Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

“Our survival at this moment is a matter of sheer luck.”

A major earthquake struck Hualien, Taiwan on 3rd April, 2024. Following an earthquake in August, Japan issued a Nankai Trough megaquake alert. The ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia for over two years, the recent war in Gaza, and even explosions resembling mushroom clouds triggered by chemical plant fires. Natural disasters and man-made calamities continue to occur, presenting realities beyond our control. “Existence” can be understood as being a survivor in the present moment. No one can predict what will happen in the next second. The inability to control reality shows how challenging and fragile our existence is, and this fragility can even be considered a form of luck in life. Yet, as survivors, we have not yet confronted the inevitability of death. If we consider death to be a major event in life, then we must aspire to fully experience our own unique life journeys.

In Wang Ya-Hui’s work Visitor, the floating white cloud traverses the space, making us ponder whether we are like that cloud, coming and going lightly. Yuan Goang-Ming’s Everday Maneuver documents Taiwan’s air raid drills from 1978 to the present, highlighting the island’s geopolitical concerns through its desolate cityscape. Chen I-Chun’s Under Surveillance, based on the World War II prisoner-of-war camp built in Jinguashi, New Taipei City, prompts reflections on the meaning of war and the human right issues faced by prisoners during that period. Hsu Che-Yu’s work Microphone Test: A Letter to Huang Guo-Jun is developed from the essays written by the writer Huang Guo-Jun before his suicide. The narrative in the video is a reconstruction of memory and a rethinking of the meaning of death. In Chen Ching-Yuan’s (Flare-s), the signal flare, used as a distress signal or festive fireworks, represents Taiwan’s long-standing dilemmas and contradictions.

Yet, these everyday realities that we experience represent the deepest connections and intersections in our lives. No one can easily escape them, simply because we are still alive.

The eternal moment, the “here and now,” is a central concept present in many spiritual and philosophical traditions. In Taoism, this idea is deeply reflected through the principle of Wu Wei. Wu Wei means “non-action” or, more accurately, “acting in harmony with the natural flow of things.” It describes a state in which one moves effortlessly through life, in harmony with nature, rather than struggling against it. The concept of the everlasting moment finds its counterpart in Taoism's idea that life can only be fully experienced and understood in the present. The past has already gone, the future has not yet arrived—everything that is real and tangible is the now. However, through Wu Wei, this moment is neither forced nor controlled; rather, one allows it to unfold naturally. In the state of Wu Wei, one acts without projecting onto the future or being burdened by the past—acting naturally, spontaneously, and in full alignment with what is happening in the present.

The “CAPTURING NOWNESS” open call for artistic films invited filmmakers to explore this subtle yet profound state cinematically. It is about how we experience the present moment by surrendering to the flow of life, rather than being driven by external or internal pressures. The challenge lies in capturing the intangible—the “now”—and bringing it to life through images and stories. Filmmakers were called upon to express this essence of timelessness by depicting the relationship between humans and the moment in the spirit of Wu Wei: the action that happens without striving—and life realized in the now.

Born in 1978 in Taipei, Wang Ding-Yeh received a master’s degree from the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden) in 2011. He specializes in video installation and painting. The themes of his works primarily focus on issues concerning his life, society, and the environment. He believes that people can confront or connect to the external world through artistic creation, and in the process, achieve self-healing. His works have been exhibited in Taiwan, the United States, Israel, France, and Germany.

Wang Ya-Hui (1973 – 2023) born in Taipei and held a master’s degree in arts and technology from the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2004. She works across mediums, from video to installation, photography to painting. Using mediums of image, her practice centers on the peripheral vision of the viewer, and the overlap of the reality and the image, proposing questions about virtual / real, interior / exterior, the essence of image, and the viewing experience. Integrating Eastern thought into contemporary life, her work doesn’t aim to create a specific landscape but investigates how a landscape is fundamentally constructed in moving images. Yahui exhibited globally, including the Hors Pistes Film Festival at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2008), Shanghai Biennale (2006), and Taipei Biennial (2002 and 2010). She also received “Asian Cultural Council (ACC) / Yageo Tech Art Award, Taiwan; Loop Award, Best Gallery Work and Presentation, Barcelona, Spain and the Taipei Arts Award, Taipei, Taiwan.

