By: Retno Intani, Editorial Board of Indonesiatoday.co &
Head of the Education Division of the Indonesian Cyber Media Union (SMSI).
Yuejin-Taiwan – In the post-pandemic era, everyone hopes to have their own moon, a symbol of hope for the future that can be given to everyone through the gift of art. New light and power shone from within, to capture what it felt like.
Lantern Festival, a holiday celebrated in Taiwan honours deceased ancestors on
the 15th day of the first month (Yuan) of the lunar calendar and people marked of the full moon.
“The moon can change shape from full circle to crescent, cloudy to sunny.”
explained Yan, a Tainan city government. However, the moonlight experienced by
the people of Yuejin Harbor City is believed to have never changed. The moon will
always give the same bright light to all people. Famous for its crescent water area,
Yuejin Harbor is also known as “Moon Harbor”, he continued.
The 2023 Lantern Festival in Taiwan, which starts on February 5, lasts only one
month, but the impression of the excitement continues to haunt the visitors.
The SMSI delegation consisting of Aat Surya Safaat, Jon Heri, Umi Syarifah, Yono
Hartono and myself at the invitation of the Directorate General of the Tourism
Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication of Taiwan facilitated
Taiwan Economic and Trade Organization (TETO) to have the opportunity to see
the lively Lantern Festival or Lanterns in Taipei city and several cities in Taiwan .
After participating in the opening of the Lantern Festival in Taipei, the next day
(6/2), the delegates watched the Lantern Festival which was held in the city of
Yuejin Harbor. Yuejin Lantern Festival has been held since 2012.
Heading to the city of Yuejin Harbor, reached by the Taiwan High Speed Rail train,
a superfast train to Tainan for 3.8 hours. From Tainan station still connected with a
53 km journey and it takes about one hour to get to Yuejin Harbor.
Yuejin Harbor was once the center of commerce in the Yanshui region, but now it
is a park by the river where the locals often hang out.
In the early years when trade boomed, a wealth of Baroque architecture and
ancient brick houses were established and still stand strong today. A lantern
festival every year takes place in this nostalgic neighborhood.
International and local artists also art students are invited to show their talents and
ideas through the creation of lantern creations. Apart from traditional lanterns,
there are also art installations that are combined with the natural landscape and
the surrounding water; they can even be interactive. The music that accompanies
the movement of the lights adds to the wisdom of visitors enjoying the blend of
light art works that are presented.
We were there for the Lantern Festival one day after the Lantern Festival in Taipei
opened (5/2). The weather is cold, windy and even light rain accompanies but
many people visit there. Colorful lights and lanterns are lit on both sides of the
river and bridge making the atmosphere very festive.
Moonlight in the City
Each year, the theme raised is different. This year’s theme is ‘Moonlight in the
City’. The festival area covers around 10 hectares with the grouping of works in
three full moon phases.
First, the amorous eclipse phase, when the moon is like an illusory theater, with
dazzling dancers and graceful performers. Like a melody flowing between fantasy
and reality, the hearts of the moon and people will be eclipsed by romance.
The second phase, a surreal blue moon in which the moon can deliver infinite
possibilities, making tiny creatures seem enormous with the shadows they create
from its illumination, just as the moon or fire works, from a far suddenly seem
close.
Basking in the moonlight of Yuejin Harbor, one should be prepared for whatever
surprise or astonishment it suddenly be brought to life.
Then, the third phase, the crescent with the energy of hope. The crescent moon is
often seen as a symbol of purity, strength and life.
In the history of the ports of Yanshuei and Yuejin, there is a kind of legend about
the moon. Yuejin Port is like the moon shining on Yunshuei and bringing great
prosperity. The changing forms were like wax and the waning moon, as the moon
lit up the city as if it were a tide, rising and falling.
For the local people, “No matter how the pandemic has changed our lives, what
remains a constant is the warm moonlight that illuminates the night.”
The 2023 Yuejin Lantern Festival has the theme of moonlight in the city with three
different moon phases, making people pay attention to urban spaces and the
natural environment by creating a distinctive atmosphere.
Furthermore, following the artist’s unique perspective, people are able to
experience the unexpected changes of life, while also feeling the precious
warmth and connectedness available when people come together to enjoy the
festival. This is embodied in various creations that lead to moonlight.
As soon as visitors enter the festival area, they are greeted with a light installation
in the shape of two eyeballs in three dimensions in the middle of the waters. The
eyeball will continue to stare at visitors from various visitor positions through the
lighting.
Exploring the riverside festival area which is installed with contemporary light
movements that tell about the beauty of the moon accompanying hopes for a
better life in the future.
For local people, the crescent moon is often seen as a symbol of purity, strength
and life. In the post-pandemic era, everyone wishes to have their own moon, a
symbol of hope for the future that can be given to everyone through the gift of art.
The bridge that connects the two banks of the river is presented with a light
installation in the shape of a spider, it is said, a touch of the creations of artists from
France.
Meanwhile, creations based on fiction take an iconic robot installed over the
waters with two horns on its head and with a bright radiating light.
For the artists and creators involved in this festival, human awareness of space is
disjointed and disorganized. Through perceptual information provided by the
environment will form a fictional image of the individual. This process of
awareness is like a summoning ritual. Mixed with general and personal
experiences and then linked past and present material and memories.
“We are expanding the ‘seeker’ between reality and fiction, where the body and
mind are frozen. This scene is no longer the omnipresent landscape. Just like the
process of ‘enlightenment (Satori)’ in Zen from ‘seeing the mountain is still
mountain, water is still water’ – the landscape is not just landscape, it is like
conscientiousness, where people flows and the irregular perception is filled
within, becoming a spiritual landscape in their own mind.” this was stated by the
organizers in a guide booklet for festival visitors.
In this exhibition, the organizers attempt to open up a new perspective during this
pandemic era, in which physical body is under restrictions.
They are trying to break through the surface of the conceptual structure with a
single, unmodified experience. Using intuition to feel the objective existence of
space rather than identifying it. The process would be ambiguous, and the
definition of space seems far from its surface but it is all self-contained. (RI)
