THE AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI: A-MIT and Young Artists Dialogue with Asia and the World

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Mercedes-Benz Taiwan is pleased to announce that Taipei will be the first city in Asia to set off the artistic campaign by Mercedes-Benz with AVANT/GARDE DIARIES, a part of a series of festivities that premiered in Berlin earlier last year, and continued on to Copenhagen, Los Angeles, and London. Mercedes-Benz Taiwan has invited superstar A-MIT to be the curator for an exhibition with 8 newly rising artists from Taiwan on the theme of “Voice” as the inspiration. The exhibition will be held at Huashan 1914 Creative Park from November 9-11. A gala event will be held on November 8. As part of the event, the latest concept car by Mercedes-Benz – Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupe will make its debut appearance to personify the spirit of avant-garde art.

In 1886, Carl Benz boldly conceived a revolutionary idea and dared to turn it into reality – the world’s very first automobile was the fruition of his ingenuity. His invention marked the end of man’s dependence on animals for movement and transportation. From that point on, innovation, avant-garde attitude and boldness became parts of the Mercedes-Benz DNA. After more than 120 years, as the inventor of automobile, Mercedes-Benz continues to lead the world of cars and writes the vocabulary of innovative automobile for every generation.

In July of 2011, Mercedes-Benz launched AVANT/GARDE DIARIES campaign which was centered on the online interviews by digital platform www.theavantgardediaries.com .

The website combined multimedia interview on opinion leaders in art, music and fashion along with documentaries of event exhibitions to dialogue with the young people of the world and to share innovative and unique vision and trends. By doing so, the website became a new platform of creative ideas.

In July 2011, fashion designer Raf Simons curated the kick-off event in Berlin. Artists such as Peter Saville, Konstantin Grcic and DJ Hell accompanied the festival with art and music. Taking inspiration from Mercedes-Benz A-Class, the festivities continued on. At the Avant/Garde Diaries festivals, which were staged in a variety of the world's major cities, international artists and trendsetters came together under the curatorship of a visionary, to present their view of today's and tomorrow's world and exchange views with experts and the public. In April this year, the festival was held under the curatorship of Mike D, co-founder of hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, at the Geffen Contemporary at the MOCA in Los Angeles. International artists and musicians such as Santigold, Tom Sachs, James Murphy, Ben Jones and Diplo participated in the 17-day event, which attracted more than 30,000 visitors. Following Berlin, Copenhagen, Los Angeles and London, the Avant/Garde Diaries will be launched in Taipei as the first city in Asia to host the event.

AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI – A-MIT Dialogue with the World

In 2009, performing artist A-MIT appeared. Carrying her heritage as a relative of the ethnic natives of Taiwan named Puyuma, she overtook the world with her resounding, wild voice. The next year, she swept up six Golden Melody Awards. Her bold, unique personality and original musical style make her a perfect example of the avant-garde spirit – a spirit in perfect tune with the essence of Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes-Benz has invited A-MIT as the curator for the AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI. A-MIT, a change seeker, will work with Isaac Chen as the Creative Director and 8 young Taiwanese artists to define sounds. In this project, she will show to the world and Asia her new self stemming from the wild dynamic in her Puyuman blood. A-MIT blends together a mixture of unlikely elements to demonstrate her interpretation and concepts of sounds.

“Personally I am really looking forward to this exhibition. The event offers a platform for me to perform with my voice and for more Taiwan’s emerging artists to present their talents to the world, to an international stage like the AVANT/GARDE DIARIES. By doing so, the role ‘A-MIT’ becomes more enriched with depth and layers,” said A-MIT.

The innovative ideas, diversification of different performance styles and her Puyuma-origin makes A-MIT the most authentic voice and power that truly represent the genuine character of Taiwan. AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI works with Taiwanese talents, to give pop music a makeover, transforming sounds to a concrete experience that moves people. Through this exhibition, the invisible energy will reach beyond space and time, and manifest itself in the tide of arts to dialogue with Asia and the world from the perspective of Taiwan’s emerging contemporary artists.

