"This was too disgusting even for me, and I like disgusting things," Wang Mo-Lin (王墨林) confessed to reporters at a news conference in Panchiao, after the town's Broken Life Festival had ended amid scenes of violence and disarray. "Frankly, what was supposed to be a serious concert of alternative music was treated by most of the groups as an opportunity to cause trouble."
Wang, the director of Taiwan's Body Phase Studio (身體氣象館) performance art troupe, explained how the evening had degenerated into chaos: "First the leader of the Swiss group Schimpfluch ran around the hall dressed in bin liners and randomly kissing women, until one of them bit him so hard on the lip that he had to be taken to hospital. Next, the Japanese noise group C.C.C.C. abandoned their performance, because the previous act had dumped sewer water over the audience, and the stench caused their drummer to vomit during his solo. Then it got worse. Z.S.L.O.'s entire act consisted of a short man in stockings being chased around the hall by a couple who, when they caught him, crammed garbage, gravel and rotting food into his mouth. By the time Eric Lai came on and swallowed a live boa constrictor, which then crawled unharmed out of his colon, members of the audience were vomiting in their seats. And finally, knowing that only an act of extreme insanity could top what had come before, LTK Commune ended the evening by pouring gasoline all over the stage, setting fire to it and gutting the entire auditorium. I now plan to take this show to Europe, and have been told by a British policeman to contact Andrew Lloyd Webber, a man who understands the avante garde and owns many theatres in London."
China News, 15/9/95
That's how I discovered this. The above news item appeared on talk.bizarre (Subject: Andrew Lloyd Webber Passes Boa Thru Colon!!!!) and alt.misc.forteana (Subject: Anarchy In China Town). Oddly, there is a gap in USENET data on Google for alt.misc.forteana from 3/29/95 to 1/2/1996. Must be an anomaly. It also appeared on the Blue Oyster Cult/Hawkwind mailing list. Also see this forward from October 20, 1995.
It sounds like it was a fantastic show. Wish I could've been there.
Also see Island of Sound's page which contains footage of C.C.C.C..
ZSLO: Zero and Sound Liberation Organization
CCCC: Cosmic Coincidence Control Center
Search youtube for Broken Life Festival and each of the bands to find many more videos. They seem to keep adding more every month. Eventually, we'll have complete footage of the festival.
September 7-9, 1995. The videos indicate that the festival was three days and ended on the Mid Autumn Festival which was September 9, 1995. (Set your time machines!!!)
Art Demolition Festival 1995 - This video series on youtube appears to be the actual event. Inspirational to say the least.
It appears to be called the "Taipei Refuse Festival" in the video.
Episode 1-2 - Introduction
Episode 3 - Moslar (Naked men roll in semen paste.)
Episode 4 - C.C.C.C. (Japanese porn star fucks music.)
Episode 5 - Schimpfluch-Gruppe (Microphone mastication.)
Episode 6 - Endoxan
Episode 7 - Killer Bug
Episode 8 - LSK (A mannequin is raped and gutted on a gurney before it is set on fire and thrown into the audience.)
Episode 9 - Con-Dom (Mike fondles the audience and gets attacked.)
Episode 10 - Z.S.L.O. (Man dressed like a woman is bound, and putrid water is forced down his throat. A fight breaks out between Killer Bug and LSK.)
Episode 11 - Club Chain Saw (A screaming woman is cut to pieces on stage.)
Written by Huang Mingchuan. [Transcript from subtitles.]
The Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau distillery built in the 1930s is located in Taipei County next to the old Panchiao railroad station. The main office buildings new designs in tile date from [the] Japanese period. After taking over the distillery operations following the war, the KMT government augmented the complex with practical boxy structures. Today, the years have taken their toll. The buildings of both eras are scheduled for demolition around the Mid-Autumn Festival of 1995. The site will be razed to make ample space for a brand new Panchiao railroad station, and rebuilding the city's downtown area. But before the distillery ends its 60-year life, the Taipei County Culture Center after Herculean effort, has been permitted to rent the #3 warehouse at the far end as the stage for an international noise performance festival.
Since the 1980s, Taiwan's urban [areas] have undergone constant expansion, and numerous plant facilities formerly situated on the outskirts of the cities found themselves in downtown centers. Given the general scarcity of prime urban real estate, these factories have been forced to retreat even farther, erasing [the] last traces of Japanese period industry. The performances here by international noise groups will call attention to the quiet destruction of the distillery with the ear splitting noise of the post-industrial age. And the new generation's screams of discontent will bid a final farewell to the facility's history as part of Taiwan's industrial development.
Written by Huang Mingchuan. [Transcript from subtitles.]
