The Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB), the Cultural Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney, Australia, and Australia’s Critical Path have been co-organizing the 2022-2024 Taiwan and Australia Choreography Exchange Program. This program is open to creators from Taiwan with a background in choreography or digital technology. The application deadline is April 18. For more information, please refer to the program guidelines.
Based in Sydney, Critical Path is Australia’s leading choreographic research and development center. The purposes of this three-year exchange program are to raise the international visibility of Taiwanese artists and to encourage co-creation and collaboration between Taiwanese and Australian digital technology-based artists and choreographers. Participating Taiwanese and Australian artists will receive one-to-three-year support for their collaborative projects. Multiple experiments in technology-based art and the performing arts are anticipated to be conducted through the integration of diverse resources and the assistance for the artists to explore the possibilities of body art, helping the development of cross-disciplinary technology-based art in Taiwan and Australia.
Artists can apply to participate in either the Digital Enchantment Lab or the Choreographic Expansion Lab. Those who are selected may have the opportunity to take part in the second-phase Physical Futures Digital Exchange Residences.
Digital Enchantment Lab
This one-week workshop is focused on choreography. It is open to dancers with attempts to use digital tools in their works. Providing an environment for creation and experimentation and led by a well-known Australian artist, the workshop is to assist participants in better integrating digital tools into their choreographic creations, as well as in familiarizing themselves with data sovereignty, cultural sensitivity, and the unique context of digital technologies. Selected Taiwanese and Australian participants will jointly carry out lab projects, the process of which may be recorded by the organizer. They are expected to reside at C-LAB and to participate in relevant activities.
Choreographic Expansion Lab
This one-week workshop is catered towards digital creators with dance collaborative experiences or experiences in the incorporation or use of choreography in their digital creations. With an environment conducive to creation and experimentation and led by an internationally renowned choreographer, the workshop is expected to help participants enhance their choreographic vocabulary, become better able to integrate dance into their works, and develop a more forward-looking creative vision. Selected Taiwanese and Australian participants will jointly carry out lab projects, the process of which may be recorded by the organizer. They are expected to reside at C-LAB and to participate in relevant activities.
Exchange Residencies
From among the artists who complete a first-phase lab project, the organizer and guest facilitators will jointly select participants for second-phase residencies. This year, a two-week residency will be implemented online with selected Australian artists. Artists can use what they have learned and the creative content they have developed during the above-mentioned labs to share their experiences and exchanges with artists in the other discipline. In the future, there will be an opportunity for on-site residencies.
This program includes a specially designed guest facilitator mechanism. For the Digital Enchantment Lab, well-known new media artist Linda DEMENT from Australia has been invited to serve in this capacity. Her works extensively explore issues of gender and body politics. She is a pioneer feminist in internet art, leveraging poetics and new technologies to deconstruct gender-conscious stereotypes in mainstream culture. DEMENT is a two-time winner of the Australian National Digital Art Award and her works have been exhibited at Ars Electronica Festival in Austria, the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) 2013, IMPAKT Festival in the Netherlands, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
For the Choreographic Expansion Lab, choreographer Eisa JOCSON of the Philippines will be the guest facilitator. She is adept at using the body as a medium to explore physical flexibility and social mobility. In JOCSON’s works, capital drives labor, leading to the pushing of contracted bodies into multiple spaces as the demands of society change. She won the HUGO BOSS ASIA ART Award in 2019 and her works have been performed at the Sharjah Biennial, Taipei Arts Festival, Bangkok Art Biennale, Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, International Performance Art Festival in Copenhagen, and Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts in Melbourne.
Support and resources for the 2022-2024 Taiwan and Australia Choreography Exchange Program have come from both Taiwan and Australia, attempting to cultivate talent crossing the technology and choreography disciplines based on the two first-phase labs in the hope of backing the development of arts. Applications can be submitted to https://opencall.clab.org.tw. Only online applications will be accepted. Please do not send application materials by mail.