The works for the exhibition are predominantly installation artworks. Some attempt to visualize the forms of the sound, while others offer new ways to experience the sound. Dynamic device, digital control, smoke, lighting, lasers and other form or formless materials have been used to transform the popular ballads by A-MIT, such as “Weight of Soul“, “Are You Looking At Me?“ and “Fallen“ into installation artworks, injecting a unique experience to A-MIT’s musical consciousness while dialoging with the viewers.

The Premiere of Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupe – a Unique Interpretation of Avant-Garde Art

To further add to the excitement of AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI, the organizer has shipped in Concept Style Coupe to Taipei especially for the exhibition alongside one of the artworks. A piece of bold experimental art along with the innovative concept car interprets the avant-garde approach and imaginative concept of “moving life”. The Concept Style Coupe is an automobile that combines the streamline design of a two-door sports car with the practicality of a four-door sedan. It is equipped with the M270 engine used in the A-Class. Powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produces 211 horse power.

Scheduled to series production next year, it is the third model for the New Generation Compact Car series. The audience will have the chance to preview its unique features in person.

About the Curator and participating Artists

A-MIT, the curator of the AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEIworks with Isaac Chen as the Artistic Director along with 8 of Taiwan’s emerging artists for the event.

Curator: A-MIT
Born in 1972. Ethnically Puyuma, her high pitch, wild voice has fascinated the world. She appeared in 2009 as A-MIT.

Artistic Director: Isaac Chen
Born in Taiwan in 1973. He is executive director of concerts and large ceremonies, lyric writer, song producer, talent manager, film director.

Artist: Chang-Wei Chiu
Born in Taiwan in 1981, his creative works are focused on digital vision and dynamic devices. In his earlier career, most of his works were creations in computer animation and special effects. Recently, he has moved to create installation artworks with physical presence that invokes the cognitive awareness and illusional special effects. Through his works, he hopes to present a human-like organic form that can infiltrate and hide in the reality.

Artist: Wei-Hsiang Wen
Born in Taiwan in 1983, he specializes in visual art and installation artworks of new media. His artworks are focused on the relationship between image, time and space by observing the vibration of changes in the artworks through time and space in order to revisit the daily experiences with the micro-perspectives.

Artist: Chih-Wei Chuang
Born in Taiwan in 1986, his works are mainly installation artworks of light and space which explore the awareness of changes in life and the interaction of human, objects and the environment. In recent years, he has been exploring the possibility of interaction between new media arts and architecture by using high-tech materials as the medium to extend the linkage to the senses and to find the presence that never ceases.

Artist: Ting-Hao Yeh
Born in Taiwan in 1981, he specializes in the installation artwork of sound, vision, and the human-machine interaction. He started with visual art creation, studied computer programming, and constructed the model of coexisting linkage between vision and hearing. Next, he consolidated the technologies in multimedia to record the frequencies of interaction and awareness to find a digital presence for the future.

Artist: Zih Jing Wei
Born in Taiwan in 1983, she specializes in visual art and human-machine interaction. Ink is often used in her works as a way to describe nuances of emotions and imagination. After 2008, her works shifted to development of a series of chemically interactive devices that use chemical light-sensitive coloring agents to create dynamic 3-dimensional images.

Artist: Chin-Chung Din
Born in Taiwan in 1983, Din Chin-Chung specializes in dynamic devices. His works are focused on structures in space, relationship between movement and interaction, such as the diminishing energy in time and space that only leaves traces of marks, and the “repetition“ of media.

Artist: Chun-Kun Wang
Born in Taiwan in 1982, his works are mainly in sound artwork and dynamic devices that seek to express sound with textures in a series of landscapes in sound. His installation artworks with automatic movement and sound have a sense of purity and aesthetic uniqueness.

Artist: Chia-Chi Yeh
Born in Taiwan, he specializes in dynamic devices. With background in architecture, his designs are structure-oriented that find linkage between human behavior and the environment and describe how mechanical ecology has slowly changed human awareness toward architecture and structures.

Further information about the Avant/Garde Dairies can be found in the interview magazine at www.theavantgardediaries.com .

Credits: Daimler AG

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