Monday, October 03, 6:00 p.m.
Born in Malaysia in 1957, Tsai Ming-Liang is one of the most prominent film directors of the new cinema movement in Taiwan. He is known for long shots, elliptical narratives, painterly approaches to light and color, and poignant portrayals of urban and sexual alienation.
In 1994, Tsai’s film VIVE L’AMOUR was awarded the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, and this helped establish a place for him in the world of international film. In 2009, FACE became the first film to be included in the collection of the Louvre Museum’s program Le Louvre s’offre aux cinéastes. It has since become the benchmark for films venturing into the realm of art galleries. In recent years, Tsai has focused on installation art and his works have been well-received in Venice, Italy; Shanghai, China; and Nagoya, Japan.
At the invitation of the National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Center in 2011, Tsai returned to theater performance after a 27-year absence with three monodramas entitled Only You. Since 2012, he has been working on a long-term project filming actor Lee Kang-Sheng’s slow walk, collaborating with various cities and organizations. To date, Tsai has completed seven short works. His full-length feature STRAY DOGS (2013) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 70th Venice Film Festival. In 2014, he presented the critically acclaimed theater work The Monk From Tang Dynasty at arts festivals in Brussels, Vienna, and Taipei. That same year, Tsai made history by bringing his work into the museum space with the solo video installation exhibition Stray Dogs at the Museum at the Museum of National Taipei University of Education.
This program is collaboratively presented by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Visiting Artists Program, the Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC’s Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation’s Conversations at the Edge series. Presented in partnership with the Ministry of Culture-Taiwan Cultural Center in New York, the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago, Doc Films, and Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University. Programmed with support from J. Michael Eugenio. Presented as part of Tsai Ming-Liang’s US tour to Cambridge, Chicago, Washington DC, and New York City. Visit tsai2020.com for more information.