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Empire's Borders II Western Enterprises Inc |
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 Chinese Arts Centre is proud to present the UK premiere of Chen Chieh-jens latest video work and photographic archive Empires Borders II Western Enterprises Inc. (2010). Internationally acclaimed artist Chen Chieh-jen sees his work as an act of connection, linking together the history of people who have been excluded from the dominant discourse. In his concern with recent history he is acutely aware of Taiwans own complex political status as a country with limited international recognition and explores the legacy of the cold war in the contemporary politics of global trade and neoliberal economics. Empires Borders II Western Enterprises Inc is based on a number of documents the artists late father left behind, which painted an intriguing picture of a life lived in cold-war secrecy. They hinted at the politics of an era when the CIA cooperated with Taiwan and trained the Anti-Communist National Salvation Army on its long-abandoned mission to retake the Chinese mainland. Some of these objects are included here as photographic records: a list of soldiers who lost their lives in secret raids, personal belongings, an empty photo album, fragments of an autobiography Chens father wrote and his old army uniform. As Chen says, his father rarely talked about his work; the only fact he acknowledged was that his autobiography was fictional, written to show his loyalty to the state. The curious circumstances attested to by these objects provide the inspiration for Chens powerful new three-screen HD video installation. Almost all of Chens recent films have dealt with the impact of global capitalism on individuals, through various systems of exchange. Earlier works, like Factory or Bade Area show the dehumanizing impact of the free movement of goods on the lives of ordinary workers. In another earlier work Empires Borders I, the artist shifted his attention from the impact of global trade to the human stories of immigration and emigration, told in the words of Chinese immigrants to Taiwan and Taiwanese emigrants to the USA. The new piece shown here at Chinese Arts Centre takes its title from a short-lived CIA front company, the eponymous Western Enterprises Inc., which operated in Taiwan from 1951 to 1955. Even after its official dissolution, the spirit of Western Enterprises lived on in the form of US support for the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) in Taiwan. Their rule under martial law saw the brutal suppression of opposition from the left. All of this moulded Taiwan as a close US ally and an anti-communist stronghold, and primed Taiwan for entry into global capitalism. Weaving together archival clips and his own footage the video installation compresses the historical, political and social events with a hauntingly imagined encounter with some of the people behind the objects Chen found. The two shorter film loops in the second space open with a tracking shot of an industrial crematorium in an abandoned factory. They then fade to a sequence of old black-and-white images from this conflictive political era. The careful pace of the film relies on suggestion and economy of expression to tell a multi-layered story. Characters walk through the old factory, identified by a sign outside as the fictitious home of Western Enterprises Inc., as they stumble across eerie relics of defunct machinery. As they encounter each other they tell fragments of their stories in sparse dialogue. The camera traces their journey through the space, allowing the complex narrative slowly to unfold. There are glimpses of documents, old symbols (such as the shield of the US Military Assistance Advisory Group that helped to train armed forces in allied countries during the Cold War) and, in a memorable sequence, a character chances upon historic film footage from the Vietnam war. Left without explanation, these episodes raise as many questions as they answer. As Chen has stated, This film affords an opportunity to re-imagine memories in a society without records and to heal the self by refocusing attention on the void created by Western Enterprises. On this journey into our recent past, we can reunite with those silenced voices to rebuild our home for the future. Chen Chieh-jen was born in Taoyuan, Taiwan, in 1960. He represented Taipei at the Venice Biennale in 2009, where he has also been included in the curated shows in 1999 and 2005. He has participated in many other international biennials including Gwangju, So Paulo, Istanbul, New Orleans, Taipei, Shanghai, Liverpool and Sydney; the Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane; the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial and the Guangzhou Triennial; and was recently shortlisted for the Artes Mundi Prize at the National Museum, Cardiff. He has had major solo shows at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris; Asia Society New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, Madrid; REDCAT in Los Angeles; Long March Space in Beijing and currently has a major retrospective at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. In 2000 he was awarded the Special Prize at the Gwangju Biennale in Korea and in 2009 he was awarded Taiwans prestigious National Award for Arts for outstanding cultural achievement. The exhibition is presented by Chinese Arts Centre as part of the AND Festival of New Cinema and Digital Culture and is co-curated by Marko Daniel with Yu-Ling Chou as assistant curator. The exhibition is made possible with support from the Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan. Project Sponsors    |
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