Taipei Cultural Center in New York

Chen Uen (千年一問), a documentary that focuses on graphic novelist Chen Uen (鄭問), will come to the Chicago Cultural Center on September 7 at 6:30 pm. This visually stunning film not only depicts Chen’s fascinating story, but also brings his extraordinary, colorful, and unrestrained artwork to life through animation. The screening is open to the public, and free tickets are available online.

The screening is presented by Cinema/Chicago, together with Taipei Cultural Center in New York, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago, and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. It is being presented as part of the Summer Screenings Program, a free film series that casts a spotlight on a different country’s national cinema every week.

According to Cinema/Chicago, this year’s theme is adaptation. Since the invention of cinema, movies have drawn inspiration from art forms of all kinds. Whether its faithful renderings of popular novels or radical re-imaginings of historical events, film can create vast, visual worlds while telling the stories that matter to us most.

Chen Uen (鄭問) was the pen name of Cheng Chin-wen (鄭進文), who died of a heart attack in 2017. Chen was an enigmatic talent known for drawing from traditional Chinese wuxia narratives to create his distinctive graphic designs. This film depicts Chen’s life story by representing his works and interviewing over 50 of the most prestigious art talents, including Tetsuya Chiba (千葉徹彌), Ryoichi Ikegami (池上遼一), Wing Shing Ma (馬榮成), Yilang Huang (黃玉郎), and Andrew Lau (劉偉強).

Director Wan-Jo Wang (王婉柔) fully captured the essence of the era during each stage of Chen’s life through music, framing, and recreated scenes. Even the backdrops to the talking heads were carefully designed to echo Chen’s artwork at times, making the entire film a visual feast to enjoy.

“I want to feature Chen as a human being, rather than an artist or a comic author,” Director Wang said, while adding that the film reveals some of the secrets of Chen’s creative process. Multiple interviewees mention that they would have been “silenced” for sharing these details if Chen were alive. According to Wang, “Chen is the kind of person who lived his life to the fullest to pursue excellence. It seemed like he lived during the wrong time. It was a pity to know that he missed opportunities to achieve greater success, but he wouldn’t be such an inspiration to a generation of Taiwanese artists if the situation was not the case.”

The screening will take place at the Chicago Cultural Center on September 7 at 6:30 pm. Doors for the screening will open to the public at 5:45 pm. Professor Wenhwa Ts’ao (曹文華) of Columbia College Chicago and Director John Lin (林逸) of TECO in Chicago’s Education Division will be participating in an in-person post-screening discussion. For more information, please visit: https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/chen-uen/

This solo exhibition is curated by Linda Lauro-Lazin, who is an assistant chairperson of digital arts at Pratt Institute. It will showcase Hsin-Chien Huang's VR projects that win numerous awards, including, ”Samsara”(輪迴) , the best VR Project award at the Zagreb World Animation Film Festival 2022; ”Bodyless” (失身記), awarded the jury’s Honorary Mention prize in the Computer Animation category from Prix Ars Electronica; ”To the Moon” (登月) co-created by Huang and Laurie Anderson and ”Through the Body” (穿越身體). This is Huang’s first large and major solo show in North America in recent years.

Another highlight of the exhibition is his stainless steel sculpture “Yun Kong” (蘊空), which is consist of three pieces, “the Barricade”, “The Bunker” and “The Monument” The series is an example to show the fusion between metaverse and reality. The exhibition will show the public the current development of new media art as well as the strength of VR creation in Taiwan.

In advance of the exhibition public opening, a discussion and opening reception will be held in the Gallery at 7:00 pm on September 22, 2022. Nicholas Battis will be the host and Huang will talk about his creation and the trend of Taiwan's new media art.

The exhibition was sparked by Pratt Gallery artistic director Nicholas Battis who invited Huang to hold a solo exhibition at the school's Pratt Gallery in 2019. It was when Huang was a visiting scholar at Pratt Institute New York, where he taught and shared his passion for creating VR projects. It was well received by teachers and students.