Yuan Goang-Ming (b. 1965, Taipei) graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Academy of Arts (now National Taiwan University of Arts) in 1989. In 1993, he was awarded the DAAD Germany Exchange Scholarship, and next year went to research on media art at the Institute for New Media in Frankfurt, Germany.
He received his master’s degree in media art from the now Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany) in 1997. Yuan’s active commitment to video art has made him one of the pioneering new media artists in Taiwan since the 90s. He works across various, ranging from
single-channel videos, computer ized interactive installations, installation-based video projections, to prints created with digital media. Through these forms, he has consistently explored and unfolded the possibilities of video and media art.

Chen I-Chun holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Digital Multimedia Design, China University of Technology. Chen has received numerous awards, including the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Award, Best Experimental Film at the Golden Harvest Awards, and First Prize at the Taipei Digital Art Performance Award. Her works have been showcased at various biennials, electronic arts festivals, and film festivals worldwide. Chen’s creative practice spans experimental film, interdisciplinary new media, and contemporary painting. She focuses on social issues and folk narratives in industrial, marginalized regions and among the lower-middle class, exploring the intersection of personal experiences between reality and illusion. Through a cross-comparative research and creative method involving oral history, field research, historical mystery-solving, dream analysis, and occult techniques, she seeks to unravel the cosmic history informed by unofficial Taiwanese perspectives.

Hsu Che-Yu (b. 1985) is an artist based in Taipei and Amsterdam. Previously, Hsu obtained a master’s degree from the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts (Taiwan). Since 2019, he had participated in the residency program in HISK (Ghent, 2019–2020) and Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains (Tourcoing, 2020–2022). In 2022, he begins his two-year art residency in Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Hsu Che-Yu works as an artist who primarily creates animations, videos, and installations that feature the relations between media and memories. What matters to the artist is not simply the history of events traceable through media, but also the construction and visualization of memories, be they private or collective.

Chen Ching-Yuan's work spans painting, installation, and animation, utilizing a strong personal visual language to depict the complex emotions and social issues inherent in human experience. His art reflects his observations and reflections on reality. His paintings evoke fragments of styles and features from the history of Western art. Through the adept use of color and composition, he constructs a richly layered visual language. The scenes he creates, infused with allegorical and surreal qualities, feature ambiguous figures whose identities blur the boundaries of time, place, and identity, capturing a sense of collective sensibility and internal perspective. Chen’s recent solo exhibitions include Ship of These-us, mor charpentier, Paris (2022); Pages 2021- 20, TKG+, Taipei (2021); Brick and Timber, white cube online, London (2021); Card Stunt, mor charpentier, Paris (2019); What am I ? If I can't be yours, TKG+, Taipei (2016); Un title, ITPark, Taipei (2015); (flare-s) Chen Ching-Yuan × TKG+ Projects, TKG+ Projects, Taipei (2013); Staggering Matter, TKG+, Taipei (2011) and The LiQUiD STATE, VT Artsalon, Taipei (2009).

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2. Ibrahim Quraishi - Camels are whispering
3. Sabrina Bellenzier & Guenda Bondini - for only we can teach you how to die
4. Alba T Álvarez - NEMA33
5. Tatjana Bikic - ZEUS & EUROPA
6. Caroline Beach - angel of information pt. 1
7. Julius Günzel & Maja Nagel – friedenkriegen
8. Elom 20ce (Togo), Musquiqui Chihying (Taiwan) and Gregor Kasper - The Currency – Sensing #1 Agbogbloshie
9. Moritz Simon Geist & Robert Arnold - Grams
10. Lucas Oertel & Heinz Schmöller - Zu Besuch