Taiwanese curator and playwright Keng Yi-wei (耿一偉) shared his extensive curating experiences in organizing art and film festivals at a June 23 salon talk called "3 Seconds, 5 days, and 7 years" in Kuala Lumpur.
Keng currently works as a theater consultant at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (衛武營國家藝術文化中心) and an associate professor at National Taipei University of the Arts. He served as artistic director of Taipei Arts Festival for 6 years prior, and has been penning periodical columns for ARTCO Monthly (今藝術專欄), which features articles by famous art critics and cultural professionals, since 2016.
The 50-year-old also collaborates with international art expositions, such as Edinburgh Art Festival and Vienna Art Festival. To him, an art festival is the best place where artists, members of the local community, and cityscapes collide and learn from each other.
He has also directed musicals, stage plays, zen dramas, and installation projects including "La Ramba in the Art Museum (拉然巴在美術館)" at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum's 2015 exposition "Alice’s Rabbit Hole" and interactive space-themed installation "I've been there (去年夏天你不在，我來過)."
His published literary works include "40 Words of Charisma (文化領導力關鍵字40)," "Awakening Oriental Orlando (喚醒東方歐蘭朵)," and "Robert Wilson: The Infinity of Light (無線之光)," the latter of which went on to win the first prize at Hong Kong's Ni Kuang Sci-fi Awards (倪匡科幻獎).
Keng's session was held in Kuala Lumpur's Zi Teng Tea Culture Plaza as part of the "Tea Philo" series organized by Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia. He shared his curatorial philosophy and future prospects in the June 23 session, attracting many prominent Malaysian arts and cultural professionals and students.
Outstanding Taiwanese professionals in the fields of arts and culture are holding lectures in Kuala Lumpur from April through November 2018. Audience members are encouraged to sign up through the Tea Philo Facebook page or call +60-16-673-5938.