Taipei Travel

2017 Taipei Children’s Arts Festival, Taipei Arts Festival, and Taipei Fringe Festival

A Dynamic Mid-Summer of the Arts

Article｜Taipei Culture Foundation

Photos｜Ani Antonova, Jerry Shulman, Zin Ge, Bruce Jackson, HandsOff Workers & PDLab
 

The most anticipated arts banquet of Taipei’s midsummer is about to start! Three summer arts feasts, including Taipei Children’s Arts Festival (台北兒童藝術節), Taipei Arts Festival (台北藝術節), and the Taipei Fringe Festival (台北藝穗節) will showcase marvelous programs by Taiwanese and foreign artists, enriching this city and providing aesthetically-rich experiences for all ages.

▲  With dancing and music, Happy Farm weaves a tapestry of merry voices. The vocals are like echoes of nature, stimulating passionate tempos in the blood. (Photo: Ani Antonova)

The Favorite Summer Activity for Children and Parents Alike
– Taipei Children’s Arts Festival

This year’s Taipei Children’s Arts Festival is called “Beyond Boundaries” and will feature programs related to the theme of helping people break out of old molds and develop outwards. The festival includes Constelaciones (燦爛宇宙), a dance program inspired by the bright colors of Miro’s paintings; Lula Del Ray (露拉出走中), a play that combines shadow puppets with real humans; Carousel des Moutons (飛天鋼琴), a duet that combines circus acts and music; and Happy Farm (快樂農莊), a presentation of some African music and culture that has not often been seen before. In addition, there are programs to trigger people’s thinking, such as A Beginning, After Everything Is Finished (開始，在一切結束之後), which confronts environmental issues, and My Father’s Father’s Father’s Treasure (爸爸的爸爸的爸爸的寶藏), about matters related to family education. A most popular play of recent years has been, Buchettino (拇指小英雄), an international co-production produced by an Italian director and his avant-garde contemporary theater group. This play breaks down boundaries between adult and children’s drama, giving grownups something to think about.

What’s more, the festival will stage free performances at outdoor and community venues in different parts of Taipei. For example, the interactive installation art piece, Shocking and Amazing (大驚‧小怪) will be presented in Bopiliao (剝皮寮). This is a work that is truly “hands on” and the artist expects the audience to use their brains (and hands) and participate fully. We welcome you to attend from June 30th to August 6th. Come by, enjoy and participate!

▲  Combining cinematic technique with live performance and shadow puppetry, Lula Del Ray tells a deep and affecting growing up story. (Photo: Jerry Shulman)

World Art Trending in Taipei – Taipei Arts Festival

This will be Year 19 for the Taipei Arts Festival, and the theme is:“The City and its Future.” The dates are from August 7th to September 17th. According to artistic director, Keng Yiwei (耿一偉), the lineup will promote two-way synchronization and communication between Taipei and other international cities. He notes, “Just as big cities have international airports to connect with the world, the arts festival is a kind of cultural international airport.”

This arts festival will astonish audiences with 11 extraordinary programs, including THE B-SIDE, by The Wooster Group from USA, which will reinterpret the music album, Negro Folklore From Texas State Prisons. This will be the show’s world premiere, right here in Taipei! Deutsches Theater Berlin will perform the much-talked-about classic, Waiting for Godot.

As an exercise in international co-production, Taipei Arts Festival and Dance München have co-produced Ethnic Minority, staged by the most popular choreographer from Mainland China, Yang Zhen (楊朕). This piece interprets the dances of revolutionary games. Taiwan’s Voleur du Feu (盜火劇團) and TPAM in Yokohama will co-present Taipei Notes (台北筆記), directed by Japan’s Hirada Oriza, which cleverly observes world politics through the lens of museum comedy.

Keng believes that “If you keep the world in your heart, the world will be with you wherever you are.” We can only hope that these cross-city creative programs and performances will make Taipei Arts Festival a window into the world’s creative trends, while letting the ambience and spirit of the arts spread all over Taipei.

▲  Performed by 20 outstanding actors, including Wang Chuan, Chu Hungchang, and Hsieh Yingshiuan from Taiwanese theater groups, and the Japanese director, Hirada Oriza, Taipei Notes explores human’s survival issues of the near future. (Photo: Zin Ge)
 

Ten Marvelous Years of Unleashed Creativity – Taipei Fringe Festival

Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, the Fringe Festival concept came to Taipei 10 years ago guided by the principles of free experimentation without screening by organizing authorities. The “Fringe” is a performance platform where new artists can express themselves freely. A favorite feature of the Taipei Fringe Festival is the chance to see performances in all kinds of unconventional spaces. Examples of such locations are: Huajiang Resettled Tenement Communities (華江整宅), a social housing complex where you can wander around for over one kilometer soaking up the atmosphere of old Taipei; Sin Hong Choon Trade Company (新芳春茶行), a tea shop in Dadaocheng with a history of almost 100 years; the Dadaocheng yacht with its views of the passing Damsuei riverside; Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre (牯嶺街小劇場), the icon of Taiwan’s little theaters; and even a kindergarten, a clinic dating from the Japanese Era, and an abandoned temple.

▲  The avant-garde Wooster Group from USA comes to Taiwan for the first time, to perform their new play, THE B-SIDE, inspired by the music album, Negro Folklore From Texas State Prisons. (Photo: Bruce Jackson)

The events celebrating Taipei Fringe Festival’s 10th anniversary are something to look forward to this year. 10 Years of Taipei Fringe Festival Special Issue (台北藝穗節十年專刊) will be published at the end of 2017, and will discuss the changing context of the Festival over the past decade and the development of the city’s arts scene. There are also two extra programs planned: the Fringe Festival “friendly performance group” will put on an evening of comedy and variety; entitled “Gala Night”(藝穗歡慶夜)–laughing with tears guaranteed! And besides that, two Fringe Awards first prize winners from Festivals past will be remounted. Koh Choon Eiow (高俊耀), representing the middle-aged generation will present Seven Kinds of Silence: Anger (七種靜默：忿怒), while the younger set will be reflected by HandsOff Workers & PDLab’s (手放開工作團隊&追困實驗室) Somewhere Out There (冥王星).

From August 20th through September 10th, the 10th Taipei Fringe Festival will bring 159 different programs of every style performed in 36 types of venue. Welcome everyone to attend this feast and share these mind-blowing performances!

▲  The 2016 Fringe’s Future Star Award winner, Somewhere Out There by HandsOff Workers & PDLabs has been invited to remount at the festival this year. (Photo: HandsOff Workers & PDLab)