Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

Founded in 2012 by the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation, Pulima Art Award is the first award dedicated to indigenous art in Taiwan. It emphasizes the cultural ownership of the indigenous community as much as it recognizes creativity. By presenting Pulima Art Award, the foundation aims to encourage new artistic expression and practice of indigenous art that challenges conventions and boundaries. Pulima in Taiwan’s Paiwan tribal language refers to “a person with superb creativity and outstanding craftsmanship” while Lima means “hand” in many Austronesian languages. With their hands, generations of native Austronesians have developed distinctive traditions and cultures of both material and spiritual significances. Today, members of the indigenous communities continue to pass on their legacy by building on their heritage and introduce new energy and creativity to it. It is precisely this vitality that Pulima Art Award wishes to discover and acknowledge. This year, the biennial award culminates in a special exhibition that showcases the prized works. Academic forums, educational programs and public events are held concurrently to further engage the general public in the understanding and appreciating indigenous art in Taiwan. This year, with great competition, the jury committee has granted thirty-nine out of the many extraordinary participating works the prizes of the second Pulima Art Award. The awards include three Grand Prizes , one Jury Prize, six Excellence Prizes and twenty-nine Honorable Mentions, given to works of various forms, including painting, installation, video art, embroidery, and performing arts. A diversity of topics are addressed in these works, such as tribal lands, natural environment, ethnic and tribal history, and reinvention of traditions. Although varying in form and topics, all awarded works share in common the quest for and experiment with ways to apply and reinterpret the core value of indigenous art traditions—“art in the service of the community”—in the context of contemporary culture where individuality and originality are valued. The exhibition of Pulima Art Award 2014 is collaboration between the Indigenous People Cultural Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. It consists of ten small solo exhibitions of this year’s Pulima Art Awardees. Through these exhibitions, a general survey of the political, economic, social, cultural and artistic realities of Taiwan’s indigenous communities is presented. Additionally, the nominated works on view are divided into four themes, The Extension of Body, The Exploration of Media, The Nourishment of Nature, and the Development of Craftsmanship. The audience is encouraged to cross-reference or make connections between the works under different themes. In the exhibition, the audience will also find a chronology tracing the art of indigenous art and culture in Taiwan since 1895. Through the timeline, one sees how artists of indigenous tribes have strived to continue their traditions amidst waves of change in modern Taiwanese history, as they break through boundaries and draw inspiration from different times. The result is unfettered creativity for new art. In the meantime, presented side by side with the Pulima Art Award 2014 are special invitational exhibitions featuring established indigenous artists from Taiwan and New Zealand. The Taiwanese section invites acclaimed indigenous artists to create site-specific works, including Rahic‧Talif and Walis‧ LaBai. In the Māori section, curated by New Zealander independent curator Ngahiraka Mason, several videos with specific topics, such as reflection on New Zealand history and current political issues, as well as George Nuku’s site-specific artwork are presented. Invitational Exhibition for International Artists -R205
Curator- Ngahiraka Mason Art, hence make us live remarkable lives !

Being an artist, an art historian, as well as an independent curator , Ngahiraka Mason, who comes from Te Urewera, New Zealand, is also the board member of Te Māori Manaaki Taonga Trust that implements the education and cultural heritage preservation of the Māoris. In the recent years, she puts great efforts to establish relations with organizations in art , media, cultural studies, and sports areas, urging the government to value cultural issues, as to encourage people to appreciate and experience Māori culture.

The theme of this exhibition is closely related to the indigenous traditional knowledge and the exploration of new knowledge with the aim to arouse people’s interests and understandings of cultural values. A total of five video pieces from three middle-aged Māori artists were invited to show in the international venue. Foregrounded in these works are Māori artists’ considerations and comprehensions towards issues like “Land and Environment”, “Ethnic Identity” and “Cultural Subjectivity” over the last two decades as well as their reflections on current politics and policy.