EX!T 15 第十五屆台灣國際實驗媒體藝術展－一隻狼在放哨 – 策展人的話
EX!T 15 – Experimental Media Art Festival in Taiwan 2025 Program Notes
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一隻狼在放哨，凝神靜聽，萬物細微之情，之中或有危險時刻，鬆懈時刻，或生或滅的時刻。陣風吹來，一凜一暖，偶有獵人路過的氣息，天空藍藍地發亮，午後有陣雨，夜間有雙眼睛如星，伺機而動，舉起一隻相機對準的瞬間，人事物在蒼穹之下生活著。
今年 EX!T 影展榮幸地邀請台灣和美國的實驗導演來分享他們的電影作品。這些創作者長久以來堅持自己的藝術道路，默默行旅，如一隻孤獨的狼。一個人背著相機和腳架跋山涉水，一個人蹲在暗房裡調製藥水等待顯影，一個人伏在工作室畫台上逐格拼貼、逐幀拍攝，一個人駝身剪接。他們都是在資源極其艱苦的條件下，一匍一匐地完成了這些非凡的作品。
記得我問黃庭輔導演關於《03:04》的創作過程，他告訴我，當時他手中的 16mm 相機擺好位置就不動了，一鏡到底直到把底片拍完。實驗是一種生活，實驗電影是體現當下思想的爍爍靈光，實驗電影修行者是試圖想抓住世間那一份流轉，卻往往成為被時光捕捉的對象，而實驗電影修行者的電影，則是他們路過時不小心落下的另一個自我，既是獵手，也是獵物。今年影展特別策劃黃庭輔導演實驗精選，從早期 1991 年到 2018 年 的短片專輯，難得一見。
長期關注和探索西拉雅和台灣族群遷徙歷史的鄭立明導演，將帶來《MATA – 影像之初》專題放映，「作為一個電影導演，拿著上百年的雙眼相機，揣想在那些 MATA（眼睛）當時在看見了什麼。那之後，影像是怎麼形塑了我們以及福爾摩沙？」我們將在這部片中去經歷一場百年福爾摩沙的穿梭冒險。
EX!T 邁入第十五屆，回顧企劃《台灣實驗者之電影修行（壹、貳）》橫跨從 1995 年到 2025 年，展出從先鋒到年輕一代導演如吳米森、黃庭輔、黃亞歷、林仕杰、林延昭等的創作實踐。系列第一部分《表面的塵、底下的詩》著重於生活中的「詩」：思想的詩、垮掉的詩、讀不到的詩、蒸發的詩；系列的第二部分《守光者》重點關注「事件」：歷史中的事件、歷史之外的事件、口述之事件、遺棄之事件。在這裡每個故事無不圍繞著藝術家的個人思考：關於遷徙、記憶以及生活與電影的共生共死。
持續豐富台灣與國際藝術家的對話，我們很榮幸邀請到美國國寶級動畫導演、木偶藝術家：劉易斯・克拉爾（Lewis Klahr）和嘉妮・凱瑟（Janie Geiser）來台分享他們的電影作品，並透過工作坊、論壇等方式和觀眾進行深入的影像探討與創作經驗的交流。
劉易斯・克拉爾自1977年以來一直從事電影創作，以其獨特的拼貼電影而聞名，這些電影呈現獨特的敘事風格和視覺美學。克拉爾所創造出來的綺麗世界以其獨特的剪裁小說體為特色，利用現成的（或回收的）物品、漫畫、照片和聲音來重建他對城市的記憶，並探索人類情感的交匯。
嘉妮・凱瑟的作品以對廢棄圖像和物體的重新脈絡化，及對記憶、力量和失落的探索而聞名。作為美國先鋒派木偶劇的先驅之一，凱瑟創造了創新、催眠般的表演和裝置，將表演物件、木偶和投影融為一體。在本屆 EX!T 影展中，凱瑟將親自帶領《拾獲物體表演》工作坊，活動開放給對劇場或木偶藝術有興趣的朋友報名參加。
實驗動畫的緣起除了可以追溯到早期的動物運動影像研究與視覺暫留的科學發現，如 Zoetrope，以及埃德沃德・邁布里奇（Eadweard J. Muybridge）的 Zoopraxiscope；也啟發於未來主義、立體主義繪畫運動、純粹電影運動、電影聲音的發明，和超現實主義運動的影響。 「純粹電影（Cinéma Pur）」是一場興起於 1920 年代和 1930 年代巴黎的先鋒電影運動，它發展了一種強調純粹電影元素的電影風格，例如形式、動態、視覺構圖、顏色、光影和節奏。 純粹電影運動和許多達達主義藝術家的作品產生共鳴，如曼・雷（Man Ray）、勒內・克萊爾（René Clair）、費爾南・萊熱（Fernand Léger）、和馬塞爾・杜尚（Marcel Duchamp）等。其中一些作品又間接影響了下一代的電影風格：絕對電影、抽象電影、視覺音樂、實驗動畫等。這些作品大多由藝術家獨立創作，可說是西方藝術史上個人電影的先驅。
延伸兩位國際導演的電影放映和論壇活動，本屆影展特別加映了兩場美歐實驗電影經典節目：《實驗動畫（壹）：超現實煉金術》和《實驗動畫（貳）：釋放過程》，收錄了美歐近代（自 1930 年至今）動畫大師如：萊恩・萊（Len Lye）、史丹・范德比克 （Stan VanDerBeek）、羅伯特・布里爾（Robert Breer）、蘇珊・皮特（Suzan Pitt）等代表作；除此之外，選集中也加入了一些新生代動畫師的卓越之作，與過往之經典形成豐富且多元的激盪與切磋。
最後，我要感謝總策劃吳俊輝、牯嶺街小劇場館長姚立群、以及製作人楊凱婷的邀請及無限協助，讓我有榮幸參與今年 EX!T 台灣國際實驗媒體藝術展。感謝一年來的研究過程中所獲得的寶貴經驗與知識。
影展題目靈感來自阿巴斯・基阿魯斯達米（Abbas Kiarostami）同名詩集。
一隻狼在放哨。在原野，在城市，在大螢幕上——
策展人 劉行欣
2025
EX!T 15 – Experimental Media Art Festival in Taiwan 2025 Program Notes
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A wolf stands sentinel, listening intently, reading the subtle emotions of all things, moments of danger, moments of relaxation, moments of life and death. A gust of wind, chilling and warming, carries the occasional scent of a passing hunter. The sky glows a brilliant blue, afternoon showers arrive, and at night, eyes like stars await their opportunity. In the moment a camera is raised and aimed, people, things, and events live beneath the vast expanse of the sky.
