Che Yu-Hsu’s (Taipei, 1985) video practice focuses on the research and reviewing of historical events, as well as on the reconstruction of private and collective memory. In Zoo Hypothesis (2023), the Taiwanese artist presents a single-channel video featuring a scriptwriter and an actor having a conversation on a performance they are preparing that explores the relationship between ‘gestures’ and ‘horrors’ in a taxidermist’s studio.
The conversation between the scriptwriter and the actor revolves around two events from the time of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan during World War II. The first one is a memorial ceremony held in a zoo to honour animals that died during military operations, and for which animals such as elephants and orangutans were trained to kneel as a symbolic gesture of mourning. The second event alluded to was a mass execution of animals that took place in 1944 at Yuanshan Zoo. The killing was intended to prevent civilian casualties caused by runaway animals in case the US military bombed the city. Their bodies were then stuffed using taxidermy to preserve their movements and postures.
Zoo Hypothesis, 2023
Single-channel video generated with 3D scanning
Duration: 31’33”
Supported by Theater der Welt & National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan)
Che-Yu Hsu was the 2020 winner of the Han Nefkens Foundation – Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Grant, in collaboration with the Fundació Joan Miró.
