People’s Movements: Sunflower 10th Year Anniversary
人民的運動：太陽花十周年
Dates: March 15 to April 15, 2024
Opening reception: 6 – 8 pm March 15, 2024
Curator and artist talks: Thursday March 21 1-4pm
Seminar: and Saturday March 30
Exhibition Venue 1: Tenri Cultural Institute, NYC
Exhibition Venue 2: TAAC house 7b, Nolan Park, Governors Island,
Dates: May 3 to June 16, 2024
Curator: Luchia Meihua Lee
Seminar organizer: Patrick Huang, Wei-Ting Chen (陳為廷), Yi-Lun Shih (施懿倫)
Advisory team: Patrick Huang, Thomas Chen, Ming Chiang, Patsy Chen,
Wei-Ting Chen (陳為廷), Yi-Lun Shih (施懿倫)
Curatorial concept
In March 2014, young people led Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement which in time completely reversed the course of Taiwan’s foreign and domestic policy. On the 10th anniversary of the movement, we organize a program and exhibition which points out that social and political change is won through the brave spirit and effort of the movement leaders and the people - not awarded as a lucky accident. This exhibition will involve approximately 12 artists celebrating peoples’ political movements – largely youth-led – that took place around the world circa 2014. We select 5 movements: the Sunflower Movement, the Arab Spring, the Chilean Winter, the Ukrainian Euromaidan movement, and Hong Kong’s umbrella movement – all of approximately the same era as Taiwan’s Sunflower movement – to which artists will respond.
First among them, of course, is Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement in which students and other youth occupied Taiwan’s legislative body in protest of the plan by ruling government (that of Ma Ying-Jeou) to strengthen trade ties with China. The Sunflower Movement was successful in blocking the proposed legislation, and led to many of its participants eventually entering formal political life and thus rejuvenating Taiwan’s political culture. It’s tenth anniversary will be on March 18, 2024.
Other movements to be celebrated will be Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, which took place between 26 September and 15 December 2014 – so 2024 will also mark the 10th anniversary of this movement. Led by Hong Kong youth, this movement was sparked by China’s proposed changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system – changes that the movement unsuccessfully opposed and were later imposed unilaterally by the government in Beijing. However, this movement was resurrected on its fifth anniversary in 2019 to protest the bill enabling extradition to China – and trial there – of residents of Hong Kong. Beijing eventually imposed this bill on Hong Kong, further eroding the special status of Hong Kong in violation of the 50-year special administrative status of Hong Kong negotiated by the United Kingdom and China in 1997. However, this exhibition will glorify the spirit of public self-sacrifice exemplified in Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement, and in evidence in each of these popular movements.
Some element of the Arab Spring will be included in this exhibition. While that movement took place in several Arab countries – with varying degrees of success – in the early 2010’s. The Arab Spring started in Tunisia, and then spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain. In Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Tunisia, rulers were deposed. Protests took place across the Arab world, most particularly in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. All these were movements by youth in opposition to authoritarianism and in pursuit of democracy as well as a brighter economic future, and so fit the theme of this exhibition. While 2024 will be the 12th or 13th anniversary of this movement (depending on which country one looks at), it deserves to be included in this exhibition because of its aims. It is hoped to examine more carefully the Arab Spring as it took place in Tunisia (where it was successful).
Numerous political movements in South and Central America were youth-led protests. Perhaps one of the most notable was that in Chile in 2011 to 2013. Known as the Chilean Winter, it was a student-led protest against the poor for-profit educational system – especially the post-secondary educational system - extant in Chile at that time which tended to perpetuate Chilean class structure because the children of the very rich had adequate educational choices, but not the children of middle-class families. This system dated to the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, who was not more benign than General Chiang Kai-Shek in Taiwan. In both Taiwan and Chile, the transition to democracy took place peacefully – without a revolution – while political movements such as those discussed herewith fine-tuned that democracy.
The youth movements in Ukraine were known as the Euromaidan or Pomvrancheva revolution. The movement is named after Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kiev, one of the first sites of demonstration on 18 February 2014; the protestors at one point also attempted to occupy the legislative branch. Unlike with the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, armed police stymied this move, killing, wounding or arresting numerous protestors. The achieved aim of the Euromaidan movement was to topple President Yanukovych whom the protestors considered too close to Russia. Yanukovych had negotiated an agreement for Ukraine to join the EU, then declined to do so in favor of closer ties with Russia – an echo of the closer ties with China advocated by Ma Ying-Jeou in Taiwan.
Ultimately, the success of the Euromaidan revolution, which was supported by speakers of Ukrainian and opposed by Ukrainian speakers of Russian, emboldened Russia to seize the Crimean Peninsula, a Russian-speaking area of Ukraine. A variety of artists from the region will make and display art commenting on the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine.
This exhibition thus celebrates youth-led popular movements of approximately 10 years vintage and simultaneously highlights both the similarities and differences between them. Social and political change is never straightforward and compartmentalized, let alone complete – which is why we have chosen a variety of such movements.
