Synopsis :

At 1200 meters above sea level, hollowed out between the rift valley and the Taiwan high central mountain range, there is a serpentinite marble quarry. Few workers operate there and all of them have indigenous ethnicity and mostly coming from the village below. The working tools are obsolete, the refreshment areas are dilapidated barracks, the working conditions are extremely dangerous. Due to the expiration of the contract terms, the extraction company that holds mine concession begins the dismantling of its infrastructure at the beginning of 2020. In this period, during the rise of the covid-19 pandemic, a group of artists specialized in traditional weaving, led by a local indigenous curator Labay Eyong, decided to organize a land-art project right inside the mountain where the stone quarry. After almost half a century of extraction, the face of the mountain has profoundly changed, giving the surrounding environment a very suggestive appearance, almost like “an amphitheater for giants”. The project lasts about a year and ends with a very touching opening ceremony, in which various questions are raised regarding the indigenous identity of the place and its mining exploitation. In fact, that area was anciently a place of passage and hunting territory of the indigenous Bunun tribe, a place of passage for the old villages in the mountains. Despite this, with the expiration of the extraction concession contract, the local government and the bureau responsible for safeguarding the forest territory grant a new extraction company a contract which will lead to the death of two workers during an accident at work still to be clarified.
The mountain’s future remains uncertain.

 

「裹山」的入口在太魯閣族人居住的紅葉部落（Ihunang），以蛇紋石為主開採40餘年的礦區，是早期部落族人維生的產業之一，而其所在的山其實是卓溪鄉布農族的傳統領域，布農族人稱之為「Dungku Asang」。Dungku指的是「隆起的地方」，Asang指的是「故鄉」。 　　採礦一向是男性從事的工作，從早期的爆破和鑽鑿到現代的鑽石索鋸機切割開採工法，礦區的景象呈現一種暴力後美學，階梯式的壁面不斷往下，與山原本高聳的姿態呈現極度的對比。巨型被切割後的石面與空氣長期接觸後滲出紅色斑駁的痕跡彷彿大山正躺著血。 　　藝術家的進場，想要做的是包裹、是修復，因此有了「裹山」這個名字。來自太魯閣族、泰雅族、賽德克族、排灣族、阿美族、漢族的十位織者，帶上他們編織的Gabang（被毯）走進山裡，試圖以軟性表現方式介入極度陽剛的場域，大量的編織品在此包紮大自然的傷口，但是，就在我們進到礦區，看見了不同岩層碰撞後的岩石結晶，也看見氧化後斑駁的橘紅色色彩，更看見草長起來了。比起大自然自我修復的能力，人類還是好渺小⋯。

The entrance of the “裹山 Dungku Asang ” is in the Ihunang tribe where the Truku people live. The mine was mainly used for mining serpentine for more than 40 years. It was one of the industries of the early tribes for subsistence, and the mountain where it is actually is the traditional area of the Bunun people in the Zhuoxi township is called “Dungku Asang”. Dungku refers to the “uplifted place” and Asang refers to the “hometown”. Mining has always been a male occupation. From the early days of blasting and drilling to the modern method of cutting and mining with diamond saws, the landscape of the mine is a post-violent aesthetic, with stepped walls that continue to descend in extreme contrast to the mountain’s original towering stance. The giant cut stone surface is in contact with the air for a long time and oozes with red marks as if the mountain is lying in blood. What the artists want to do when they come in mining is to wrap and restore the mountains, hence the exhibition is named “Dungku Asang”. Ten weavers from the Truku, Atayal, Seediq, Paiwan, Amis, and Han artists took their Gabang into the mountains, trying to intervene in a soft expression way. In the masculine field, a large number of weavings are there to wrap nature’s wounds. However, we enter the mine, we see the crystallization of the rocks after the collision of different rock layers, we see the orange-red color of the oxidation, and we see the grass growing… In contrast to nature’s ability of healing itself, humans are still so small…