‘This Is Not an Embassy’ to introduce Taiwan’s complex situation to the world

‘This Is Not an Embassy’ to introduce Taiwan’s complex situation to the world

2024-04-12

The 2024 Taiwan International Festival of Arts is back in action, featuring a total of 14 performances from Taiwan and abroad.One play, titled "This Is Not an Embassy," aims to introduce Taiwan’s complex political situation to the world. FTV reporter Stephany Yang has more.

A former diplomat, Taiwanese digital activist,and musician tell stories of Taiwan’s political and diplomatic history.

The 2024 Taiwan International Festival of Arts is back in action. This stage production, titled "This Is Not an Embassy," is a joint production between Taiwan’s National Theater and Concert Hall and Germany’s Rimini Protokoll, and Switzerland’s Theatre Vidy-Lausanne. Teams worked together for two years to produce the work. They interviewed diplomats, soldiers, and secret agents to learn about Taiwan.

Stefan Kaegi
Director
This is a project that tries to portray how Taiwan has a complex situation in the world. Being a country not recognized as a country and I find that the Taiwanese have found so good and creative solutions of how you manage to put themselves on the map through creative forms like NGOs, civil society, from people-to-people, and culture actually can do this as well. So, we made a project that set up embassies in countries where you don’t have a real embassy for the duration of a performance. This has created a lot of human bindings.

Liu Yi-ruu
NTCH artistic director
Should we be called Taiwan or the Republic of China? What should the national flag look like? This has different meanings and notions for people of different eras. We are introducing the complex political situation of Taiwan to people in the world. But at the same time, we are showing the greatness of Taiwan. Everyone can have their own beliefs.

The show will be performed in Taiwan from April 12 to 14. It will also be performed in Switzerland, South Korea, Germany, France, Australia Spain, and other countries. Each production will be tailored to the country in which it is performed.

Caroline Barneaud
Theatre Vidy-Lausanne
Director of artistic projects
Each time we will perform in a new city, we will open a new embassy of Taiwan for the duration of the show. For all these openings of new embassies, we will adapt the show to the local situation. Each time, we have to reflect on the local stories and the local connections to Taiwanese history to Taiwan situation, and also to China.

During the festival, there will be a total of 14 performances. The performing groups and artists hail from Taiwan, the U.S., Japan, Germany, India, Switzerland, Spain, Ukraine, South Korea and Australia, among other countries. The 2024 Taiwan International Festival of Arts will run till May 11.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

舞台劇《這不是個大使館》將台灣外交處境搬上舞台

2024-04-12

現正舉辦的"2024 TIFA台灣國際藝術節"，共有14檔節目。其中一檔《這不是個大使館》的舞台劇，向世界介紹台灣複雜的政治局勢。

一位前外交官、數位外交協會創辦人、音樂家講述了台灣政治和外交歷史的故事。

2024年台灣國際藝術節的多檔節目中，舞台劇《這不是個大使館》是國家兩廳院、德國里米尼紀錄劇團，及瑞士洛桑維蒂劇院共同製作。歷經兩年，團隊採訪了外交官、軍人和特務，來了解台灣。

[[德國里米尼紀錄劇團導演史蒂芬．凱吉]]
"這個計畫試圖描繪台灣在世界上的複雜處境。作為一個不被承認的國家，我發現台灣人找到很好又有創意的方法，透過非政府組織、民間社會、民間和文化等形式發聲。我們在演出時是設定在那些其實沒有大使館的國家，設立大使館。"

[[國家兩廳院藝術總監劉怡汝]]
"我們到底應該叫做台灣還是中華民國？國旗應該是什麼樣子？這對每一個時代的人來講都有不一樣的意義跟想法。我們好像是在跟世界上的人介紹台灣的複雜的政治狀況，可是同時間我們其實在呈現台灣的了不起，每一個人都可以自己的信念。"

《這不是個大使館》12日至14日在台北國家戲劇院登場，也會在瑞士、韓國、德國、法國、澳洲、西班牙等國家演出。每部作品將根據演出所在國家、地區量身定作。

[[瑞士洛桑維蒂劇院 Caroline Barneaud]]
"每次我們在新城市演出時，我們都會在演出期間開設一個新的台灣大使館。對於所有這些新使館的開設，我們將根據當地情況調整。每次，我們都必須反思當地的故事以及當地與台灣歷史、台灣局勢以及中國的連結。"

2024 TIFA台灣國際藝術節共14場演出。表演團體和藝術家來自台灣、美國、日本、德國、印度、瑞士、西班牙、烏克蘭、韓國和澳洲等國家。藝術節將舉辦至5月11日。

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