Embodying Virtuality: The Way to Reality Anchored in “virtuality,” this exhibition unfolds as a retrospective reflection on its many implications. Drawing on the philosophical notion of “incarnation” as a lens for thinking through bodies, Raw Meat—a literal rendering of the title—insists on the weight, flesh, and presence of abstract concepts: a gesture toward em-body-ment. Director Asio Liu Chi-Hsiung was compelled to visit a refugee camp site in Penghu after dreaming of its impending demolition. The camp vanished before it could be thoroughly investigated or documented. Since then, a project of rebuilding, piecing together, and restoring the refugee camp lasting more than 20 years began. Liu’s works, which combine documentary filmmaking and virtual reality building, express a poetic vision grounded in the dialectical relationship between virtuality—the refugee camp becoming a mirage after its actual existence—and the reality—the restoration of the refugee-related events and memories. This once-existing refugee camp in Penghu, however, is not recognized by any organization outside of Taiwan, including the United Nations Refugee Agency. As a result, it has become an “incident” that officially “does not exist” in the historical record. This absence underscores a paradoxical absurdity: a real event rendered virtual due to political circumstances. The artists in this exhibition seek to actualize that virtualized reality through artistic works and digital virtual technologies. In addition to Liu’s videos and photographic works, the fiber art collective Huaben contributes a series of intricate pieces that correspond with video footage of the camp’s seascape, evoking imagery of drifting and the act of watching the sea from within the camp. “The true historical object is not an object at all, but the unity of the one and the other, a relationship in which exist both the reality of history and the reality of historical understanding.” From a hermeneutical perspective, history is not a self-contained object to be faithfully represented, but a mode of being that continues in and through texts—mediated by différance. Taiwan is often regarded as the orphan of Asia; yet in Liu’s view, beyond orphans, we might also be refugees—those who are endlessly in defer[ral/ence].
Curator | CHEN Hung-Yi Featuring Artist | Asio LIU Chihsiung Installation Artist | Huaben (WU Pei-Shan, LIAO An-Jyun, WANG Shih-Hui, CHUANG Meng-Wen) Guest Artists | Lê Dinh (1934–2020) / Composer / South Vietnam (RVN), Canada LI Pei-Hui (1935–2017) / Photographer / South Vietnam (RVN), ROC LI Yuan-Ping (1939–2019) / Veteran Journalist Jules NADEAU / Veteran Journalist / Canada Feng-Ting TSOU / VR Director Awei LIU / Documentary Filmmaker Jason CHANG / Videographer
left: Most existing images related to Penghu refugee camps currently focus on people. This image whereas emphasizes the camp’s surrounding environment. (Photo by Jules Nadeau, 1985) right: The story of the boat Thanh Phong, presented in virtual reality, is reconstructed from the lost mural and the oral accounts of those involved. (Asio Chihsiung Liu & Feng-ting Tsou, “Somewhere Unknown in Indochina”, 2024)
Poster Photographer | Asio LIU Chihsiung Prop Designer | Yi-Chu CHEN Calligraphy | Besau Iming Translators | Kris CHI, Shu-Chuan LIN Title & Poster Designer | Tzu-Heng HUANG Exhibition Executive | Yung-ju YANG Supervisor｜Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Kaohsiung City Government Organizer｜Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Chiangmei Refugee Archive Association(CRAA) Co-organizer｜MIMEO FILMS Ltd. Sponsor｜National Culture and Arts Foundation