Eattopia – 2010 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition

The food that people eat differs due to the regions, habits, customs, and cultures, and causes the diverse eating manners around the world. The idea of what is “good to eat” also alters as time changes. According to Jeremy MacClancy in the book Consuming Culture, he proposed that taste could be taught. In deed, in today’s boarder-less world, food has become without boarders as well. One could enjoy food authentically or in the form of fusion cuisine; people could decide to go light and be on a diet or become a vegan. Furthermore, exotic, bizarre, and rare foods are also available to entice people’s desires, and all of these food phenomenons have created an ambiguous complex towards food.

However, the desire to eat can also lead to beautiful imaginations. In the film, “Golden Door” by the new Italian director, Emanuele Crialese, it is a story about immigration in the early 20th century, when people came from afar to fulfill their American dreams. The central focus for people was the desire and fantasy about being fed well and dressed well. When the succulent fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits are deliberately blown out of proportion, when the desires to eat is fulfilled and life is able to continue toward reaching the future anticipation, this is when a virtual realm is composed via the link between food and life. This kind of desire and hope are also depicted in Tao Yuanming’s “The Home of Peach Blossoms”, Plato’s “The Republic”, and Thomas More’s “Utopia”; these works are words of ambition, and are also criticisms of the realistic state. In the real life, when faced with the most challenging need for survival, being hungry or being full are key fundamental elements for the making of a utopian paradise. Therefore, this is how the concept of “Eattopia” has derived to be the topic for the “2010 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition”.

To go into further details, “Eattopia” is about a utopia that is based on food and culture, through the attempt to link together the ideas of “Eat” and “Utopia”. All the possible extensions based on mankind and the needs for food are incorporated in this constructed realm, including: culinary style, eating and taboos, food and legends, food and sacredness, class system and food, and different perspectives about the mobility of food. The core of the concept is to use the term “Eat” in “Eattopia” as a noun and also as a verb. As a noun, it is used to describe how food is the fundamental desire in a utopia perceived by mankind, and is also an attempt to build a utopia via food. As a verb, the term “Eat” is used to discuss the issues as desires are unsatisfied and expanded, the utopia that mankind has hoped to reach is gradually being eaten and swallowed up. Through the construction and deconstruction with the term “Eat”, a real and virtual, a destructed and developed realm of life is formed.

Therefore, the idea for “Eattopia” is not about collecting the most sought-after recipes in the world; the concept is to use eating as a base for the theme, and through physical needs and experiences and from culinary cultures to transform into a significant sociological system, and to further extend into discussions based on physical sexual orientations, taste levels, racial groups, acceptance, changes in politics and economies, inspections of food production, exchanges in consumerism, and the realizations of everyday life. In today’s world of technological advancement, the shortage of food is still a dilemma that haunts the human race like it did centuries ago, and the problem is related to the imbalance in food supplies, food waste in big cities, global warming that causes the shrinkage in agricultural land, market and future investments that lead to the distortion in prices, economic globalization’s impact on local farming, government’s focus on industry over agriculture; all of these have caused some impact at some level. Therefore, “Eattopia – 2010 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition” invites international artists and also sends out call for entries to all, and we anticipate for more concerns and dedications to be presented from artists around the world about this topic. We hope that through the concept in “Eattopia” about food and culture to garner analyses and speculations about eating, utensils, the physical body, desire, power, consumerism, aesthetic, and issues related to the society, and to further extend into the global reality that is immanent.

By Chen Yung-Hsien & Sean C.S. Hu

The food that people eat differs due to the region, habits, customs, and cultures, and causes the diverse eating manners around the world. The idea of what is “good to eat” also alters as time changes. According to Jeremy MacClancy in the book Consuming Culture, he proposed that taste could be taught. In deed, in today’s boarder-less world, food has become without boarders as well. One could enjoy food authentically or in the form of fusion cuisine; people could decide to go light and be on a diet or become a vegan. Exotic, bizarre, rare foods are available to entice people’s desires, and all the food phenomenon has created an ambiguous complex towards food.

