text by Chen Chieh-Jen
Chen Chieh-jen's The Route was made for the 2006 Liverpool Biennial. For this video, Chen explores the historic Neptune Jade Incident and the global labor movement, linking them to a symbolic strike he staged with Kaohsiung longshoremen.
The Neptune Jade Incident started when longshoreman around the world extended their support to Liverpool dockworkers protesting port privatization. The global protest entailed a boycott of the cargo vessel the Neptune Jade, a symbol of capitalist profiteering, making it impossible for the ship to unload at many ports around the world. Finally, with no other recourse, the Neptune Jade investors surreptitiously auctioned off the ship and its entire contents at the port of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.
Facing similar difficulties, yet having no contact with the global labor movement, the Kaohsiung longshoremen were unaware of the Neptune Jade's history. Chen invited Kaohsiung longshoremen to stage a symbolic strike to film this video, and then presented it at the Liverpool Biennial, creating a dialogue with the people of Liverpool.
Chen Chieh-jen's simulated strike critiques neoliberal mechanisms promoted by national governments' alliances with capitalism, and suggests a course of political action for the future. Equally important is the way in which this work of art "extends" the afterlife of the Neptune Jade's historical significance. By allowing a historical incident to serve as inspiration, the actual incident to move out of the "past tense" and the artistic form creates a new narrative story allowing the meaning of the incident to become our own collective "story" and "experience." |
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