MONO X: Children on the edge of itchy-tectonics : Taiwanese New Experimental Films. ACE HOTEL - LIBERTY HALL, Doors at 1:30 PM, Screening at 2 PM With Mono No Aware X, The Other Cinema presents the programme “Children on the edge of itchy-tectonics : Taiwanese New Experimental Films.” This programme is a collection of the younger generation of Taiwanese experimental films, which manifest a certain quality not yet named about the place, the generation and the discipline. We connect some of the most active and vivid experimental filmmakers from Taiwan and present their works. Many of these works have been shown in various international platforms separately, through this special occasion it would be the first time they been showcased under the same frame. Locates in the tight corner between geographical and cultural political plate tectonics, the island rides on the eruption dynamics which converges as well as destructs. These millennials filmmakers grow up from the rise and fall of Taiwanese New Wave Cinema, and the dilemmas of the contemporary moving images: forms, media, and institutionalization… While date lines vanishes, cross-national transferring turned common, they emerge from the foundation of transformations, friction and tickling between these gaps are here to stay. Taiwan’s experimental films start to flourish in 1978 for the government founded competition “Golden Harvest Awards for Outstanding Short Films”. Filmmakers consider the award a testing ground for them to further produce feature films, since then experimental films became a genre for younger filmmakers to start their career. Nonetheless when filmmakers have chances to enter into film industry, experimental filmmaking somehow became a past tense activities. A result of which is that experimental film in Taiwan has a fragmental and dim history. In this collection, the filmmakers were born after ‘78, while their understanding of experimental cinema differs from their predecessors. Their works become more visible for various international platforms and festivals start to emerge. We present their works through this special occasion of Mono No Aware X. The Other Cinema is a curators and filmmakers collective based in Taipei and New York, it was founded in 2015 and was originally an on-line film club that shares ideas and interest on films, moving images, video art and all the time-based media arts. In 2016 The Other Cinema Collective starts to organize film screening events and talks in Taiwan, it’s first curatorial project “Every film is an enigma: moving image in the black box and white cube” will be held at Soulangh Cultural Park in May 2017. Ace Hotel New York reinvents the urban hotel for the people who make cities interesting. With a sense of curiosity and respect for the history and culture of New York City, the 12-story hotel lives in a historic, turn-of-the-century building in Midtown Manhattan. The space serves up engaged fashion retail, a Michelin-starred restaurant and eloquent, mischievous and interesting answers to the travel experience. Ace Hotel and MONO NO AWARE have formed a partnership through the series Studio Visits. Studio Visits is a quarterly series inviting hands-on makers to visit the Ace Hotel New York Lobby and interact with the public, sharing basic principles about their practice. This last July Ace welcomed local filmmakers of MONO NO AWARE for an afternoon of camera-less animation on film where participants worked directly on film, creating fun experimental loops to take home. ▶ Programme The Subduction Zone: Our Status Quo, Shake, video, 4’55’’ Located at the subduction zone where the Eurasian Plate converges with the Philippine Sea Plate, the island of Taiwan has developed a unique topography as a result of the downwelling tectonic activity. Similarly, Taiwan’s position at the boundaries of different political forces within the global geography, and the hidden forces exerted by political, economic, cultural, and ideological plates, have shaped its national identity. Taiwan’s unique landscape and geopolitical history serves as a theme for The Subduction Zone by Shake. Comprised of three short films entitled Our Status Quo, Our Story and Our Suite de Danses, the work traces the intersection of the tectonic plates and travel to Taipei’s Tatun Volcanoes; the Yuli to Antun section of the old railway line in Hualian that traverses the Eurasian Plate and Philippine Sea Plate; and to the Jili Badlands in Taitung. In the eyes of a geologist, these locations are ideal textbook examples of plate tectonics; but what Shake contemplates is whether these landscapes enable an imagining of the political struggles that have taken place on this island. How does an individual find a resting place within the conflicts of divergent social structures, political systems, and ideological modes? How can the status of the self be reimagined and the story of the self be told?
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