Tentative List of Participating artists
v Taiwan Sunflower Movement
1. Enbion Micah Aan洪延平 (Photography)
2. Island SunriseTeam島嶼天光文件錄像團隊 (Portrait painting and video)
3. Liu Tsung Jung 劉宗榮 (paintings and Archives)
4. Hsin Yi Liu 劉欣怡 (paintings)
5. Chia H. Kuo郭家瑄 (sculpture)
v Ukrainian Euromaidan revolution
6. Oleksii Koval (lithography and molten enamel paintings)
7. Shih-Pao Lin, (one Prayer, one Painting drawings)
v Chilean Winter
8. María Verónica San Martín(installation)
v Arab Spring
9. Kevork Mourad (boat sculpture + wall piece + video）
v Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement
10. Tracy Wong (prints, video, mask, cocktail)
· Tentative seminar Panelists:
v 陳為廷(當年運動參與者,现在DC)
v 林倢（當年運動參與者, 現在在National Democratic Institute）
v 施懿倫 (當年運動參與者, 現在芝加哥)
v 張崑陽（香港政治運動領袖，現在流亡美國，在DC智庫上班）
v Jenny Wang（太陽花台灣年輕人在紐約的行動）
Curatorial concept brief translation【策展概念中文簡譯】
2014年3月，台灣年輕人領導的太陽花運動徹底扭轉了台灣的內外政策走向; 在運動十週年之際我們意欲規劃一次展覽活動也指出，社會和政治變革是透過運動領袖和人民的勇敢精神和努力贏得的，而不是作為一個幸運的意外而獲得的。本次展覽將有約12 位藝術家參與，慶祝2014 年左右在世界各地發生的人民政治運動（主要由青年主導）。我們選擇了5 個運動：向日葵運動、阿拉伯之春、智利之冬、烏克蘭親歐盟運動、香港的雨傘運動——與台灣的向日葵運動大致處於同一時代——藝術家將對此做出回應。
其中首先是台灣的太陽花運動，學生和其他年輕人佔領台灣立法院，抗議執政政府（馬英九）加強與中國貿易關係的計畫。太陽花運動成功阻止了擬議的立法，導致許多參與者最終進入正式政治生活，從而復興了台灣的政治文化，太陽花運動於2014年發生；其十週年將於2024年3月18日舉行。
其他值得紀念的運動還有 2014 年 9 月 26 日至 12 月 15 日期間發生的香港雨傘運動，因此 2024 年也將標誌著運動的 10 週年。 這場由香港年輕人領導的運動是由中國提議的香港選舉制度改革引發的——這項改革遭到了北京政府的反對，但未成功，後來又被北京政府單方面強加。 然而，這項運動在 2019 年五週年之際再次捲土重來，抗議允許將香港居民引渡到中國並在那裡接受審判的法案。 北京最終將這項法案強加於香港，進一步削弱了香港的特殊地位，違反了英國和中國在1997年談判達成的香港50年特別行政地位。然而，這次展覽將頌揚公眾的精神自我犧牲精神在台灣的太陽花運動中得到體現，並在每一次民眾運動中得到體現。
這次展覽將包含阿拉伯之春的一些元素。 儘管這項運動於 2010 年代初期在多個阿拉伯國家展開，並取得了不同程度的成功。 阿拉伯之春始於突尼斯，隨後蔓延到埃及、利比亞、葉門、敘利亞和巴林。 在埃及、利比亞、葉門和突尼西亞，統治者被廢黜。 阿拉伯世界各地都發生了抗議活動，尤其是在摩洛哥、伊拉克、阿爾及利亞、黎巴嫩、約旦、科威特、阿曼和蘇丹。 這些都是青年反對獨裁、追求民主和經濟未來的運動，也契合了本次展覽的主題。 雖然 2024 年將是這項運動的 12 或 13 週年（取決於哪個國家），但由於其目標，它值得被納入本次展覽。 人們希望更仔細地審視在突尼斯發生的阿拉伯之春（它在突尼斯取得了成功）。
南美洲和中美洲的許多政治運動都是由青年領導的抗議活動。 也許最引人注目的事件之一是2011 年至2013 年在智利發生的事件。被稱為“智利冬天”，這是由學生領導的抗議活動，反對當時智利現有的貧困營利性教育體系，尤其是高等教育體系。這往往會延續智利的階級結構，因為非常富有的孩子有足夠的教育選擇，但中產階級家庭的孩子卻沒有。 這個制度可以追溯到奧古斯托·皮諾切特將軍的獨裁統治，他並不比台灣的蔣介石將軍更仁慈。 在台灣和智利，向民主的過渡都是和平進行的——沒有發生革命——而諸如本文討論的政治運動則對民主進行了微調。
烏克蘭的青年運動被稱為親歐盟革命或 Pomvrancheva 革命。該運動以基輔的 Maidan Nezalezhnosti（獨立廣場）命名，該廣場是 2014 年 2 月 18 日首批示威地點之一； 抗議者也試圖佔領立法部門。 與台灣的太陽花運動不同，武警阻止了這項行動，殺死、打傷或逮捕了許多抗議者。 親歐盟運動的目的是推翻總統亞努科維奇，抗議者認為他與俄羅斯關係過於密切。 亞努科維奇曾就烏克蘭加入歐盟達成協議，但隨後拒絕這樣做，轉而支持與俄羅斯建立更密切的關係 — — 這與馬英九在台灣倡導的與中國建立更密切關係的呼應。
最終，歐洲獨立運動的成功得到了烏克蘭語使用者的支持，而烏克蘭語俄語使用者的反對，使俄羅斯更有底氣奪取了烏克蘭的俄語區克里米亞半島。 來自該地區的多位藝術家將創作並展示對烏克蘭親歐盟革命進行評論的藝術作品。
在這次紀念台灣向日葵運動十週年的展覽中，我們提醒世人我們所獲得的安穩、和平的生活不是靠運氣得來的，而是靠著運動領袖們人民的勇敢精神和努力換來的;時代的5個運動藝術家來回應。