Taipei The day began with a subway ride to Treasure Hill, an artist community, near the river. A sweltering walk was relieved by an undulating, elevated pathway through the forest that disgorged us at a temple at the entrance of Treasure Hill. The morning was juxtaposed with the afternoon, where rain gear and umbrellas delivered us through pouring rain to an indigenous-run coffeehouse, called Lumaq, which means “home” in a local dialect. There we had two hours of amazing discussion that both unearthed the long history of indigenous oppression and continuing discrimination in ways both large and small for the local communities, all of which was curated and translated by an amazing, young and renowned political artist specializing in “participatory art,” which she demonstrated for us as well.
The Indigenous Youth Front was behind this comfortable and well-appointed coffeehouse in downtown Taipei. Yuni came from behind the counter to explain their mission and ended up answering questions from all of us and detailing the continuing indigenous experience in Taiwan, some of which is overt, and some of which consists of daily microaggressions, as she explained. Too much of it seemed familiar for North Americans, though obviously unique and distinct. There are 13 recognized groups, and perhaps 30 in all. The most complicated situation focused on identity and voting. Taiwanese IDs note indigenous heritage, but it is “chosen” in some ways when an individual self-certifies in the way they adopt their familial name permanently. Everyone is allowed to vote for President of the country, but when it comes to legislative seats in the Parliament, the indigenous community – no matter where they live — can only vote for either the Mountain or the Plains representative, who rather than representing a geographical district, speaks for a huge part of the whole island. The indigenous population is only about 2%, but hard-pressed to assert its voice without something like the Front, which arose with the Sunflower Movement, to make the case.
Lee Tzu-Tung had arranged for us to meet us there so she could present her work in a series of slides after we learned about the Front. She detailed a number of her current projects under the rubric of “Sailing in the Pirate Sea of Art.” Each one was almost more complicated than the one before. She had begun her career at the border of the mainland China conflict with the Republic of China in Taiwan, arising during the Sunflower Movement. She had embedded herself in Communist Party meetings in the US and on the mainland, as well as at a UN assembly, even after Taiwan was expelled. She was trying to explicate the role of shame and the “anti-identity identity,” as she called it being forced on Taiwanese. Another project, that drew on her economics background, was called Forkonomy, where participants would decide how and who should own a milliliter of the South China Sea. The Positive Coin project tried to turn the tables on the understanding of HIV-AIDs from negativity to recognition. A bitcoin was created and those who bought one at an ATM at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which somehow we missed when we were there, at the end of the project could use it to purchase an NFT with proceeds being donated to organizations dealing with HIV. Ghostkeepers was the fourth project she explained, where avatars were created who were victims of “white terror” violence in various countries and times, allowing communication by participants with these ghost avatars.
At the end of her presentation, many of us were speechless. This was all widely political and inventive, but not easily grasped in one gulp and certainly, though participatory, not mass-based. We felt honored by her time, attention, and passion for her work. Tzu-Tung is a big deal in the art world globally. She had been to Venice recently. She was scheduled for solo shows at venues in London, Ireland, and Sweden, not just at MOCA and Taiwan locations where she has installations.
For the delegation with the Organizers’ Forum these were meetings that we will long remember and will send us searching the web to try to learn more and follow the progress of these very different but amazing young women from Taiwan, while we also figure out a way to support their struggle, which is as much global as local.
