2018 NTU Art Festival Spans May 4–25: “Memories of Our Days”

The NTU campus is welcoming its most artistic month in May. The NTU Art Festival, an annual art festival mainly organized by NTU students, has been held for 24 years. This year, the art festival spans May 4–25 and centers around the theme of “Yi Chang” (individually means “memory” and “daily life”), or the “Memories of Our Days.” Artists will present their thoughts and reflections on this theme via a diversity of art forms on campus, including graphic art, installation art, new media, behavioral arts, performing arts, and technological arts.

The opening ceremony on May 4, themed “Back in Time,” officially started at 18:00 with lively performances and shows at the Chen-Hsing Grass in front of NTU Library. Prior to the ceremony, there were various stalls lining up in front of the 1st Student Activity starting from 14:00, selling hand-made cultural and creative products, dried flowers, and sweets.

“Through the multifaceted understanding, reinterpretation, and imagination of memory, we intend to explore how humans and memories shape, dominate, and maintain each other in daily life, and how these intricate relationships often go unnoticed,” said NTU student Yu-Chieh Cheng (鄭宇傑), the convener of the 2018 NTU Art Festival.

Also an NTU student, the curator of the art festival Starry Tsai (蔡昱萱) noted the nature of memory, “Everyone has a visible and tangible body. But it is the intangible memory that proves our existence. Memory is at the same time both personal and collective. As fleeting as it is, memory is the foundation of our feelings and thoughts. While it is the trajectory of human existence, memory is often fabricated, grafted, and tampered with.”

The 2018 NTU Art Festival is focused on the following multifaceted aspects of memory:

1. Intersection of Memory:
This exhibition is divided into four areas devoted individually to sight, hearing, smell, and touch. Visitors are guided to interact with the objects in each area, which provide them with new perspectives to explore and observe the association between perception and memory, identify different aspects of the self, and develop new imaginations by superimposing one’s memory onto collective memory. (Location: R104, 1st Student Activity Center)

2. Convergence of Memory
Based on behavioral arts, this exhibition uses a transparent acrylic box and tube to convey the image of a database where memory is constructed and stored. Experimental photos and the actual objects above the photos are placed inside the box for visitors to participate in the process of collecting, extracting, reconstructing, and investigating memory in art. After obtaining a holistic view of memory, we will probably understand more about how we remember and how we forget. (Location: 1F, Liberal Education Classroom Building)

3. Evocation of Memory
This exhibition intends to evoke visitors’ memory using sounds and images. These could be sounds in our daily surroundings, a familiar song, or déjà-vu images that create resonance about memory among visitors, exert immense impact on how they perceive memory, and imbue memory with a brand new, revolutionary meaning. (Location: 1F, College of Social Sciences)

4. Divergence of Memory
The artists project different images onto a screen in each of the five areas. Every area is set up and images presented according to the specific theme. Visitors can walk around to observe how memories deteriorate or transform when viewed from different perspectives. Meanwhile, dancers present the four stages of recollection through their performance, combining images, dances, and light and sound effects to reveal the deterioration process and heterogeneity of memory. (Location: Liberal Education Classroom Building).

5. Measurement of Memory
This project explores the multilayered identities and consciousness of viewers through a photo and a video. Different in theme and expression, both works challenge and question viewers, urging them to confront political and social issues. The greatest commonality between the two graphic works is the artists’ quest to position themselves in a sea of memories and histories. (Location: Liberal Education Classroom Building)

The 2018 NTU Art Festival will close on May 25 with a maze installation inside the 1st Student Activity Center showing the overall curation process of this art festival, as well as outdoor activities, market, and evening celebration. During the evening celebration, the organizer will play the time-lapse photography and interview of each participating project for audiences to witness how the art festival is curated from group up.

2018 NTU Art Festival
Duration : May 4–25, 2018
Location: NTU Main Campus and Shuiyuan Campus
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NTUartfest/
Website: http://ntuartfest.org/

Opening Ceremony
Time: 14:00–21:00, Fri., May 4, 2018
Location: Chen-Hsing Grass (in front of NTU Library)

Closing Ceremony
Time: 13:00–18:00, Fri., May 25, 2018
Location: 1st Student Activity Center