The 2021 Taiwan International Light Festival (TILF) will take place at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) in Taichung from Feb. 26 to Mar. 28.
Adopting "Silver Lining" as the main theme, 2021 TILF intends to highlight the effects of the global pandemic in terms of how it has slowed down human interaction. As a result of COVID-19, our social environment has quietened down significantly, granting us a chance to breathe and interact once again with nature, while enabling us to learn and observe the many changes of the world in face of the uncertainties that have risen, and ponder our roles in relation to this new reality.
Taking place outside the museum, 2021 TILF will bring attention to the art installations brought about by four teams of Taiwanese artists: Tsai Yi-ting (蔡宜婷), Hsieh Yu-cheng X Wang Chung-yuan (謝佑承 X 王中原), UxU studio (有用主張) and Peppercorns Interactive Media Art Inc. (黑川互動媒體藝術), and those by four other teams of international artists, including Group LAPS, Yasuhiro Chida, Encor and Kou Tak-Leong (高德亮), from France, Japan, Switzerland and Macau, respectively.
Integrating both sound and the visual aspect of light, the installation by France's Group LAPS will light up the atmosphere through a 1980s retro motion art design.
Japanese artist Chida's art piece will feature tiny lights scattered across an empty darkness, as if enveloping the audience in a multitude of shooting stars, surreal and magical at the same time.
Meanwhile, Swiss group Encor's art piece will utilize the reflection in the water, and the movement of the waves to cast light upon the myriad of changes in the spaces surrounding NTMoFA.
Through the interplay between sensory perception, the symbolism in objects, spatial communication and the natural environment, a total of eight light art pieces will echo the main theme of 'silver lining' in the upcoming exhibition, allowing the audience to open up their senses in anticipation of a better day to come. It will also help us explore the many faces and potentialities of human beings and the natural environment amidst the current uncertainties.