Ice cream, sprinkles and chocolate syrup: not the sort of snacks normally associated with underground film or the highbrow world of fine art. But these are some of the nibbles that Urban Nomad will serve up this Saturday afternoon at its Ice Cream Party, part of Art Taipei 2009.
As numerous international galleries descend on Taipei’s World Trade Center this weekend to display paintings, sculpture and photography by established and up-and-coming artists, Urban Nomad will screen independent and animated short films from Taiwan, China and the US in the Art Lecture Room, located behind booth B14 in Area A of the Taipei World Trade Center (台北世貿中心).
“[Artists] who wouldn’t ordinarily be associated with an event like [Art Taipei] can now get in,” said Urban Nomad co-founder Sean Scanlan in a telephone interview earlier this week. “We’ll show video art from students who wouldn’t probably be represented by galleries.”
But Urban Nomad does more than present the work of unknown artists in a venue billed as Taiwan’s top art fair. Additionally, the participating artists document aspects of society often ignored by traditional art mediums.
Highlights include Mia Chen’s (陳明秀) three short documentaries about Cosplay on Friday, Chinese artist Bu Hua’s (卜樺) wild and surreal Flash animation films (www.buhua.com) on Saturday and never before seen outtakes by “culture-jamming activists” The Yes Men (www.theyesmen.org)
on Sunday.
More information on Urban Nomad films and participating artists can be found at urbannomadfilmfest.blogspot.com.
The festival’s organizers ask people planning to attend Saturday’s Ice Cream Party to RSVP on Urban Nomad’s Facebook page.
“We’ve got many more people than we expected so I’ve had to buy extra supplies,” Scanlan said.
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