"Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin," an European festival billed as the meeting place of contemporary cinema and art, will be held in Paris from Feb. 25 through March 1 this year. The three featured Taiwanese acts are artists Hsu Che-yu (許哲瑜) and Hong Jun-yuan (洪鈞元) and art collective Ghost Mountain Ghost Shovel (鬼丘鬼鏟).
In the presence of artists, art institutions, and emerging cultural organizations from around the world, the festival will be presenting 107 works from 33 countries by renowned filmmakers and young talents at the auditoriums of renowned Parisian institutions such as the Louvre and Grand Palais.
Artist Hsu's "Single Copy" is about exploring the layers of bio-politics and examining one's memory. In making the video, the artist employed the technique of 3D scanning to re-cast and archive the body of the first conjoined twins to ever undergo separation surgery in Taiwan.
Art collective Ghost Mountain Ghost Shovel, which is led by director Val Lee (李奧森), will be screening the auto-documentaries "Good Morning Women (Buenos días mujeres)," set in Mexico City, and "N," set in New York City. Confronted with several scenarios, the main characters encounter each other at different sites around the city as they follow a script that designate their respective journeys, while the photographers document their actions.
Director Hong's "Where do you come from - 1981" is a creative approach to individual narratives and Polaroid pictures used to reiterate their life experiences. A few of the featured actors came from broken families and shared similar sentiments as the concepts expressed in this work.
Conceived as a laboratory for discovery and reflection over contemporary practices of the moving image, the festival's 2020 edition will also focus on the prominent and emerging figures of cinema and contemporary arts. In addition to the screenings, there will also be special events, panel discussions, and more. The French-language press release is available here.
Screenings | Auditorium of Grand Palais
Feb. 26 (3pm)Hsu Che-yu: "Single Copy" (Video, 0:21:17, Taiwan, 2019)
Feb. 26 (6pm)Ghost Mountain Ghost Shovel: "Good Morning Women (Buenos días mujeres)" (Doc. Exp., 0:08:20, Taiwan, 2019)
On Site | Video Library of Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin
Feb. 28 to March 1Hong Jun-yuan: "Where do you come from-1981" (Video, Taiwan, 2019)
Ghost Mountain Ghost Shovel: "N" (Exp. Doc., Taiwan, 2019)