Pacific Pirate #3: Utopia Experiments (2024)
RRD x Writing FACTory
Pirate Pacific is an initiative launched by Writing FACTory in Taiwan and RRD in Mexico in 2018. Pacific Pirate #3: Utopia Experiments (2018-ongoing) proposes ocean-centered thinking and a new way of understanding piracy. Using Spilhaus projection, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of bodies of water, the mural depicts a continuous ocean from east to west that encompasses all the continents of the world. Here, the collaborators' countries of origin, Taiwan and Mexico, share the same plane; colonial histories ensure that they also share many cultural expressions. The video features interviews with historians, researchers, NGO workers, and pirates from Taiwan and Mexico. Piracy emerges as a powerful alternative model of self-organization and more equitable distribution of information.
In addition to the exhibition at the Busan Museum of Art, this project is also participating in the special public program of the Busan Biennale 2024. It has shown previous open call projects of pirate videos on the Panstar cruise ship, which regularly travels between Busan and Osaka.
More information:
MTV Pacific Pirate Theater
In the late 1980s, MTV theaters in Taiwan were places where people could choose a movie from the discs available on the shelves, order drinks, sit on a comfortable sofa, and watch movies.
Inspired by this informal model of film distribution, we created an MTV room on the Panstar cruise ship, which traveled from Busan to Osaka, where passengers could enjoy a selection of video art and independent films courtesy of artists from Mexico and Taiwan.
Our sincere thanks to all the artists who participated with their videos:
Aída Rebull, Annalisa D Quagliata, Bruno Ruiz & Sergio Torres, Chen Guan-Hong, David V Nun, Duckcrow, Eileen Song, Gabriel García Guerrero, Galia Basail-Mulcahy, Intton, Jesh Martin, Jorge Bordello, LATS, Liang Ting-Yu, Liao Yi-Chen, Miguel Jara, Nguyễn Trinh Thi, Ni Hsiang, Patrick Schabus, Ximena Cuevas, Yuyen Lin-Woywod
Pirate Pacific #2: T.A.Z. (2020-2021)
Online exchange program
Workshop, pop-up event, sound archive, publication
“I flatly reject the criticism that the TAZ is nothing more than a work of art, even though it may have some of its characteristics. I suggest that the TAZ is the only possible ‘time’ and ‘place’ for art to be produced for the sheer pleasure of creative play and as a real contribution to the forces that allow the TAZ to remain cohesive and manifest itself.”
— Hakim Bey, (T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone)
Pacific Pirate#2: T.A.Z. (Temporary Autonomous Zone) comes from the book of the same name published in 1991 by anarchist and poet Hakim Bey. It is a rebellion, but unrelated to a direct confrontation with a country; it is more like a guerrilla action that attempts to liberate a space, a time, and even the imagination. It will be dissolved when the action is over, only to regenerate at a specific time and place when the state becomes aware of its existence and seeks to destroy it.
The project pirates several common methods of knowledge production: Pacific Pirate #2: T.A.Z. borrows the concept of research residency and invites three from Taiwan and Mexico to participate with the keywords “resonate,” “write,” and “act.” Artists, curators, researchers, musicians, independent journalists, and more. Replacing permanence with the ephemeral, and revolution with insurrection, the T.A.Z. is nomadic and exists simultaneously in the space of information and in real space.
Online residency program.
Participating artists:
楊政 Cevo Yang (TW)
Concepcion Huerta (MX)
廖芸婕 Yunjie Liao (TW)
Sandra Sanchez (MX)
林亭君 Xia Lin (TW)
Yutsil Cruz (MX)
Pacific Pirate (2019)
Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and RRD kiosk in Mexico City
Pacific Pirate began in late 2018. This project consists of six programs, two of which, #Re-DBT and #PiratePirateManifesto, were presented at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in Taipei, Taiwan.
#PiratePirateManifesto is research on so-called pirate culture, used as a means of reproduction, distribution, and devaluation of proprietary codes and copyrights. A pirate culture that came into existence out of necessity rather than convenience.
#Re-DBT is a collection of more than 110 DVDs resulting from an open call between Taiwan and Mexico to gather video works by independent artists.
Taking pirates of the past as a reference and piracy in the present as an object of analysis, this project aims to study the concept of property.
Although customs and traditions are very different between Taiwan and Mexico, the colonial experience and “problematic neighbors” make us more similar than we imagine. Chaotic histories and realities also require all artists to deliberate on the context and methods they adopt in their practices.
In Mexico City, the project was first presented as a clandestine cinema at the RRD's kyoskin March 2019.
