GROUP EXHIBITION, CURATED BY HSIEH PEI-CHUN

At Vital Space’s first-floor gallery, two enormous cloud-like balloons float gently in the air. In their movement, they trigger the plucking of the piano strings set by the French windows of the space, causing the vibration speakers to produce continuously changing sounds in the site. The artist Chen Ting-Jung draws inspiration from the history of Taichung – the first time when the prestigious Steinway piano was used in a performance at the Zhongxing Hall – and creates the kinetic installation, To Steinway (A♭)—a work that brings together a specific site and sound to investigate materialised human identity, projection of ideals, and multidirectional tension in power relation.

The conference room in a corner of Vital Space, which has been used for business purposes, is surprisingly converted into a KTV box in Banned and Purifying Songs (feat. Lin I-Shou) co-created by Chang Wen Hsuan and Chang Yun-Han. Starting from two clashing perspectives – the banned songs from the period of martial law and the ideologically purifying songs of patriotism advocated by the government in the 1970s – the artists deconstruct the songs and reconstruct them into seemingly common male-female duets, shaping and re-interpreting Taiwanese history and the sense of hearing in the context of the contemporary time.

The final section on the second-floor inner gallery space displays the work by Liu Fangyi and Wu Tzuan, who have collaborated with each other for a long time through music scoring and performance. Referencing various texts related to imaginations about bodies of water and the ocean, the artists utilise analog cassette tapes and film rolls as their media to co-create the sci-fi audiovisual installation, Objects Breath out from an Enormous Clam, constructing the smallest microcosmos amidst the flows of sound, image, language and time.

Since our 10^th anniversary, Live Forever Foundation has presented multiple exhibitions and programs themed on ‘sound’ to express our care for natural ecology, local culture, music, and art. This exhibition marks our first attempt to sonically shape Vital Space, and we cordially invite everyone to experience an activation and exploration of hearing, allowing sound to fuel your imagination and serve as a way to know the world. When sound is no longer subject to textual descriptions or signs, it can become an independent way of remembering and feeling, even a form of guiding the everyday life, prompting and inspiring contemplation on a balance among the human senses, time, and space.