The Berlin-based 2019 Flaneur Festival will celebrate both the mainstream and fringe cultures of the Taiwanese capital city Taipei with free performances, walks, panels, workshops, karaoke, and parties from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 at the contemporary arts venue Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
"Flaneur Magazine" is an independent publication spearheaded by chief editors Fabian Saul and Grashina Gabelmann. Every issue is themed around a street from a different part of the world, in which the team travels to that region for up to six months to haunt that road and meet its residents, regulars, and passers-by. Offering a different way of thinking about cities like Athens and Sao Paulo, the magazine's latest edition will spotlight Taipei's Kangding-Wanda Road intersection.
As Kangding and Wanda both lead to the oldest part of Taipei, their intersection can be viewed as both the center and peripheral gate of Taiwan's capital. In an interdisciplinary, concerted effort with local and international collaborators, the axis of Kangding and Wanda in Wanhua District has been mapped out from different angles, revealing the layers, colonial implications, unvoiced stories, and contradictions of this place of displacements.
Contributors to the 8th edition of Flaneur Magazine include artists, poets, writers, and public figures such as:
DJ Betty Apple (鄭宜蘋)
Publisher Chan Wei-hsiung (詹偉雄)
Author Lotus Hui-ching Chang (張惠菁)
Sound artist Sheryl Cheung (張欣)
Architect Chi Ti-nan (季鐵男)
Illustrator Chou Yi (周依)
"New Bloom" co-founder Brian Hioe (丘琦欣)
Editor-translator Hu Shu-wen (胡淑雯)
Scriptwriter-director Snow Huang (黃思農)
Poet Hung Hung (鴻鴻)
Artist-gatherer Zo Lin (林芝宇)
Video artist Su Yu-hsin (蘇郁心)
Mixed media artist Teng Chao-ming (鄧兆旻)
German novelist Senthuran Varatharajah
Author Wu Ming-yi (吳明益)
Photographer Manbo Key (登曼波)
Video artist Yu Cheng-ta (余政達)
Animator Zhang Xu-zhan (張徐展)
Several of the aforementioned contributors will also attend the Berlin festival to offer keynote speeches and participate in roundtable discussions. The 20.5-hour-long festival is the team's attempt to transform a collaborative magazine into a nonstop participatory festival.
The festival is made possible with the kind support of the Taipei-based General Assembly of Chinese Culture (GACC), Goethe-Institut Taipei, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Ministry of Culture (Taiwan), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Taiwan), EVA Airways Corp., Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), Fr. Ant. Niedermayr, Papyrus Deutschland, Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM) and giloo.
FLANEUR FESTIVAL
20.5 HOURS
DAY & NIGHT
HAUS DER KULTUREN DER WELT
From 8/31, 11 am
Until 9/1, 7.30 am
FREE ENTRY
Additional information available on Facebook and in German.
Attending Taiwan artists:
Video artist Yu Cheng-ta (余政達)
Mixed media artist Teng Chao-ming (鄧兆旻)
Scriptwriter-director Snow Huang (黃思農)
Sound artist Sheryl Cheung (張欣)
DJ Betty Apple (鄭宜蘋)
"New Bloom" co-founder Brian Hioe (丘琦欣)
Video artist Su Yu-hsin (蘇郁心)
Spatial designer Cetus Kuo (郭敬耘)
Photographer Manbo Key (登曼波)
Artist-gatherer Zo Lin (林芝宇)
Guest speakers:
Social commentator Chang Tieh-chih (張鐵志)
Senior translator-curator Wei Tang (唐薇)
Art curator Lee Yen-yi (李彥儀)