This BLOG exists because coming to Taiwan as an artist and working with the Dream Community is a difficult thing to relate, and we wanted a way to publish what we actually do here.
We make things like these:
The Dream Community is the brainchild of wild man Gordon Tsai...
and his skipper, match-making donga-wearing magic maker Jay Jay.
Gordon funds this entire art collective, fueled by the principle that making people happy and opening minds to new things is the most important force in New Taiwan. They believe that bringing artists here for collaborative projects will bring about a huge cultural shift. Mostly, they want to be a part of something new and experimental.
Gordon grew up on a farm where the Dream Community now stands in the northern district of Taipei known as Xizih. A lot of this community is still made up of farms. Gordon's parents still go out and farm every day.
13 years ago, Gordon decided to sell some of the family farm to make apartments. He and Jay Jay built these high rises and used a certain portion of the space to host artists, productions, parade construction and cultural events.
I first came to The Dream Community in 2008 for a three month residency. We travelled around to Aboriginal villages and built small parade floats and puppets with tribes as a part of a movement to preserve native culture. Taiwan is one of the most recently colonized of the cluster of islands in Southeast Asia known as Austronesia. The aboriginal tribes lived in the mountains as head hunters until about 1920, at which point they were colonized by China and Japan. Since then, head hunting and wife stealing have become illegal and the tribes mostly hunt wild boar and sometimes monkey. Living in this intersection of modern Taiwanese technology culture and aboriginal, recently retired head hunter culture is unique.
1930s
Aboriginal Taiwan is a beautifully well kept secret. Working with the groups in the mountains, we learned about the history of the island, folk tales and grannies with facial tattoos. Taiwan is also home to the sweetest swim spots in the world.
Our friend Gwali runs a natural aboriginal getaway with his father, who was also one of the main architects on Taipei 101.
They cook traditional smoked meats and have an outdoor jungle shower that looks like heaven on earth.
This is where the tribes used to keep their collection of human heads. Now they display wild goat, deer and monkeys.
A lot of the aboriginal mommies come to the Dream Community for the Storytelling festival. They make delicious treats.
There is a festival in the summer which brings all of the tribes together to remember dances and songs. Everyone spends weeks getting costumes and routines together. It is truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
We lived with 8 tribes over the summers of 2008 and 2009. This particular group, photographed with me, Pandora Gastelum and Gordon, were a rowdy bunch. One time Pandora and I were walking along the road collecting dead butterflies during butterfly season and it began raining so these guys called us into their mountain-side bar and we ended up staying up all night listening to Taiwanese oldies, drinking rice wine and arm wrestling. I think I almost won one of their babies and Pandora almost got married.
Next Chapter: The Projects
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