However, the desire to eat can also lead to beautiful imaginations. In the film, “Golden Door” by the new Italian director, Emanuele Crialese, it is a story about immigration in the early 20th century, when people came from afar to fulfill their American dreams. The central focus for people was the desire and fantasy about being fed well and dressed well. When the succulent fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits are deliberately blown out of proportion, when the desires to eat is fulfilled and life is able to continue toward reaching the future anticipation, this is when a virtual realm is composed via the link between food and life. This kind of desire and hope are also depicted in Tao Yuanming’s 『The Home of Peach Blossoms』, Plato’s “The Republic”, and Thomas More’s “Utopia”; these works are words of ambition, and are also criticisms of the realistic state. In the real life, when faced with the most challenging need for survival, being hungry or being full are key fundamental elements for the making of a utopian paradise. Therefore, this is how the concept of “Eattopia” has derived to be the topic for the “2010 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition”.

To go into further details, “Eattopia” is about a utopia that is based on food and culture, through the attempt to link together the ideas of “Eat” and “Utopia”. All the possible extensions based on mankind and the needs for food are incorporated in this constructed realm, including: culinary style, eating and taboos, food and legends, food and sacredness, class system and food, and different perspectives about the mobility of food. The core of the concept is to use the term “Eat” in “Eattopia” as a noun and also as a verb. As a noun, it is used to describe how food is the fundamental desire in a utopia perceived by mankind, and is also an attempt to build a utopia via food. As a verb, the term “Eat” is used to discuss the issues as desires are unsatisfied and expanded, how mankind are gradually eating up the utopia that we have hoped to reach. Through the construction and deconstruction with the term “Eat”, a real and virtual, a destructed and developed realm of life is formed.

Therefore, the idea for “Eattopia” is not about collecting the most sought-after recipes in the world; the concept is to use eating as a base for the theme, and through physical needs and experiences, and from culinary cultures to transform into a significant sociological system, and to further extend into discussions based on physical sexual orientations, taste levels, racial groups, acceptance, changes in politics and economies, inspections of food production, exchanges in consumerism, and the realizations of everyday life. In today’s world of technological advancement, the shortage of food is still a dilemma that haunts the human race like it did centuries ago, and the problem is related to the imbalance in food supplies, food waste in big cities, global warming that causes the shrinkage in agricultural land, market and future investments that lead to the distortion in prices, economic globalization’s impact on local farming, government’s focus on industry over agriculture; all of these have caused some impact at some level. Therefore, “Eattopia – 2010 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition” invites international artists and also sends out call for entries to all, and we anticipate for more concerns and dedications to be presented from artists around the world about this topic. We hope that through the concept in “Eattopia” about food and culture to garner analyses and speculations about eating, utensils, the physical body, desire, power, consumerism, aesthetic, and issues related to the society, and to further extend into the global reality that is immanent.

Chen Yung-Hsien is an artist, independent curator, writer and art critic. In his art practice, he employs a combination of forms of Video Art and New Media Art. His works have been widely exhibited in numerous exhibitions, both in Taiwan and internationally. He was awarded the “Maple Leaf Award of Bronze Maple” in Canada and the “Beck’s Future Prize” for Film and Video in England.

He is an independent curator, curatorial projects including “Random-ize Film & Video Festival”, “Night Vision at Taipei: International Video Art Exhibition”, “Animation Tropes “, “Looking for Horse Latitude–New Media Art Exhibition”, “Dwelling Place: 2008 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition” and “Eattopia: 2010 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition”, “Beyond the Mirage—Taiwan New Media Art”(SCOPE Miami).

His writings and papers concentrate on theories of Contemporary Art, the observation of Performance Art and the analysis of New Media Art. He has published “The Art of Taiwanese illustration”, “The Song of Body” and “The Apocalypse of Video Art”.

Chen was born in Taiwan, he received his PhD of Arts and Communication from The University of Brighton, UK. Chen currently serves as a professor in Department of Multimedia and Animation Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts.

SEAN C.S. Hu Born in Taiwan, he graduated from The Broadcasting & Television Section of Mass Communication Department, Fu Jen Catholic University. He then received M.A. degree in Art Administration in Fashion Institute of Technology, CUNY in 1998. Hu was on worked as a Project Manager for Fubon Art Foundation. Currently, he’s a curator, art critic, and the board member for the Association of the Visual Arts in Taiwan, Jut Foundation for Arts & Architecture as well as the CEO of Hu’s Art Company.