Screening and conversation with Chiang Kai-chun
Thursday, November 17th
7pm Screening of experimental Films by Chiang Kai-chun
In the Flux Factory Gallery
Those Who Cannot – film, 2013
I was in Jordan learning to make Byzantine Mosaic. Every day, I took a two-hour bus journey from the capital Amman to the workshop. The bus was not air-conditioned, and I invariably had to open the window to relieve myself from sweltering. The film starts with the floating cloth designed to offer some shade to the passengers.
The ordinary shade cloth was like Isadora Duncan’s dance costume. Duncan (1878- 1927) was a pioneer of American contemporary dance. Duncan did not invent any new dance move, instead, she appealed for the natural beauty of how we human beings walk, run, jump and wave our hands. She was the first barefoot dancer on the stage. Duncan danced barefoot, flowing in a Hellenistic tunic, while the conservatives walked out in protest. But Duncan danced out freedom. The shade cloth danced with the wind, just like an improvisation of contemporary dance. One time I crossed the border to Jerusalem. The scenery along the highway around the Dead Sea was breathtaking. Travelling in Jordan opened my eyes towards the world. I mingled with the locals, soldiers, the Jews, Syrian refugees, and Palestinians. I found out that in many countries people do not have the freedom to move around. Political turmoils persisted in many places.
I began to appreciate the freedom of exercising the body, artistic expressions, and self-expression of any kind.
The Journal of the Zeelandia Fort – film, 2014
This experimental film is inspired by the official correspondence of the Dutch East India Company in the seventeenth century, archived at the National Archief, King- dom of the Netherlands. This film is presented as a personal travel journal between Middelbourg in the Netherlands, once a harbour of the Dutch East India Company in the seventeenth century, and the Fort Zeelandia in Tainan, Taiwan. The film reflects on the history of Taiwan and the current political context where Taiwan is.
This multimedia film combined hand-drawn animation, 16mm-filming and mobile video recording. Technically, it showcased an evolution of film art. The blue-white-Delft-style animation represents the Eurasia history in the seventeenth century. The film led the audience onto a visual travel to the past.
Machines Textiles – film, 2015
Le Pommier – film, 2015
If you feel alone – film, 2013
Chiang Kai-chun is a photographer and animation director who lives and works between Taiwan and France. Between 2013 and 2015, He was in residence at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, where he produced “The Journal of the Fort Zeelandia ” with the support of the Hermès Fondation. He discovered experimental film during his study in the School of Arts in Paris-Cergy. His works memorize his identity and traveling experience. Kai- chun Chiang’s films have been screened at International Animation Film Festival in Geneva, International Audiovisuel Programmes Festival in France and International Short Film Festival in Glasgow in the United Kingdom. He is now residency at Flux Factory.
Education
2015 Le Fresnoy, Studio National des arts contemporains, France
