From Nautical Exploration to Cosmic Travel, the Milky Way of Love River
2021 Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival: Van Buren Supernova
The biennial Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival invites artists from all over the world to present the diverse and complex concepts of container-bearing human civilization in a variety of ways. Artists implement amazing aesthetic ideas about nature, ocean, urban living, space and life development, and reflect on the human environment. Held since 2001, the festival has been highly acclaimed and also created a distinctive urban landscape.
Themed "Van Buren Supernova," Kaohsiung's iconic Container Arts Festival in 2021 will feature exhibitions about light, stars, new life and hope. In response to the new urban atmosphere of the art festival, the fictional Van Buren Supernova from Sherlock Holmes opens people's minds to "light". In the exhibition, containers are transformed into space shuttles sailing through the Milky Way, or modern people's exploration of outer space.
We can connect the maritime characteristics of Kaohsiung Port to ancient exploration of navigation. The ancients sailed far away just as we explore outer space today. The Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival 2021 is an outpost of the 2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival, also held by Kaohsiung City. So, in "Van Buren Supernova," we think about life, light, and the supernova from an oceanic perspective. The containers are transformed into stars, just like the Milky Way's voyage across light years, connecting people's imagination of a new life with a gentleness enveloped by the sea/Milky Way.
