Sea Forest

For the next stage of “Citing Bar”, we will be looking at the intersectional ideas of climate justice and we wish to expand multiple forms of knowledge, ecological wisdom and worldviews through cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations. Participatory activities, including translating, research, writing, reporting and publishing will be organised to sustain awareness of care and justice.

Yu-Chen Wang has a long-standing interest in exploring the relationship between technological development, human progress, and the complexity of human impacts on the environment. Over the past two years, she has created a series of works in response to the history of coal mining in the UK and the use of peatlands for agriculture and fuel; the subsequent effects of excess carbon emissions, resource depletion and biodiversity loss.

This summer, the artist is undertaking field research along the west coast of Taiwan and investigating the historical context of hydrological landscapes. Focusing on the estuaries of the Tamsui River, the Zhuoshui River and the Zengwen River, she is exploring how highly diverse mangrove ecosystems are coping with human development that threatens their habitats; how they contribute to sequestering carbon in wetlands and mitigating climate change that are urgent global concerns we are facing today. The new findings will serve as source material for “the Citing Bar” climate collaboration project in the future.

For this informal event, the artist will share sketches, images, archives and interviews gathered so far. She will be in conversation with curator Hung-Fei Wu, and invite everyone to join the discussion and enjoy specially created mangrove ecosystem-inspired drinks.

*Special thanks to Professor Sheue, Chiou-Rong and Professor Lin, Hsing-Juh, both from the Department of Life Sciences at the National Chung Hsing University.

About Artist Yu-Chen Wang

The work of Yu-Chen Wang asks fundamental questions about human identity at a key point in history, where ecosystems and technosystems have become inextricably intertwined. Her projects mostly have been created through undertaking residencies, developing cross-cultural/disciplinary collaborations and delivering site-responsive commissions. Exhibitions at museums and galleries include Le lieu unique (Nantes, 2022), Drawing Room (London, 2021), MoCA Taipei and theCube (2020), Kumu Art Museum (Tallinn, 2020), National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taichung, 2020), Science Gallery Dublin (2020), iMAL (Brussels, 2020), Science Gallery London (2019), CCCB (Barcelona, 2019), Tbilisi Triennial (2018), FACT (Liverpool, 2017), CFCCA (Manchester, 2016), Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2016), Manchester Art Gallery (2016), Yeo Workshop (Singapore, 2015) and Taipei Biennial (2014); residencies at Taipei Artist Village (2019), Seoul Museum of Art (2017), Science and Industry Museum (Manchester, 2015). She received the Honorary Mention Collide International Award, Arts at CERN (Geneva, 2018).

www.yuchenwang.com