Curated by Li Zhenhua, director and founder of Beijing Art Lab, the Film sector investigates the media's role in today's global world. TKG+ is pleased to announce thatEveryday Maneuver (2018) from Yuan Goang-Ming and Numbers (2020) from Charwei are selected to be part of this year’s Film sector.
The scene of empty streets inEveryday Maneuver (2018) during the annual Wanan Air Raid Drill in Taipei, Taiwan reminds us of the ubiquitous presence of quarantine and lockdown during the current pandemic of COVID19, which has changed the way we live, work, and travel. Filmed in 2018, the drill in preparation for war or calamity ironically has become a contemporary interpretation and probably a terrifying prediction of COVID19 disaster in 2020. The unexpected chaos and unknown future revealed by the vacant street scene is a clear expression of omnipresent depression in the ongoing catastrophe.
Numbers (2020) made during the pandemic by Charwei Tsai, pivots around human rights issues related to political victims who were executed and not properly buried due to the White Terror in the history of Taiwan. History is often repeated under huge regimes, under which lives were devalued into numbers especially during a huge calamity. The scene seems to echo the present pandemic of COVID19, where people are described and perceived only as infection numbers and death toll on news, in statistics, and in hospital records. The frozen water shows the fragility and impermanence of life, which reflects our frustration and depression in the current situation. The video therefore becomes a vessel for various layers of meaning which remind viewers of present issues as well as the past.