The 2025 Taichung Chingshui Art Festival, themed“Tides of Symbiosis”(潮生共境), presents an artistic journey of resonance with nature between the wind and the sea. The festival invites the public to stroll and listen with a happy mind at the Taichung City Seaport Art Center, where they can experience the rhythms of the wetlands, migratory birds, and the wind. Together, let’s experience the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature—going for a trip with the tides as the autumn waves lap against the shore!

According to the Cultural Affairs Bureau, this year’s Chingshui Art Festival focuses on the coastal natural environment and its transformations over time, using art to respond to issues such as climate change, wetland conservation, and sustainability. The festival features six emerging artists-Tsai Pou-Ching (蔡咅璟), Chang Yen-Tzu (張晏慈), Eileen Chung (鍾瓊儀), Lin Tzu-Fen (林資芬), Lai Ying-Hsiang (賴英翔), and Huang Yung-Cheng (黃英誠)-who employ diverse media, including sound, wind-powered installations, and digital imagery, to create poetic and interactive art spaces where visitors can sense the imagery of coexistence embodied in the rising winds and flowing tides.

Curator Fang Hsi-Wen (方希文) noted that this year’s art festival continues its focus on local culture while expanding toward deeper explorations of nature, the environment, and the future. The nine featured works are not merely objects to be observed; they serve as mediums that awaken perception and spark dialogue. It is hoped that each participant, through interaction with nature, will discover their connection to the land.

Artist Tsai Pou-Ching (蔡咅璟) shared that his work, “Spring of the Fiddler Crab” (《招潮蟹之春》), displayed at the Taichung City Seaport Art Center, has captured the public’s affection with its gently waving mechanical claws. The Gaomei Wetlands in Chingshui are rich in natural ecological resources, and fiddler crabs are among the most fascinating creatures found there. This interactive sound installation simulates the courtship dance of the arc-edged fiddler crab, allowing visitors to activate the claw’s rhythmic dance through music-bringing to life the vibrant pulse of nature. Meanwhile, new media artist Chang Yen-Tzu (張晏慈) presents her digital art piece“Goodbye Dark Chocolate”(《再見黑巧克力》), which ingeniously utilizes the overhead corridor at the Taichung City Seaport Art Center. Centered around the theme of migratory birds, the work integrates soundscapes with a 15-meter-long digital projection, inviting audiences to journey alongside Saunders’s Gull through wind and rain on its migratory path.

The Cultural Affairs Bureau also noted that the wind-powered installation“Pulse of the Wind”(《風形之脈》) by Lai Ying-Hsiang (賴英翔), erected at the flag-raising platform of Xinyi Station in the Chingshui Military Dependents’ Village, harnesses the unceasing coastal winds and transforms them into a kinetic sculpture that conveys the wind’s energy through a vertical structure.

On the other hand, artist Lin Tzu-Fen’s (林資芬)“Shifting Landscape”(《流變之景》) employs marine debris weaving and variations in terrain to recreate the fluid movements of the intertidal zone. Meanwhile, fiber artist Eileen Chung’s (鍾瓊儀)“Floating Circles of Life”(《浮生圓境》) constructs a moss-like bubble space using felted wool. Incorporating family co-created totems of wetland life, the work creates a soft, life-filled sensory environment.

The festival also invited local students and community members to participate in co-creation. “Secret Burrows” (《秘密洞》), created collaboratively by artist Tsai Pou-Ching (蔡咅璟) and the Junior High Art Class of Chung Gang High School (中港高中國中部美術班), draws inspiration from the volcano-shaped burrows of arc-edged fiddler crabs. The students contributed recordings of their own dreams alongside crab-burrow-inspired forms, creating an immersive environment where visitors can almost hear the delicate yet vibrant whispers of the wetlands. Similarly, “Geographies of the Watershed”(《流域地誌》) by artist Huang Yung-Cheng (黃英誠) engages the public in an artistic creation using local soil in Chingshui, where participants use mud-dyed fabrics to co-create works that embody the unique colors of the local environment.

The Cultural Affairs Bureau added that, in addition to the captivating installations, the festival also includes guided tours, workshops, and themed talks. These activities provide participants with opportunities for face-to-face interaction with the artists, allowing them to gain deeper insight into the creative concepts and sources of inspiration behind each work.