CHEN Chieh-jen

Born 1960 in Taoyuan, Taiwan
Based in Taipei, Taiwan

Staged guerrilla-style performances and exhibitions attacking the regime in Taiwan in the 1980s when it was under martial law. After eight years of silence following the lifting of martial law, Chen resumed creative activities in 1996, embarking on collaborations with local residents, unemployed laborers, day laborers, migrant laborers, and social activists. Using an approach he calls “re-imagining, re-narrating, re-writing and re-connecting,” he has produced a series of filmic works that give visual expression to contemporary reality and to the people’s histories that have been obscured by neo-liberalism.

Centering on the stories of four individuals concerning the Losheng (“Happy Life”) Sanatorium, a facility for leprosy sufferers established by the Governor-General of Taiwan in 1930 during the period of Japanese colonization, Realm of Reverberations sheds light through serene visuals on the past, present and future while also addressing the history of the two countries and current social problems.