Yambaru Art Festival Exchange Project Prehistoric Mode – Yambaru

There are many similarities in the natural environ- ments, histories, and cultures between Okinawa and Taiwan. In the hopes of interacting with the natural environment of mountainous regions and facilitating a scenario for creating with natural materials, mt. project hosted the “Stone Axe Workshop,” grounded in the core values of indigenous lifestyles.

In 2018, mt.project organized the Hidden South to spotlight indigenous villages along the South Link Line for archaeological research on Austronesian art cultures and assumed an active role in facilitating dialogue and exchange on local cultures, collective memories, and natural & village landscapes. In 2019, the Yambaru Art Festival extended an invitation to mt.project to host a “Stone Axe Workshop” and to explore the lifestyles of indigenous peoples through the making of stone axes. The goal was to recreate and backtrack corporealities of the past by replicating how forefathers built shelters, gathered food, and sought building materials with stone axes, foregoing the quick and efficient electric tools and instead adopting repetitive actions. In a discussion with the Japanese curator, both parties agreed that art exchanges of the near future should focus on life and local experiences to learn and understand the area before creating thoughtfully. Artists should attempt to position themselves within a certain era and embody the life of local cultures.