The collision and crushing of the Eurasian Continental Plate and the Philippine Ocean Plate that formed the island of Taiwan have been a ferocious and on-going process started six million years ago. Such orogenic movement is caused by the oceanic plate submerging under the continental plate as the Coastal Mountain Range of the East Coast Taiwan, the front edge of the Philippine Ocean Plate continually pushes into the Central Mountain Range of the Eurasian Continental Plate. The East Rift Valley is where the two plates converge into one another, and this process, the birth of the island of Taiwan, is still happening today right under our feet.

The concept of “Land” in the “East Coast Land Arts Festival” refers not only to the “land” but also the “boundary where ocean and land meet.” Being at the frontier of Taiwan, facing the boundless ocean, the East Coast Land Arts Festival hopes to observe the dynamics and autonomy of Taiwan from the periphery. Being at the edge of the island seems to maintain the perfect and poetic space that sets us apart interpersonally and by nature.

The East Valley has been a meeting place, a symbiotic battlefield for various ethnic groups and between humans and nature. It is also the origin of creation and the birthplace of Taiwan, where Taiwan’s most ancient ruins of human civilization, on-going crustal movement, and cultural symbiosis co-exist. This seemingly peripheral area is, in fact, a microcosm of Taiwan, situated amidst different forces of civilization in today’s world. At the front line, where diverse cultures and nature ferociously collide, we have always survived and converged, blossoming into infinite possibilities.