Future Temple
2020/02/27-03/15
“Future Temple”
Emiko Agatsuma: Art director, Choreographer and performer
● Performance Schedule
2.27(Thu.) 15:00
3.1(Sun.) 14:00 / 16:00
3.7(Sat.) 14:00 / 16:00
3.8(Sun.) 14:00 / 16:00
3.14(Sat.) 14:00 / 16:00
3.15(Sun.) 14:00 / 16:00
● Venue: Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei
*Start at Treasure Hill Temple, end at Future Temple (Frontier Plaza)
*40 minutes without intermission.
●Fee: Feel free to donate after the performance to support the artist!
● Details: Facebook event page
Organized by Treasure Hill Artist Village
“Future Temple” consists of 4 sections.
-
“Future Temple” Butoh performance
-
“Future of Past, but not Now…” Left side room
-
”Now” Right side room
-
“Future Altar” Outside area, Collaboration work
photo by Uncle Photography
“Future Temple"
by Emiko Agatsuma
“Future temple” is the place where our imagination about the soul connects each other.
In the past, Japanese imagined the soul was like a fireball floating in the air. Now, most people don’t believe it, but it may affect Japanese idea unconsciously.
Emiko Agatsuma has researched the idea of the soul by asking people “After death, your soul will be…”, not only Japanese but also Taiwanese, and other foreigners.
We search for lots of information through the internet, and we are always influenced by it. The custom is also affected. Does it cause flattening of the culture?
She thinks the important things is not the thing that has changed, but the thing that has not changed.
“Future temple” gives us the chance to think about it.
Her butoh performance starts from Treasure Hill temple and ends at “Future temple”. It is a journey from the past to the future about the soul.
Photo by Jonnie Pedersen
left side room
“Future or Past, but not Now…”
by Emiko Agatsuma
Emiko Agatsuma has researched the idea of the soul by asking people “After death, your soul will be…”, not only Japanese but also Taiwanese, and other foreigners. There are many ideas of the soul in this room. Some are based on traditional ideas, and some are created newly. Where will you go? By reading other ideas of the soul, your future might be changed.
In this exhibition, she wrote people's idea on the wall and hung cards in which ideas were written.
Photo by Jonnie Pedersen
right side room
“Now”
by Emiko Agatsuma
If it’s possible, enter this room alone, feel this moment, and please answer Emiko’s question, “After death, your soul will be…”. You imagine the future, your answer becomes the past immediately. You are always in the middle.
In this exhibition, she put a desk in the small room, and people wrote their idea on cards.
outside area
“Future Altar”
collaboration work by
Gökçen Dilek Acay
Hasnaa Fatehi
彭家茵 Peng Chia Yin
王世甫 Wang Shi Fu
黃彥眞 Yen-Jen Huang
Jonnie Pedersen
・
Emiko Agatsuma
“Future Temple”
is an imaginary temple after a big calamity or a world war.
No one exists who is alive now, the population becomes fewer,
and some people who exist at the time try to remind how to pray for the god, or the soul.
Most traditional ways are forgotten, but some particles of memories remain in their mind.
They can't stop creating something for invisible things.
It becomes
“Future Altar”
remains / extincts
Gökçen Dilek Acay
I was in Kuala Lumpur for 3 weeks before coming to Taipei. In this process, I tried to understand the structure of this city. cultural activities, social activities, people's communication with each other. I realized that different religions and different ethnic communities are highly interrelated and segments of society are found in public spaces, mostly in temples and shopping centers.
Emiko stated that she wants to establish a temple scene. I thought we should use recycle material with this space relationship. We started to collect plastic shopping bags. Because plastic culture has unfortunately reached a dimension that people cannot give up. Oceans and deepest forests are filled with plastic garbage. Plastic and other type of garbage is taking over the earth in unbearable dimensions.
It was my goal to raise awareness and draw attention to the ritualism of the consumer society. Thus, the idea of the temple and the consum culture came together.
If it is not written down, it did not happen!
Hasnaa Fatehi
In this work I superficially explore the traceability, auditability and defensibility of institutions and people. I use the Taiwanese taxation system, Uniform Invoice Lottery, 統一發票 (Tǒngyī fāpiào), to examine the idea of purchase receipts as devotional scripts, accounts of acquisitions and offerings and promises of more (purchasing) possibilities. Financial structures being all which survives post-humanity and accounting records our only way back to god.
The expression “If it is not written down, it did not happen!” is a foundational quality assurance concept established by the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to reinforce the idea of record keeping throughout a product life cycle from design and development to manufacturing and decommissioning.
Prior to failing Canada as a skilled settler, I worked in the highly regulated MedTech industry. Today, I research the ubiquity and reproducibility of concepts learnt during my professionalization as I encounter them in my “private” consumer life, the traces of compliance I leave starting from my social location and how they are being used.
祈禱
彭家茵 Peng Chia Yin
The image of my work is inspired by the 香爐 (incense burner) culture in Taiwan.
While doing our prayers, we do not speak our wishes out loud. We just meditate it, silently in heart.
Holiness is often tranquil.
But if you listen carefully, it would be a scene of noisy crowds.
The shredded paper at the bottom represents the past old days, which have lost their names, and shattered into shapelessness.
The abandoned toothbrushes, pens, and straws above are like our mouths, praying silently when facing the rottenness of the end of the world.
Pray, perhaps that is the only thing left to do. While confronting the existence and non-existence of God, be able to say that we do not own nothing at all.
Thanks for the translation support of 沈薇
路
王世甫 Wang Shi Fu
When the world has come to ruin, people pick up the memories and rebuild the world they were familiar with.
Chinese funeral paper offerings made by filling up abandoned clothes with waste
Model toys symbolizing cultural decay as Paste Decoration of Temple.
These abandoned objects are trying to become a way to connect life and memory, to explore the nature of life.
The guards of the temple
黃彥眞 Yen-Jen Huang
Future people “the guards do their jobs.”
Cigarette are the things from heaven , those cigarettes symbol are the proof of heaven .
People knew the guards are from the heaven , but nothing else .
My Mother's Table
Jonnie Pedersen
My mother's table is the particles of memory that remain with me. The smaller details of how my mother once prayed for her God. The tiny slivers of details that added up and helped her feel that within her home was space, and in that space was hope.
This entire concept is made from almost entirely recycled materials, trying to recreate what once was through the things that are often left behind.
The public is invited to write on the pieces of paper, the little booklets and to leave "something" for worship (whatever that may mean for them) if they wish.
What is found as you pass through this space will ultimately rest within yourself; All that is and was are building from the foundation of the last; one sprout from the seeds of past seasons.
Through your devotion may you find a beginning, or a center from which all radiates. From your perception, your self and vulnerability, may you find what is worth worshipping.
