Webinar 2: Unheard Voices - Social Engagement in the Arts

©Green Island Human Rights Art Festival

Moderated by Sandy Hsiu-chih Lo, art critic and historian, documentary filmmaker and curator of Green Island Human Rights Art Festival in Taiwan, this webinar will look into how the Festival enabled the artistic expression of marginalised voices from political and ethical perspectives, thereby potentially liberating and transforming individuals, communities and society itself. Part of this panel’s focus will be on the two most recent editions of the Festival in which, respectively, memory, place and narrative were viewed through the prism of both reality and imagination (2019) and mainstream norms and the existing social order were challenged and resisted by field investigations, text and image production, artistic actions and more.

Please note: all webinars will be conducted in English with access to captions via the online translation service Wordly,ai or BSL interpreters.

Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo
Curator of 2020, 2019 Green Island Human Rights Art Festival

Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo is an independent curator, art critic and historian, film critic and documentary filmmaker whose main research areas include urban theory, philosophical construction of space, gender politics, the contemporaneity of indigenous art and situated knowledge. Her current focus is curating as a method of social practice, spatial practice and critical thinking. Her award-winning curatorial projects have manifested throughout Taiwan as well as in Shanghai and Bulgaria. She has published several books on Taiwan art history while her many art and film critiques have appeared in on numerous journals and magazines. She was one of the grantees of Asian Cultural Council 2012 and, in 2005 and 2015. the National Foundation of Culture and Arts.

Hongjohn Lin
Independent artist

Hongjohn Lin is an artist, writer and curator. Graduating from New York University in Arts and Humanities with a Ph.D., he has participated in exhibitions including Taipei Biennial (2004 and 2012), Manchester Asian Triennial and Rotterdam Film Festival (both 2008), China Asia Biennial (2014) and Guangzhou Triennial (2015). Widely published in magazine and journals, he has also been involved in numerous curatorial projects in Taiwan and Venice and serves as a professor at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). He wrote the Introductions for the Chinese editions of Art Power (Boris Groys) and Artificial Hells (Clair Bishop). Books in Chinese include Poetics of Curating, Beyond the Boundary: Inter-disciplinary Arts in Taiwan, Writings on Locality and Curating Subjects: Practices of Contemporary Exhibitions. Other abiding interests include trans-disciplinary arts and the politics of aesthetics.

Charwei Tsai
Independent artist

Charwei Tsai was born in Taipei (1980) where she currently lives and works. Her multi-media practice including drawings, videos, installations and publications has been exhibited widely including solo shows in Bogota, Hong Kong, London, Manchester, Mumbai, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, and Tokyo; at the Asia Pacific Triennial, Jogja Biennale, Ruhrtriennale, Sharjah Biennale, Singapore Biennale, Sydney Biennale and Yokohama Triennale; and in such museums and art centres as Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Centre Pompidou, Gallery of New South Wales, MoMA, Mori Art Museum, Queensland Art Gallery, Rubin Museum, Shanghai MoCA, Singapore Art Museum, Southbank Centre, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Today Art Museum, Zentrum Paul Klee and ZKM.

Sam Holland
Founder and Director of Migration Matters Festival

Sam is founder and director of Migration Matters Festival, a celebration of migration, identity and belonging which has quick become the UK’s largest Refugee Week festival. Inaugurated in 2015 with co-partner Theatre Deli, the festival has grown into one of Sheffield’s most popular annual cultural celebrations. After five festivals which manifested in over 30 city-wide venues, Sam directed the festival’s first online and digital presentation in response to the barriers posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sam is also a Sheffield-based freelance theatre producer and festival director. Since early 2019 he has been working with Maya Productions on their show Benny and the Greycats. He is committed to bolstering the city’s cultural offering along with local theatre-makers. Recent work includes Bad Blood Blues (2018) Far Gone (2019) both with John Rwothomack and, with Hassun El Zafar, My Name is Rachel Corrie (2019) and There is no Planet B (2020).