Writer: So your story does have a happy ending.
Adult Pi Patel: Well, that's up to you.
– Life of Pi
An "open ending" refers to a story without a definitive conclusion, a path leading to an unknown destination. It leaves the literary or dramatic text in suspense, granting the viewer freedom to interpret. This way, the story is not merely a pre-imposed answer template in the traditional viewing experience but rather a two-way dialogue between the viewer and the creator. Just like at the end of Life of Pi, where director Ang Lee posed the question through the protagonist Pi to the writer/viewer beyond the screen: "Which story do you prefer?"
This fall, TFAM is transforming its underground space from a traditional "white cube" gallery into a unique art cinema. Through cross-disciplinary curatorial collaborations, we have invited prominent visual artists and filmmakers from Asia and Europe to curate a "mini-film festival" featuring a selection of rare single-channel video works. These include seldom-seen video art, short films, documentaries, art films, experimental films, and animated shorts. Unlike mainstream narrative feature films, these works often lack specific plot direction or strong emotional rendering. Instead, they offer open-ended reflections on contemporary issues and explore various experimental cinematic techniques.
An Open Ending: TFAM Screening Project seeks to expand upon the familiar cinematic/dramatic concept of an "open ending" by presenting a variety of themes and film lists combinations throughout the exhibition period to open up more imaginations and possibilities. This "openness" not only encourages viewers to form their own interpretations but also deconstructs traditional cinematic forms, pays homage to alternative film movements, and challenges conventional definitions of art. In this space, directors and artists craft the narrative, while viewers are invited to define the conclusion.
Organized by Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Curatorial Team: Cheng-Yi Chien, Hsuan-Chun Tseng, Wood Lin, Alexandre Huang
Introdction：
Palimpsests (Screening Dates：2024.10.12－12.29)
This exhibition hall is like copy paper, a space for copying, much like the ancient palimpsest that was repeatedly inscribed, scraped, and re-written. It blends the vestige left behind by erasure with the imprints overwritten upon them. Multiple layers of new and old are superimposed, fused, and recomposed, giving rise to plural meanings. Projected onto this palimpsest is not only the dialogue between each video work and the history and memory it involved, and its resistance to dissolving narrative, but also the montage of multiple versions that these works generate across different spaces—cinemas, film festivals, and museums, as well as the artistic experiments that resonate among each other, ultimately cross-referencing, permeating, and being re-read in relation to one another in the process of interpretation.
Jean-Luc Godard｜Histoire(s) du cinéma - Moments choisis
Tsai Ming-Liang｜Your Face
Tsai Ming-Liang｜It's A Dream
Tsai Ming-Liang｜Transformation
Tsai Ming-Liang｜Wandering
Yang Fudong｜An Estranged Paradise
Chen Chieh-Jen｜Realm of Reverberations
White Noise (Screening Dates：2024.10.12－12.29)
"White Noise" refers to the aggregate of all audible noises produced by various actions within a space, including sounds generated to suppress these noises. Inspired by American writer Don DeLillo's 1985 novel White Noise, this special feature curates a selection of distinctive short and feature-length films by Asian directors and artists. Through these works, we contemplate the struggles and contradictions that humanity faces in the contemporary world: the deluge of information, environmental changes and impending threats, the progress and destruction brought about by technology, life and death, assimilation and resistance…. Familiar yet absurd scenes, like persistent white noise, surround us. How should we respond? Is it possible to escape from this distorted and chaotic soundscape and rediscover our most serene intentions?
Mong-Hong Chung｜Escape
Mong-Hong Chung｜Exorcism
Mong-Hong Chung｜Festival
Yu Araki｜Fuel
Zhao Liang｜I'm So Sorry
Su Hui-Yu｜Future Shock – The End of Eternity
Su Hui-Yu｜Future Shock
Cao Fei｜Haze and Fog
Nguyen Trinh Thi｜Letters from Panduranga
The Propeller Group｜The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music