About the artist, Hsin-Chien Huang
Hsin-Chien Huang is a new media creator with backgrounds in art, design, engineer, and electronic gaming. His career endeavor explores the possibilities of cutting-edge technologies in art, literature, design, and stage performance. His projects involve large-scale interdisciplinary interaction, performing, mechanical apparatus, algorithmic computations, and video installations.

Hsin-Chien's artworks have been exhibited in galleries, art museums, and art fairs throughout the world, including Venice Film Festival, Festival de Cannes, SXSW, Taipei Fine Art Museum, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Shanghai Biennale, Venice Biennale, MoMA of New York, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, Ars Electronica Festival, Beijing 798, Insaartplaza Gallery in South Korea, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York, Transmediale in Germany, and 404 Festival of Electronic Art in Argentina, among others.

His works have won numerous awards at home and abroad including 2021, "Samsara" the Special Jury Prize of VRE - Virtual Reality Experience, Rome; 2020, "Bodyless", Golden Mask Award of New images Festival, Paris; 2020, the 7th Public Art Award of the Ministry of Culture, Taipei; 2017, " La Camera Insabbiata", the Best Virtual Reality Experience Award of 74th Venice Film Festival, Venice.

Hsin-Chien Huang's website

About the venue, Pratt Manhattan Gallery
Pratt Manhattan Gallery supports the educational goals of Pratt Institute by presenting exhibitions that reflect the interdisciplinary, research- and inquiry-based education that prepares Pratt students for success in creative fields and professional practice.

Pratt Manhattan Gallery website

Exhibition Information
Title: The Data We Called Home
Venue: Pratt Manhattan Gallery (144 West 14th St. New York, NY 10011)
VIP Preview & Opening: September 22, 2022
Exhibition: September 23, 2022 to March 2023

“Samsara”, Photo Courtesy of the Artists, Hsin-Chien Huang

With the support of Taipei Cultural Center in New York, Taiwanese writer Chi Ta-wei (紀大偉) will participate in the 2022 Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) on September 30 and October 1, marking the fourth time that a Taiwanese writer has been invited to take part in the event.

Chi Ta-wei’s The Membranes (膜), originally written in Chinese, is a classic in the genre of queer speculative fiction. The novel takes place during the late 21st century in a high-tech future city, where human beings have migrated to domes beneath the sea and the concept of “gender” is meaningless because the body and brain are separated. The intriguing story portrays a young woman’s quest for self-understanding while exploring gender and sexuality, technological domination, and capitalism. First published in Taiwan in 1995, The Membranes was translated into English by Ari Larissa Heinrich and published by Columbia University Press in 2021.

Chi Ta-wei currently serves as an associate professor of Taiwanese literature at National Chengchi University. Chi’s award-winning creative writing ranges from science fiction to queer short stories, and his scholarly works focus on LGBT studies, disability studies, and Sinophone literary history. Taiwan has long enjoyed a legacy of queer and non-heteronormative literature since the lifting of martial law in 1987, and numerous LGBTQ+ authors have won the most prestigious literary awards and accolades, as Chi Ta-wei and The Membranes did in the 1990s. In recent years, Taiwan has become arguably the most progressive country in all of Asia for LGBT rights, with the country being the first in the region to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019.

At TIFA, Chi Ta-wei will share his commissioned short story in an event under the pandemic-related theme “We come back together, only to fall apart.” The short story will later be published digitally in English alongside 10 other writers around the world who have produced stories under the same theme. In addition, Chi will take part in a discussion about The Membranes, the future of queer identity, and the impact of capitalism.

TIFA, which has been taking place annually in the fall since 1974, is Canada’s largest and longest-running literary festival, providing the world’s leading contemporary authors with an internationally recognized forum to present their work. TIFA 2022 will be held from September 22 to October 2 at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, with additional online offerings to complement the program.

Time: Friday, September 30, 1:30-2:00 pm
Location: Stage in the Park at Harbourfront Centre
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Time: Saturday, October 1, 5:30-6:30 pm
Location: Lakeside Terrace at Harbourfront Centre
Event Page