Chenglong Wetlands International Environmental Art Project is underway in Yunlin County, western Taiwan, bringing together talents from home and abroad in a celebration of interdisciplinary creativity aimed at raising awareness of the importance of environmental protection.
Themed Take Action—Live with Change, the project requires participating artists to live in Chenglong Village April 13 to May 8 and produce visually striking landscape art installations. The pieces should inspire the public to take action on protecting nature and work toward adjusting lifestyles in response to environmental changes brought on by global warming.
The seven artists selected for this year’s project came from a field of around 180 submissions from 55 countries. They are Jane Liou and Tsai Hui-ying from Taiwan, Inga Shalvashvili from Georgia, Annechien Meier and Gert-Jan Gerlach from the Netherlands, Piotr Wesolowski from Poland and Rob Mullholland from the U.K.
Wang Chiao-mei, chief operating officer of project organizer Kuanshu Educational Foundation—a nongovernmental organization based in central Taiwan’s Taichung City—said the installations can only be created from natural materials like bamboo, driftwood and oyster shells sourced from the wetlands or surrounding areas. This is important as the pieces will break down over time, with their components remaining part of the environment, she added.
The installations will be introduced to the public by the artists May 6-8. A number of art-related activities are scheduled during this time, including Q&A discussions and workshops.
Since the project’s launch in 2010, it has also helped local residents improve their artistic skills. Last year, a team from the village created “Bridge,” an eye-catching installation fashioned from bamboo symbolizing the connection between humans and the land.
The 171-hectare Chenglong Wetland—one of 83 Taiwan’s Wetlands of Importance as designated by the Ministry of the Interior—was originally used for farming until rising salinity levels caused by seawater subsidence and typhoon-related flooding made cultivation impossible. A 50-hectare plot is used as sanctuary for migratory birds in accordance with a lease operated by the Forestry Bureau under the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture. (CPY-E)
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