Bunker
Taipei Artist Village, 2006
After receiving an Australia China Council residency at Taipei Artist Village (TAV) I was interested to apply for my visa from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO). In any other country it would have been through the embassy or consulate, but as Australia doesn’t officially recognise Taiwan as as a country (in fact only about 20 countries do) they have to call their pseudo-embassy TECO. Taiwan does not belong to the UN, or other regional diplomatic bodies and they have to compete at the Olympics as Chinese Taipei.
THe reason for this diplomatic limbo is that the PROC (People’s Republic of China) sees Taiwan not as an independent country but as a renegade Chinese province that should be under Beijing’s control (much like Tibet). Taiwan on the other hand sees itself as its own nation, although they walk a very fine tightrope politically by neither claiming to be one or the other.
Whilst resident in Taiwan I it became clear that the political complexity of the place is always present. Yet at the same time the threat of China is not discussed very much by the young people. The vibrant and dynamic youth culture keeps most everyone engaged in their daily lives. Yet there is a very high level of membership of political parties and a passionate process of democracy every election time. There is also a relatively free media that takes its role in investigative journalism seriously.
I decided to create a work called Bunker which was an investigation of what it is to live in a place that isn’t recognised by anyone, and a place that is under threat. The word Bunker referenced the 1500 missiles that are pointed at Taiwan from China and also the mode of politics that was forced to be pursued under its current conditions.
Starting from a proposed blueprint document for a Chinese invasion on Taiwan and also the poetry of the Chinese language the work was a meshing of visual and textual semiotics told with the body and a mediatised environment.
Concept, Video, Direction and Performance – Martyn Coutts
Supported by Taipei Artist Village, Australia-China Council