This year, the film festival is honored to invite artist-filmmakers from Taiwan and the United States to showcase their films. These artists are committed to their artistic journeys, patiently forging ahead like lone wolves, carrying a camera and a tripod, hiking across mountains and rivers; crouching in a darkroom, mixing chemicals, waiting out the development process; creating collages, shooting frame by frame, and editing. All completed these remarkable pieces working with minimal resources.
I remember asking director Ting-Fu Huang about the creative process behind his short film 03:04. He told me that once he determined the position of the 16mm camera, he would not move it and would shoot in a single take until the film ran out. Experimentation is a way of life. Experimental films are the shimmering reflections of thought. Experimental filmmakers try to capture the flow of the world, yet often become objects captured by time. Their films are their other selves—the ones they accidentally leave behind as they pass by; they are both hunter and prey. This year’s film festival spotlights a special selection from Ting-Fu’s body of work, a rarely shown collection from his early years, spanning from 1991 to 2018.
Director Li-Ming Cheng, intently observing and exploring the history of Siraya and Taiwan’s ethnic migration, will present a special screening of MATA － The Island’s Gaze. “As a filmmaker, armed with a century-old binocular camera, I imagine what those MATA (eyes) saw back then. And how have images shaped the people of Formosa since then?” said Li-Ming. In this film, we’ll embark on a century-long adventure through the story of Formosa.
This year marks the 15th edition of EX!T. A retrospective project, “Taiwan Experimenters (i) and (ii)” spans from 1995 to 2025, showcasing the creative practices of avant-garde and younger filmmakers, including Mi-Sen WU, Ting-Fu Huang, Ya-Li Huang, Shih-Chieh Lin, and Yen-Chao Lin. The first part of the series, “Dust on the Surface, Poetry Beneath,” focuses on the “poetry” of life: poetry of thought, lost poetry, unreadable poetry, and evaporated poetry. The second part, “The Light Keepers,” focuses on “events”: events within history, events beyond history, oral events, and abandoned events. Each story here revolves around the artist’s personal reflections on migration, memory, and the symbiosis between life and film.
To continue enriching the dialogue between Taiwanese and international artists, we are honored to invite renowned American filmmakers Lewis Klahr and Janie Geiser to Taiwan to share their films. We will also engage in in-depth discussions and exchange creative experiences through workshops and forums.
Lewis Klahr has been making films since 1977 and is known for his unique collage films, which manifest a distinctive narrative style and visual aesthetic. The ethereal worlds he creates are characterized by his unique cut-out novelistic style, using found (or recycled) objects, comics, photographs, and sounds to reconstruct his memories of the city and explore the intersection of human emotions.
Janie Geiser’s work is known for recontextualizing discarded images and objects, exploring memory, power, and loss. A pioneer of the American avant-garde puppetry revival, Geiser creates innovative, hypnotic performances and installations that integrate performance objects, puppets, and projections. At this year’s EX!T, Geiser will lead a Found Object Performance workshop open to anyone interested in theatre or puppetry.
The origins of experimental animation can be traced back to early studies of animal motion and the scientific discovery of persistence of vision, such as the Zoetrope and Eadweard J. Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope. It was also inspired by Futurism, the Cubist painting movement, the Cinéma Pur movement, the invention of film sound, and the influence of Surrealism. Cinéma Pur was an avant-garde film movement that emerged in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. It developed a film style that emphasized purely cinematic elements, such as form, movement, visual composition, color, light, and rhythm. The Cinéma Pur movement resonated with the work of many Dadaist artists, such as Man Ray, René Clair, Fernand Léger, and Marcel Duchamp. Some of these works indirectly influenced later styles such as absolute cinema, abstract film, visual music, and experimental animation. These works, mostly created independently by the artists themselves, can be considered the forerunners of individual cinema in Western art history.
Expanding on the film screenings and forums featuring two international directors, this year’s festival also highlights two special programs showcasing classic American and European experimental films: “Experimental Animation (I): Surreal Alchemy” and “Experimental Animation (II): Freeing Process.” These programs present works by American and European animation masters (from 1930 to the present), such as Len Lye, Stan VanDerBeek, Robert Breer, and Suzan Pitt. Furthermore, the selection also includes outstanding works by a new generation of animators, creating a rich and diverse dialogue and inspiration with past classics.
Finally, I would like to thank Artistic Director Chun-Hui Tony Wu, Director of Body Phase Studio – Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre, Lee-chun Yao, and Producer Kai-Ting Yang for the invitation and extensive support. I am grateful for the invaluable experience and knowledge gained throughout the year-long research process.
The title of the festival was inspired by the poetry collection with the same title by Abbas Kiarostami.
A wolf on watch. In the wilderness, in the city, on the big screen——
Curator, Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu
2025