Tree of Survival
Vietnamese Immigrating Garden No. 7
2024
Performative installation (Included a fig tree, a Vietnamese store, fictional documentary videos, interactive installation with seed balls, performances in different forms)
Dimensions variable
With supports from Pham Thi Mong, Hou Yung-Jen, Mrs.Kim Hong, ‘Khuon Vien Van Hoa Viet’, Vietnamese community in Taiwan.
Tree of Survival is the seventh iteration of Tuan Mami’s Vietnamese Immigrating Garden project, set in Chiayi, Taiwan. This particular garden begins with a fig tree belonging to Mrs. Mong, a longtime resident of Chiayi. The story of the fig tree starts with a runaway migrant worker who Mrs. M?ng helped by returning his ashes to Vietnam. In return, she brought back to Taiwan a fig branch she had retrieved in Vietnam, and planted it on her rooftop. In Vietnamese culture, the leaves and fruit of the fig tree and products made from them have various uses. Mrs. Mong has turned the yields of the tree into a communal resource. Inspired largely by this fig tree, Tuan’s performative installation creates an environment designed to serve as a platform for community engagement and a meeting point between art and everyday life. On this platform that the artist has created, individuals share stories, experiences, and resources. The project illuminates the complex socio-economic relationships and personal histories underlying migration, as observed through the trajectories of these transplants and their adaptation across different cultural contexts.
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Curated by Feng Hsin & Hangfang Wang
Production team: Wei-lun Chen & @Tiammaka Production
Photo by Chung-Ping Wang, Feng Hsin, Vinh Toan and Tuan Mami,
courtesy of Chiayi Art Museum, Taiwan