「伊是『馬來西亞』來的藝術工作者
伊講『福建話』佮咱的台語（註）相siāng
伊來台彎一個月
單純就是用一個藝術工作者的身份來行行看看
其中的目的之一就是欲了解台語佇台灣的現狀」

—The excerpt above is written by Mr Lee, a Taiwanese Hokkien language teacher

I attempt to imagine our collective identities through language connections and disconnections. In this artistic research, my language proficiency became my tools and boundaries: Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, English, Hokkien; and within them, the language politics, the accents, the unwritten. Interpretations were based on introduction through language teachers as well as conversations with fellow Malaysian artists and cultural workers, who are and were based in Taiwan. Moving back and forth between the bridges and gaps of the past and contemporary signifier and signified, what will then be the possibilities of our mother tongue and lingua franca in the future along with the development, re- or non-development of the current ones?

SPEAKER

Chew Win Chen, aka Okui Lala (b. 1991), is an artist based in Penang, Malaysia. Her practice spans from photography, video, performance to community engagement. Okui looks into the migratory background and translation process to explore the notion of home and identities of herself in extension with the larger social, cultural and political milieu. Her most recent work “My language proficiency” (2017) which was exhibited at the National Art Gallery Malaysia, is a video performance whereby she held a panel discussion with herself in 4 languages (Malay, Mandarine, English and Hokkien). In 2016, she was invited as the artist in residence for Baan Noorg’s 365 Days: LIFE MUSE, model study for the Nongpo community’s foreign labourers. Okui is a participating artist in Saitama Triennale 2016 and also a recipient of the Japan Foundation Asia Centre Fellowship Grant 2017 for her artistic research project on Migration, Mobilities and Identities in Myanmar and Japan.

No Man’s Land Residency & Nusantara Archive project (The 1st Year): http://www.facebook.com/NusantaraArchive/
Organizer: No Man’s Land; Digital Art Foundation
Associate Organizer: ET@T, Open-Contemporary Art Center
Observation Team: Chen Hsiang-wen, Ho Yu Kuen, Lai Ying-tai (supported by National Culture and Arts Foundation; specially thanks to 就諦學堂(Mr. Sam Lee), Mr. Lee Heng-de, Chang Li-ling, Wu Ting-kuen, Yizai Seah, Wong Weng-su, Yau Sir-Meng)