Origin
After five years of tireless trying and refining, the International Environmental Arts Festival has improved the feedback people in communities provide to art and cultural activities and reshaped the common memory of local major historical events by Tamsui people through both the parade presented by people in the communities each year and the environmental theatre shows presented by volunteer non-professional actors. The impetus of the local art festival started in 2008 along with the opening of the international conference on activating the creativity of Asian cities. In the same year, the first carnival parade successfully exhibited local vitality, cultural characteristics and rich creativity. The 2009 Dance the Street Away inherited the spirit in combining community art, community empowerment and people’s daily life to display the results in the form of both a carnival parade and an environmental theater piece depicting the Sino-French War. In 2010, it continued the tradition of including participation of people in communities, and added theatrical elements that allowed the locals to interact with tourists in order to create a parade that was different from previous ones; storyline of the environmental theater was enhanced, making it something unique to Tamsui. After Taipei county was elevated to New Taipei City in 2011, the festival was further expanded to make the festival more complete in all aspects: installation art exhibitions, final–result exhibitions, street corner performances, campus tours, performances by both international and domestic groups as well as exchanges of new compositions among composers. In 2012, the festival was brought to another new level: it was the first time in Taiwan that city streets were used for the stage and the concept of a flowing performance was introduced to the audience, which successfully broke the limitations to theater performances. The festival activities demonstrated the vitality of local communities. The efforts invested by the locals into the environmental theater performances have created a sense of collective recognition of their hometown. The impacts continued to ripple in the hearts of both the performers and audience. During the interaction among artists and the locals, they came to realize that artists did more than just creating arts but also had to interact with land and community. From the interaction, they experienced both the possible and the impossible. The combination of activities and community empowerment allows for art and communities to co-exist and the flowers of art to blossom, thus an art form unique to the community is shaped - that is the driving force of this festival, and its goal is to bring people together to construct this annual New Taipei City art event.
Activities
Art Parade and the Opening Ceremony: After five years of experience, people in the communities are familiar with the parade to a certain degree. This year’s parade still involves local artists, performing groups, community clubs and schools. Both groups or individuals can register to participate. Each team will need to hire artists to design a program or they need to design a program on their own. On the day of the parade, the community clubs and school teams will compete with each other and on the opening night, a prize presentation will be held in order to inspire each team’s vitality and creativity.
Civilian’s Environmental Theater - The Legend of the Sino-French War: to re-experience this important historic battle, the Legend of the Sino-French War was brought to the stage in 2009 by Tamsui locals and the Qinzhi Club, which specializes in using historical sites as the stage. In 2012, the stage was moved to the Golden Waterfront Plaza where the history of dramatic performance and the texture of the city’s environment are tightly connected – a pioneering work for performances indeed. In 2013, the stage is back to the old battle field. The city government hopes that in addition to bringing new ideas into the show, the characteristics and energies unique to Tamsui will be further refined from the traditional sources. The features and center of this activity are to bring together the participation of the environmental theater, performing groups, communities, clubs, schools and locals to represent a unique New Taipei City artistic feast and to build the image of “You can only see such overwhelming performances here in Tamsui”.
Street Corner Art Performances: Great shows brought by performing groups known throughout Taiwan for their special talents so that people are exposed to the beauty of art through various performances.
A Tour to the Old Battle Field: A cultural tour route of Tamsui MRT Station – the Tamsui Old Streets – Martyr’s Shrine – Fort Park is available.
The Installation Art Festival Forum: Local Tamsui art and cultural workers are invited as the observers of the activity to observe the entire festival. After the festival ends, they will become the speakers to lead discussions on related topics.
The Grand Closing Ceremony: A celebration will be held. Art groups and school clubs who participated in the festival are invited to perform together at the celebration, making a perfect ending for the festival.
