world recognized by Japan. Children cannot choose their place of birth so their place of birth is buried in their belly and body; the white rose on the right side of the face represents innocence, the number on their body is the distance from their country to Japan; search the latitude and longitude on their back using a smart and people can find out where it is.
These “children” have been soaked in sea water and exposed to the wind, sun and rain, in the end all that is left is a gravestone like a skeleton and white rose. After they melt away, they return to the mother-like sea. This can make people ponder on the power of this kind of love and imperceptibly send love to all corners of the world.
Lin hopes that this kind of work can make people think about how the world created by adults lets many small souls and children become sacrifices. Despite this, the children in his work are still smiling and believe this world is beautiful! The work Dream of Olive by another invited Taiwan artist Wang, Wen-chih was made by weaving chopsticks and is highly distinctive.
The two most famous arts festivals in Japan are Setouchi Triennale and Echigo-Tsumari Art Field. Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun was invited by Kagawa Prefectural Government to lead a group to attend the opening ceremony of the Setouchi Triennale 2016 Asia Village; the director of Taiwan Visiotrs Association Janice Lai was also present at the donation ceremony of the Taiwan Lantern Festival main lantern Birds and Flowers by Taiwan Tourism Bureau.