方域之外 Beyond Territory
DATES|October 17, 2020 - November 14, 2020
OPENING|October 17 (15:00)
DISCUSSION|October 17 (17:00) with Nobuo Takamori
OPENING|October 17 (15:00)
DISCUSSION|October 17 (17:00) with Nobuo Takamori
sTATEMENT
Boundary defines the reach of the national power of a modern sovereign state. Within its boundary, the state uses techniques of governance to separate the so-called good citizens from those considered bad, and banish the dissenting voices to ensure its stability and continuance. As for the banished, they have become expatriates whose exile best embodies the life politics of the contemporary world.
Amidst the refugee waves in Europe, this group of border-crossing expatriates might have lost their civic rights, but they have also found other ways to destabilize the relations between countries. From Brexit to Donald Trump being elected as the US president, people have started to re-examine whom they have shared their power with, and tried to retrieve a sense of identity founded on kinship and region in the past.
The exhibition title, Beyond Territory, refers to a measuring method, enabled by imagination and collision, to survey the boundary that is constantly changing due to political and economic coopetition. Territory refers to “an area of land under the jurisdiction of a state”; and in the early 20th century, the Chinese government had the Department of Territory that dealt with national boundary and territory conflicts. To continue imperialist expansion and the influence of colonial power, the Tibet-British India border drawn by British explorer Henry McMahon has caused conflicts until the present day. What exactly maps out the range of a place? What separates us from all the others outside the boundary?
Tenzin Rigdol’s work is inspired by the dear wish of his expatriate father before he passed away, who hoped to return to his homeland, Tibet. The artist smuggled twenty tons of Tibetan soil to the Tibetan political center in exile in India, crossing the national borders of China, Nepal and India. The work allowed the Tibetans in exile to be able to stand on the soil of their homeland again and express their feelings. The process was filmed and made into a documentary by director Tenzin Tsetan Choklay. On view in this exhibition are the documentary and the bags used to smuggle the soil. Tapas Roy was born on a ship fleeting a war in Bangladesh. According to the artist, he had experienced the war through sounds when he was still in his mother’s womb. Through this work, he tried to trace his sonic memory to represent the truth about the war machine.
Nevertheless, not all the border-crossing expatriates possess similar attributes and can form as a community again. The appearance of a community is intricately linked to a specific space and time; and while crossing the boundary, the “us” that used to define a community also dissolves and changes into innumerous units waiting for forming a new community. However, it is still impossible to become the “us” again before crossing the boundary. Having said that, there are also people who are attracted to the others that cross the boundary; and together, they become the different ones in both communities to freely roam about the boundaries of communities.
Documentary director TSAI Yung-Ching is one of the earliest advocators for stateless Tibetan spouses in Taiwan. Her short film, The Boy Tashi, stems from a workshop organized for young Tibetan students in exile. In the workshop, TSAI led them to reflect on the impact on the community in exile caused by modern lifestyle, and turned their ideas into performance and short film. This short film is one of the works created by the young Tibetans in exile in the workshop. Rajnish Chhanesh lives in a Delhi neighborhood informed by conflicts between different communities. He focuses on historical memory of the communities and finds his inspiration from nature, appropriatesIslamic miniatures to convey the conflicts he has witnessed in life.
Community, though originating from imagination, its process of formation is not necessarily mysterious and invisible. Through symbolic exchange, objects bring reputation and status far exceeding their original value to their givers, and at the same time, establish the dominant-subordinate relationship between the givers and the receivers. With re-distribution of resource, power can be re-arranged accordingly to distinguish different classes and groups. These changes are then directly reflected in a range of economic events.
YU Chih-Wei, a journalist stationing in India, collaborates with LAI Pei-Chun to create a board game inspired by India’s unexpected demonetization of 500- and 1000-rupee banknotes in 2016 and its impact on South Asia, pointing out the complicated political issues involved in the process. LI Kuei-Pi creates a virtual company, called “TransBorder,” which provides transnational trade and illegal travel services based on the extensive yet underground economic network produced by stateless people, hoping to restore the truth of exile with falsified information.
