In October 2024, esea contemporary welcomed visual artist and filmmaker Musquiqui Chihying as the first participating artist for our research project, ‘Voicing the Archive.’ Curated by Dr Wenny Teo, ‘Voicing the Archive’ is a series of newly commissioned audio-visual works that reimagine stories of early Chinese migration to Britain – a history that has been systematically erased from national narratives and relegated to the margins of official records. Drawing on Saidiya Hartman's method of ‘critical fabulation’ - which combines historical research with speculative storytelling to restore agency to lives lost in histories of slavery and colonialism - the project invites artists to create new works from archival materials exploring what emerges when absence becomes a space for imagination.
Musquiqui Chihying is an artist and filmmaker based in Taipei and Berlin. His research often uncovers less visible connections between constructions of identity, technology, and capitalist systems of production. Many of his works explore the special historical circumstances of ethnic and technological exchange between the African, Asian, and Afro-Asian Sea regions.
During his residency at esea contemporary, Chihying continues his research into the neglected history of Asian ‘coolies’ – a system of indentured labour introduced by the British Empire following the abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Compelled by the Sega music genre of Mauritian Creole and Réunion Creole cultures that can trace its roots to enslaved populations, Chihying began investigating the concept of ‘Bitter Sounds’. He questions whether the cultural mixing of Chinese indentured labourers in former British colonies similarly resulted in a hybrid genre of music – and if not, whether we can imagine what this might sound like. In Manchester, Chihying delved into historical collections of objects as well as fluid materials such as sound. He met with Dr. Njabulo Chipangura, Curator of Living Cultures at Manchester Museum and Arthur Yuen Po Hang, a contemporary music composer specialising in cross-cultural composition and interculturality.
Earlier this year, at the Hong Foundation in Taipei, Chihying co-organised ‘Wind in the Sea: Bitter Sounds’ an experimental performance that invited a South African singer and a Hakka opera musician to speculate the sounds of an imagined hybrid genre. For ‘Voicing the Archive’, Chihying is currently developing a music or lecture performance that will be unveiled early next year.
Musquiqui Chihying (b. 1985, Taipei) is a visual artist and a filmmaker who resides and works in Taipei and Berlin. His artistic endeavors focus on issues of post- and trans-modernity in the Global South, postcolonial identity, and contemporary technology. He often employs media such as sound, music, and moving images to construct a narrative vocabulary, offering alternative perspectives on the interconnectedness of human condition and ecological environments. Many of his works have explored the special historical circumstances of ethnic and technological exchange between the African, Asian, and Afro-Asian Sea regions. Musquiqui Chihying's works have been exhibited in numerous international art institutions, including WIELS in Brussels, Art Sonje Center in Seoul, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Neue Berliner Kunstverein in Berlin, Power Station of Art in Shanghai, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, MoCA Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, among others. His film works have been screened at various film festivals, including Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands, and the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. In 2023, he was awarded the Tung Chung Prize by The Hong Foundation in Taiwan. In 2019, he received the LOOP Video Art Award from the Han Nefkens Foundation and the Joan Miró Foundation in Spain. He was also nominated for the Berlin Art Prize in Germany that same year. He is a member of the Taiwanese art group Fuxinghen Studio and leads the Research Lab of Image and Sound (RLIS), focusing on media technology and image politics research.