This exhibition is inspired by a series of encounters on a trip to the Tafalong indigenous community: guided by the community , we climbed the sacred mountain of the Pangcah community – Cilangasan. With storytelling mixed with singing and through a muddy, stormy journey, the experience of climbing the sacred mountain resembled a process of approaching the sky and the story of the land. For the community, the process of climbing the mountain is a way to mature as a complete person. This gave rise to a realization: humans are never separated from our land, and we exist between storytelling and earth. We are remixing ourselves, our stories, and our land through our journey.

This remixing is reflected in the diversity of artwork media, the mixed, torn, and non-dichotomous state in the exhibition process, as well as the inseverable connection between human and soil—just like the word “human” of which the etymological root is “humus” (the organic component of soil, the decomposition of leaves and other plants).

The exhibition explores artists’ methods of interpretation when dealing with the issue of identity. Moreover, it also investigates how artists respond to the mixed and diasporic perspectives unveiled in the process of constant movement through the relationship between their works and themes of identity, food, gender, cultural memory, and storytelling.

Humus is a long-term curatorial project. The curators and some artists collaborated with tribal cultural workers and conducted several field trips to Hualien’s Tafalong tribe. During the severest period of the pandemic in Taiwan, the curators reconsidered the exhibition format and the feasibility of continuing the field survey. By virtualizing the routes of field trips through an online platform and incorporating the bodily sensation of climbing the sacred mountain, the endeavor has produced a document-based field space in virtuality. At the same time, it also showed the curators’ and the artists’ trajectory during the project, gradually realizing routes informed by multiple bodily sensations to reflect on their identity.

「混血人：神話山徑」為「混血人」展覽之平行線上展區，通過虛擬化田調過程中的聲音、身體感和空間，體現策展人、藝術家與部落族人攀登奇拉雅山（Cilangasan）的經驗。另一方面，展區也呈現三年間，參與「混血人」計畫的藝術家所發展出的數件作品。線上展區以抽象化的奇拉雅山為空間架構，中心的巨型生命樹貫穿了山體內部的三個樓層，作為爬登向上的階梯，也是復返神話的路徑。第一層的土壤如展覽的基底，建構了計畫初期的展覽，即發表於2020年的《混血人:來一場野性的餐會》的部分作品。土壤也是神話的起源，人與泥土黏膩且不可分的狀態，當向上離開土地，人與蛇、青蛙、蜥蜴與烏龜有了區別，進而如神話中所述的「成為人」。第二層的樹林延伸了實體展區「混血人」的部分作品，攀登聖山過程中的自然因素和情境。最後，第三層的空間作為神話山徑的終點，重新詮釋了石碑上的起源。觀眾透過虛擬的身體，從黑暗的泥濘中破土而出，在大雨的樹林裡傾聽神話，最後在歌聲之中來到了神話的終點與部落歷史的起點。當歌聲歇止後，彷彿也隨著神話的足跡走向不同的遠方。

Humus: Mythical Route is the parallel online exhibition zone of Humus, which displays the experience of curators, the artists and the tribal community members climbing Cilangasan through virtualizing the sounds, bodily sensations and space from the process of the field study. The online exhibition also showcases several works developed by artists over the past three years. The online exhibition zone is spatially structured as an abstract Cilangasan, with an enormous tree of life that goes through the three internal stories of the sacred mountain, serving as the stairs to climb the mountain and the route to revisit the myth. The first story is the soil, which serves as the foundation of the exhibition, and showcases some of the works from the past corresponding exhibition in 2020. At the same time, soil is also the origin of myth, hinting at the sticky, inseparable relationship between human and clay. When moving upward and departing from the land, human, snake, frog, lizard, and turtle are differentiated, and further “become human,” as it is described in the myth. The second story is the woods, which extends some of the works showcased in the physical exhibition, symbolizing the natural elements and situations in the process of climbing the sacred mountain. Finally, the space on the third story serves as the end of the mythical mountain route, and re- interprets the origin revealed by the stele. Through the virtual body, the audience emerge from the muddy soil in the darkness, listen to the myth in the woods amidst the rain, and eventually arrive at the end of the myth and the starting point of the tribal history in singing. When the singing stops, they seem to follow the myth towards a different distance.

阮原閩《祢來了，之後》Siyat Moses, When the Gods came

高安柏《奇拉雅山》Kao An Bo, Cilangasan

馬偕《聖山》系列Matěj Macháček’s series of paintings

林安琪《她可能來自_社》和馬偕《聖山》系列。 

Anchi Lin [Ciwas Tahos], Perhaps She Comes From/To_____Alang （left)

Matěj Macháček’s painting series (right)

王愛眉《地臍》 Wang Aymei, Earthbound

羅聿綺《吞吐、然然、炭色的黑》，及現場表演
Lo Yu Chi, Swallow, Burn, The black in the Ashes and live performance

混血人：跨文化的合作策展座談

報導 News & articles:

• 國藝會線上誌
• 文化者 The Culturist：
  【站在山頂尖呼喚自己】進部落登聖山 土地帶給台灣藝術家的靈魂拷問
• 青年日報：MoCA Studio「混血人」展 多元藝術饗宴
• 非池中藝術
• 500輯
• 藝點新聞
• TRAVELER Luxe旅人誌
• 城市美學
• 原視新聞網
• 人間福報
• OwlNews

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