From the global waves of mass democracy protests in 2019 to the nationalist ideology prompted by the current coronavirus outbreak, Beyond Territory hopes to look into the present time and address people’s aloof and fragile coexistence.
Amidst the refugee waves in Europe, this group of border-crossing expatriates might have lost their civic rights, but they have also found other ways to destabilize the relations between countries. From Brexit to Donald Trump being elected as the US president, people have started to re-examine whom they have shared their power with, and tried to retrieve a sense of identity founded on kinship and region in the past.
The exhibition title, Beyond Territory, refers to a measuring method, enabled by imagination and collision, to survey the boundary that is constantly changing due to political and economic coopetition. Territory refers to “an area of land under the jurisdiction of a state”; and in the early 20th century, the Chinese government had the Department of Territory that dealt with national boundary and territory conflicts. To continue imperialist expansion and the influence of colonial power, the Tibet-British India border drawn by British explorer Henry McMahon has caused conflicts until the present day. What exactly maps out the range of a place? What separates us from all the others outside the boundary?
Tenzin Rigdol’s work is inspired by the dear wish of his expatriate father before he passed away, who hoped to return to his homeland, Tibet. The artist smuggled twenty tons of Tibetan soil to the Tibetan political center in exile in India, crossing the national borders of China, Nepal and India. The work allowed the Tibetans in exile to be able to stand on the soil of their homeland again and express their feelings. The process was filmed and made into a documentary by director Tenzin Tsetan Choklay. On view in this exhibition are the documentary and the bags used to smuggle the soil. Tapas Roy was born on a ship fleeting a war in Bangladesh. According to the artist, he had experienced the war through sounds when he was still in his mother’s womb. Through this work, he tried to trace his sonic memory to represent the truth about the war machine.
Nevertheless, not all the border-crossing expatriates possess similar attributes and can form as a community again. The appearance of a community is intricately linked to a specific space and time; and while crossing the boundary, the “us” that used to define a community also dissolves and changes into innumerous units waiting for forming a new community. However, it is still impossible to become the “us” again before crossing the boundary. Having said that, there are also people who are attracted to the others that cross the boundary; and together, they become the different ones in both communities to freely roam about the boundaries of communities.
Documentary director TSAI Yung-Ching is one of the earliest advocators for stateless Tibetan spouses in Taiwan. Her short film, The Boy Tashi, stems from a workshop organized for young Tibetan students in exile. In the workshop, TSAI led them to reflect on the impact on the community in exile caused by modern lifestyle, and turned their ideas into performance and short film. This short film is one of the works created by the young Tibetans in exile in the workshop. Rajnish Chhanesh lives in a Delhi neighborhood informed by conflicts between different communities. He focuses on historical memory of the communities and finds his inspiration from nature, appropriatesIslamic miniatures to convey the conflicts he has witnessed in life.
Community, though originating from imagination, its process of formation is not necessarily mysterious and invisible. Through symbolic exchange, objects bring reputation and status far exceeding their original value to their givers, and at the same time, establish the dominant-subordinate relationship between the givers and the receivers. With re-distribution of resource, power can be re-arranged accordingly to distinguish different classes and groups. These changes are then directly reflected in a range of economic events.
YU Chih-Wei, a journalist stationing in India, collaborates with LAI Pei-Chun to create a board game inspired by India’s unexpected demonetization of 500- and 1000-rupee banknotes in 2016 and its impact on South Asia, pointing out the complicated political issues involved in the process. LI Kuei-Pi creates a virtual company, called “TransBorder,” which provides transnational trade and illegal travel services based on the extensive yet underground economic network produced by stateless people, hoping to restore the truth of exile with falsified information.
From the global waves of mass democracy protests in 2019 to the nationalist ideology prompted by the current coronavirus outbreak, Beyond Territory hopes to look into the present time and address people’s aloof and fragile coexistence.