穴 Cave

Delphine Hsini Mae and Jia-ling Chung

In Chinese ancient writing, the title “穴 Cave” has multiple definitions: holes, cave, acupuncture points on the body, home/nest, the occupied spot when a performer performs in the public place like a market or square, tunnel, water or river passageway, to name a few.

Delphine Hsini Mae developed the initial idea during an artist residency 2018 in Mexico during the shooting of a short film involving a group of women in an abandoned house. The theme of the movie was on violence against women in Mexico, being the country with the highest rate of female sexual assaults in Latin America. This has led her to think deeper about being a woman, and/or the feminine embodiment in society, and what time has changed.

As Delphine Mae walked through the place, some feelings of an abandoned, forgotten old house that resembled an equally abandoned, forgotten, growing old female body came to her mind. The space of a house is like the sphere of a body. When the space/ body grows old and marginalized, forgotten or neglected and disregarded, or sick, invaded, being broken down, physically or psychologically, all goes silently inside the cave of this space, to find usable things and voices, to re-organize, to behold. Time disappears at once, very much like in a dream, while returning to nature seems to be the lasting gateway to find freedom from any human limitation. The video echoes like a poem, as if the woman writes a letter to the 10-years-after, to the future self, the future one in you.

Delphine Hsini Mae

Born in Taiwan, has studied and lived abroad for years, Delphine is a multi-talented performing artist, writer-poet, mind-body shamanistic energy practitioner, and creative educator. Invited artist residencies include: American Foundation awardee to Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris in France, DanceShort residency in Amsterdam, amongst others. Her performance works can be seen in Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Onsite Music and Performance Festival Taiwan, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, KABA International Performing Arts Festival in Indonesia etc. Delphine has also worked as an actress on stage, advertisements, and films, such as casting as one of the main actresses in the film PHANTOM CINEMA, screened at the Kaohsiung International Film Festival, Encounter Taiwan Film Festival in Luxembourg Cinema, Paris France. In Film-Video DIT VI , screened at the Night of the Arts Helsinki Finland. In 2016, her collaborative performance project CONNECT+ has won “The Most Provocative Performance” award in Sweden Fringe Festival. In 2017, she served as the workshop teacher for the National Kaohsiung Center of Arts at the Weiwuying Arts Festival.  Interviews of her works can be seen in StigmaART Magazine, Make+ Shanghai, Stance on Dance Magazine America.  She is now based in Taiwan.

Jia-ling Chung

Born in Taiwan, Jia-Ling works in the realm of film as a director, camera, documentary filmmaker, and editor. She was a graduate from the Department of Radio, Film and Television in Shih Hsin University, which was known as an incubator for film professionals in Taiwan. Her works can be seen in: Media Library of VISIONS DU REEL Film festival in Switzerland. Competition Film Category of WOMEN MAKE WAVES International Film Festival in Taiwan, the only women’s film festival in Taiwan, and also the largest women’s film festival in Asia . LIFE-STORY Channel, PTS, Taiwan’s National Public Television Service. Her film is also collected and in an ongoing online video display at the Viddsee Singapore. Jia-Ling has also traveled and worked in between Taiwan and Japan. She is now living and working in Taiwan.

Both artists are “special guests” in the “special guest”- series with international artists, which SOHO in Ottakring initiated 2009.