The Taipei Performing Arts Center is organizing the 2023 Taipei Arts Festival taking place from August 5 to October 1. The theme of the festival is titled “dancing ecosystems,” and organizers are inviting people to ponder on the relationship between humans and ecosystems, especially in the post-pandemic era.
The festival will be the debut for several international artists in Asia. This includes Sun & Sea (Marina), which was awarded the top Golden Lion award at the 2019 Venice Biennale. The piece will transform the exhibit space at the arts center into a beach, and visitors can enjoy an ongoing opera performance.
Another artist is an Indigenous Australian artist Latai Taumoepeau, and she will showcase her performance art exploring issues of climate change.
Local Taiwanese art groups are also showing pieces tackling carbon emission reduction and other global issues. Taiwan’s theater group Against Again Troup will produce a performance inspired by Hong Kong poet Liao Wei-tang (廖偉棠). The piece will highlight the gradual loss of freedoms for Hong Kong.
Taipei Performing Arts Center chairwoman Liu Jo-yu (劉若瑀) says the center hopes to echo the festival’s theme by positioning itself as a green theater. The center will open its rooftop garden for a Concert for Plants, and they are inviting visitors to collaborate by bringing their houseplants.