Time Splits in the River

synopsis

Four artists decide to make a film where apolitical parents play parts of dissidents from the 1980s. Later, they show them the footage, unfolding discussions about art and politics. A  fascinating conceptual therapy revolving around traumatic  events of the history of Taiwan combines a highly artistic style with the informal, echoing, in the best possible sense, the saying ‘the personal is political’. Idiosyncratic, half-improvised ‘performances’ of the protagonists, who embody a story from
the life and work of writer Shi Mingzheng, and the visual side of the film, just as poetic as it is funny, make this film a highly personal experience that is difficult to categorize.

“Through re-enacting the social minority’s experiences , the filmsheds light on new negotiations between the social majority and other dissidents, while exposing the impossibility of family communication.”

biography

Liao Xuan-Zhen (1993), Huang I-Chieh (1992), Lee Chia-Hung (1992) a Wang Yu-Ping (1993) are Taiwanese artists who met at
Taipei University; All four graduated in 2015. Together, they have initiated a number of art projects based on a specific collective awareness.

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