Taiwan has been an interesting trip for me. Part of which is all Su Huiyu doing. He sent me an email at the beginning of the year asking if I would be willing to be in his Trio Hall project, and out of character, I said yes. I made me go from always being comfortable being invisible behind the scenes to right in the center of the scene, on the screen as an artwork in the museum… It is quite strange being in the museum and seeing people looking at it. I haven’t even dared to watch it all the way from beginning to end because it’s so strange, and then I feel people staring at me (is that her?), so I run out.
Trio Hall, the project by Su, where he is making his first feature film, a variety show, from the beginning (pre-production) to the end (editing and post-production), in the museum, is fun to be around. He also has an incredibly professional team, literally every one of them is so talented and skilled in their professions, and most have been working on other projects of his over the years, so it’s a family, really. They are all super nice and cool to be around. I sat in some audition sessions and was part of the film shoots. The museum is filling up with new works, like the shoot he did with me and his curator Eugenio Viola, which is a stand-alone video installation, and he did that with other shoots as well. The audience could be part of the audience in the film, or just watch the audience in the film being filmed, hahaha. Some days they are part of exciting stuff, the film shoots, the customs and make-up and hair, and rehearsals, and some days they experience how boring filmmaking can be too, just a few people talking, an editor sitting behind a screen as the only person working in the museum, and even a director sleeping somewhere in a corner. So really I can’t wait to see the film, I’m sure this power team will once again kill it!!!! Goooo Trio Hall!
The Trio Hall
Video installation, time-based art, performance, and feature film, Su Hui-Yu, 2023
What you are seeing is a “cinematic exhibition” or “exhibition cinema”, or it can also be thought of as a place of audiovisual production, where members of the audience can experience a process that entails drawing the storyboard, production meeting, audition, rehearsal, martial arts training, choreography, musical arrangement, and even being on site at the filming location. Finally, a political comedy packed with thorny issues and hellish gags will be produced by the end of the exhibition. This entire experience marks an interim conclusion for my “Re-shooting” series, which asks: Why don’t we tackle chauvinism, colonization, the Cold War, popular culture, mass media, and any pressing crises and dilemmas all at once? This proposal reflects the current new Cold War and extreme politics, and under such circumstances, what kind of humorous narratives can this East Asian island nation of ours come up with? The narratives conjured will then be widely circulated and passed down, as we exclaim to the world and also to ourselves: What the hell is going on?