The Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government held the opening ceremony for “Us - SDGs Sustainable Art Exhibition” at Taichung City Dadun Cultural Center on September 13. Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Chia-Chun Chen said at the event that, to put Mayor Shiow-Yen Lu’s people-centered, friendly, and livable governance vision into practice, and to respond to trends in low-carbon sustainability and carbon reduction, the Bureau has curated the “SDGs Sustainable Art Exhibition” series at Taichung City Dadun Cultural Center since 2024, continuing to respond to sustainability issues through art. This year, Professor Wen-Hai Lin was invited to serve as curator. With “Coexistence, Co-creation, and Continuity” as the curatorial core, the exhibition brings together 8 mid-career and young artists and presents 37 works. Starting from different perspectives, including land, ocean, nature, culture, and everyday life, the exhibition turns the idea of sustainability from an abstract concept into daily practice.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau said the exhibition is titled “Us”, symbolizing that sustainability has never been an issue for one person alone, but a choice everyone faces together. “Us” not only refers to connections between people, but also includes the relationships between people and the land, nature, and other forms of life. It also links the memories and imagination of different generations across the past, present, and future. This year’s exhibition moves beyond the format of the past two years, when it was held in Dadun Gallery VII, and expands to Dadun Gallery I, II, VII, and the lobby, allowing the works to interact more fully with the architecture, environment, and audience. Audiences are not simply standing outside the works and looking in. They can also realize that they themselves are part of what the works are speaking to. As they touch the grain of old wood, hear the sounds of wind and metal, and watch light move across different materials, they can reconnect with their environment and the world.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau explained that the participating artists explore different visions of sustainability through land, materials, cultural memory, life experience, and other perspectives. Curator Wen-Hai Lin uses the red soil of Dadu Mountain in Taichung as his creative material, connecting the relationship between people and the land. Hao-Lun Hung collects natural minerals and soil from across Taiwan, allowing the land itself to become the source of color and making the natural environment part of the creative process. In works centered on material regeneration, Shou-Chung Yu reconstructs scrap hardware and everyday objects, transforming them into metaphors for life, emotion, and time. Mei-Yu Liu creates with marine waste, guiding viewers to see the traces left behind by human consumption. Kuei-Chin Yang starts from the remnants left after cleaning her studio, turning seemingly useless leftover materials into part of faith, reflection, and life practice.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau noted that PaqeRiras Kazangiljan incorporates tribal techniques, life memories, and the homesickness of those living away from home carried by bark cloth into the works, turning traditional craft into a medium that connects land and cultural memory. Ching-Chung Huang responds to life’s trials, migration, and identity through charred wood. Chien-Shan Liao begins with old family objects, preserving the life memories of different generations and making creation a witness to the flow of time and family bonds.
Curator Wen-Hai Lin said that although the 8 artists work in different forms, use different materials, and focus on different issues, they all return to the same question: “How do we live in this world? And how do we keep moving forward with it?” The artists are not rushing to create brand-new objects. Instead, they allow things that already exist to be seen again. Materials and memories that have been overlooked, discarded, forgotten, or are gradually disappearing return to our view after being organized, transformed, and reinterpreted. In this way, “sustainability” becomes not only the reuse of materials, but also the continuation of culture, memory, and life experience.
Taichung City Dadun Cultural Center further explained that the exhibition echoes issues under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Quality Education, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Life Below Water, Life on Land, and Partnerships for the Goals. Through art, it hopes to make sustainability more than a slogan, turning it into a life experience that everyone can feel, think about, and practice. The exhibition runs through September 27, with eight on-site artist guided tours scheduled during the exhibition period. Residents are invited to visit the exhibition and interact with the artists and their works. For more information, please visit the Taichung City Dadun Cultural Center official website (https://www.dadun.culture.taichung.gov.tw/).