Together with nature with humbleness and respect

Nationality
Taiwanese/Portuguese 


Which motivations made you apply to the "9 x 9 – Artists are Islands, Islands are Artists" pilot programme?
I've been to the Azores islands two times before 9x9 residency, and one of them was also an art residency program in Faial island (maravilha biennale/fazendo cultural association). The very alternative experience of living on a sailing boat and the specific community with scientists and environment activists over there is always on my mind. Thus, when I saw the 9x9 open call, the design of program with 9 artists settled in 9 islands with various realms of creativity, I just decided to apply right away and hoped I would be one of the chosen ones, to once again go back to these magical islands.


Which project did you develop and on which island?
"Aquele Carrinho no Corvo" (“Creating a mimic-google-street-device on wheel as mobile art installation; documenting the landscape of inhabitants of Corvo”), in Corvo.


What are the main results/learnings of your experience? 
Corvo is totally another scale of island from Faial. It gave me wide open perspective of how inhabitants adapt to the extremely small island; life is so different when living under these very limited conditions, and I saw how people there are willing to live together with nature with humbleness and respect.


Has your view/perspective about the 9 neighborhoods changed?
Yes, Azores is totally an archipelago with 9x9 personalities!


What do you consider to be the degree of sensibility of the Azoreans to art?
In geographic terms, Azores is kind of remote compared to continental Portugal, but sometimes remote places actually have more resources from the government (in Taiwan, not sure if in Portugal the same). I feel the art scene has been developed in Azores and it's quite active, in this case Azoreans might feel familiar with art's happening around the towns. But Corvo is still very different from São Miguel or Faial. For artists the experiences of sharing and exchanging art in Corvo seems even more interesting!


In which way might the European City Capital of Culture title impact the Region?
In my case, if I see some other European cities were given titles as European City Capital of Culture, even if I am not familiar about the places, I would expect and imagine the art and cultural scenes happen vibrantly there, and as a visitor I will be curious to explore if i'm interested in these things. I guess it could work the same for Azores, the impact of bringing more creative people and cultural exchange to the region.


What new stories remain to be told about the Azores?
The ones from the inhabitants living in every islands of the  Azores archipelago, who built the form of Azores nowadays.


https://cargocollective.com/chengchingyu