The organizers have invited nearly a dozen groups from overseas. For most, it is their first visit to Taiwan, about which they express curiosity. These two performers are from Schimpfluch-Gruppe based in Zurich, Switzerland. Wu Chung-wei and Lin Chi-wei, long-time participants in underground activities, are the guiding forces behind the festival. The Culture Center has stipulated that the venue be located within Taipei County jurisdiction, and within reasonable distance from the Center. So on this night, they scope out the military bar rocks [barracks?] and distillery in the area for an appropriate site for the performances. Underground performers all, Wu and Lin lead their foreign guests to a night market in the Taipei satellite city of Sanchung. There, they can get a good feeling for the distinct flavor of local temple and night market culture.
The demolition of the distillery proceeds rapidly, permanently disfiguring many buildings. Even after our permit is granted, the destruction carries on uninterrupted. The guests checking out the site, satisfied with this expansiveness, and overall feeling, and find that the mosquitoes have stepped out their attack following the demise of the distillery. This is truly a rare performance in Taiwan with an "alternative" flavor and casual arrangement. Already, the avant-garde character of the performers, in this three-day fest has established a presence. The event will last only through the Mid-Autumn festival holiday. As soon as the holiday concludes, everything here will be razed to the ground. Without any assistance from the establishment, a large outdoor performance festival was held in the riverside park by the Eternal Fortune Bridge brought international noise [under]ground together for the first time at the Taipei Refuse Festival. This year, with the involvement of the Taipei County Culture Center, an extra measure of attention was paid by the art, music communities and local media.
Written by Huang Mingchuan. [Transcript from subtitles.]
Moslar, whose real name is Lee Chih-hung, works in underground theater. Yeh Yeh, a painter by profession, was enlisted to work with Moslar at the last minute. This performance consists of three parts, the final of which uses paste and scraps of paper. "Most people thought the paste was semen because everyone has masturbated themselves. They know exactly what it is!" The first act of Moslar's performance is "Opening & Awakening." The second is "Gun Power." The last act where Moslar appears naked is called "Secret Garden." While the significance of the first two acts is not easily conveyed, the visceral impact of the performer's nudity makes the crowd go wild. "Most of the audience members are 'bad kids.' No, just some of them. They come to screw around."
Written by Huang Mingchuan. [Transcript from subtitles.]
C.C.C.C. which stands for "Cosmic Coincidence Control Center" stresses the spontaneous organization of noise melodies. The group's noise carries abstract aesthetic qualities, mental instruments and synthesizers, creates a constantly shifting ethereal flow and spatial variation. The noise level is extremely high and continues unabated at that level for 30 minutes. Some people begin to rock with it. And those who don't, retreat from it, putting up stubborn resistance till the end.
Hino Mayuko: "Noise" is not music. We don't create noise because we want to make music. All living things produce noise.
Hino Mayuko, the leader of the C.C.C.C, was formerly an active participant in Japan's pornographic film world during the 1980s. From theater, film, and dance she has now gravitated to noise performance. When she and the group's two other members met in 1985, each were involved in different kinds of performances. 4 years later, noise performance brought them together.
Hiroshi Hasegawa: Whether it is music or such things as culture, everything has its basic style which is actually a kind of limited framework. But it is these limitations that make mutual understanding easy.
Ryuichi Nagakubo: Even though making noise is a simple thing that anyone can do. But at the other end of the noise lies the maker of the noise who clearly reveals himself. Ultimately what it felt [you experience] is the person operating the instruments.
Hino Mayuko once achieved a successful marriage of noise and sado-masochism. Developing a masochistic dance performance combining bondage and dripping candle wax.
Hino Mayuko: As far as music is concerned, so-called "noise" is an anti-authority representation. As music itself is a kind of authority which makes its own restrictive framework. This is why I call myself a "noise maker" or someone who fucks art and fucks music.
Written by Huang Mingchuan. [Transcript from subtitles.]
Schimpfluch-Gruppe was formed in Zurich, Switzerland in 1987 by a group [of] artists who work across painting, installation art, music, broadcasting, the post, and action art. They believe that performance should be intensely Dadaist, apart from the establishment, and should destroy the traditional values. They also forcefully resist the interference of the media and politics in our imagination and creativity.
An accordion has also been employed as a symbol of masturbation and masochism.
On the first day of performances at the Post-industrial Art Demolition, news reporters crowded the stage stirring up the displeasure of performers and audience members alike. Not only did Rudolf [Eb.er] release his frustration in a humorous protest. Even Lin Chi-wei himself, one of the organizers, jumped in to scream and jump about.
<- Back to the Ted Chain.
Copyright ©1996-2013, The Ted Chain. Disclaimer