Last year, as part of our residency program (in collaboration with Taipei Artist Village, the Munich Department of Arts and Culture, and Goethe-Institut Taipei), Eunju Hong spent three months at Treasure Hill Artist Village in Taipei. The exhibition at Apartment der Kunst is based on the artist’s time there. It was during this stay that she first encountered the world of traditional East Asian theatre and puppetry.

This experience became the starting point for a long-term project, which is being presented to the public for the first time in this exhibition. In traditional East Asian theatre, mysterious and non-human beings frequently appear—monsters, ghosts, and spiritual apparitions. These figures symbolically embody human joy, suffering, and conflict. Puppet and mask theatre, in particular, serve as a portal through which the human body transforms into something “other” and enters into different realms.

In her work, the artist explores the complex relationships between performer and puppet, character and actor, manipulator and object. Operating from a meta-level, she reflects—through the act of animating and speaking with and through the puppet—on the fragility of the human body, on the emotional traces that linger within the act of performance, and on the inherent power and violence of these gestures. At the same time, she turns her gaze to the form—or formlessness—of theatre itself.

For the performance at Apartment der Kunst, Eunju Hong has created a life-size puppet using a 3D printer.

The earliest form of the stage was a courtyard. Seats were carved into stone, and the courtyard became a theatre where people witnessed the events of tragedy. It was an act of viewing and a ritual event at the same time. The ancient Greeks called this space theatron, meaning “place of seeing.” Over time, this became the word “theatre.” In this spirit, we look forward to an exciting performance in our beautiful backyard.

References

• 《She seemed devastated, when I was weeping with Joy: A story that ends from the beginning》