I arrived at Cite' Internationale des Arts on February 1st, 2001, two days before the Chinese New Year. Like all artists who had participated in residency programs before, I was filled with excitement and anxiety.

I applied for residencies abroad because I wanted to distance myself from the never-ending jobs and trivial matters back in Taipei. I wanted to focus on making art and start anew. I had devoted most of my time in the past years to filmmaking, and thus other media that I loved, such as 2D works, installation, and animation, were slowly cast aside due to my heavy workload. I turned 40 years old this year, now entering a new stage of my life. I was grateful for the opportunity to live in a wonderful city for the residency program, and to meet so many wonderful people from all over the world. I was able to re-evaluate myself and create a wonderful piece of artwork.

Paris is a city filled with rich culture, art, history, and architecture. It has the world’s latest fashion, the tastiest cuisine and dessert, the cheapest and most delicious red wine and cheese, as well as countless museums and performances, with the latest in pop music and the best in classical art and music. That was why I spent the first few weeks of my stay wandering around the streets of Paris. This process of wandering also washed away the bad luck and the air of mundanity gathered around me from years of working away from art.

Cite' Internationale des Arts is located in the heart of Paris. It is near the Seine River and close to the Notre-Dame. Gathered here were more than 300 artists of different ages and disciplines from all parts of the world. My studio was at the farthest corner at the end of Cite' Internationale des Arts. One had to go through a parking lot, a concealed entrance of a construction site, and climb up steep stairs to reach my 4th floor studio. It felt like I was living in the home of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

This small studio had everything I needed though. There was a desk, a bed, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a pretty good view out the window. Perhaps it was due to the fact that there were too many artists present at Cite' Internationale des Arts, that residents received almost zero support besides the regular French classes and the artist presentation or filming events on every Tuesday and Thursday.

A month after my arrival, however, I could understand the efforts Cite' Internationale des Arts made in attempting to take care of all 300-plus of us. I realized that the only way to meet with different artists was through finding them on my own, and so I began actively participating in the different events held at Cite' Internationale des Arts. A group of us would haul our instruments with us and have dinner picnics at the Seine River every Monday night. There would also be artist presentations every Tuesday evening, and in addition, the Open Studios were held almost every week for different artists. Besides attending events at Cite' Internationale des Arts, I also applied to share a studio space at a print shop, the Atelier Counterpoint, in the Southern part of Paris. I had hoped to relearn some of the printmaking techniques and spark new ideas for my own practice.

This time, I did not shut myself off in the studio like I did before in my previous residency programs. Instead, I ran around town to see different exhibitions, big and small, and completely enjoyed my time interacting with other artists.

Artists here had different backgrounds ranging from music, dance, video, to theatre from Tunisia, Morocco, South Africa, Portugal, Turkey, and Northern European countries. These were cultures and peoples that I had never met before. Being around them and seeing their works, and sometimes participating in their pieces not only opened up my eyes, but also rekindled my initial passion for art.

It was my 40th birthday on the second month of my arrival in Paris. To celebrate, I organized an Open Studio event and invited all the artists at Cité Internationale des Arts to come join me in my studio. Not only were there screenings, musical performances, and red wine, there were also new ideas for art collaborations in the future. It meant a lot to me to have the company of all these artists from all over the world on my 40th birthday, which symbolized the beginning of my mid–life journey.

I became friends with two other Taiwanese artists, CHENG Li-Ming and CHIANG Chi Yang, in this foreign city. There, we decided to have a group exhibition together before we leave Paris. ‘Time’ was the theme that interested all of us, so we began discussing the details of the show and helped each other developing our works. Our show was titled Metamorphosis of Time.

It was a huge challenge finding a suitable exhibition space in an unfamiliar city that spoke a foreign language. I would like to thank many local friends as well as Taiwanese students studying in Paris for their recommendations, and for taking us all over Paris in search of a proper location. We were rejected several times, and many spaces had already been booked one year in advance.

Due to this exhibition, we had the chance to visit a variety of arts and alternative spaces in Paris. Fortunately, we found a perfect choice, Le Voutes, right when we were about to give up. Le Voute was an alternative space founded by two artists in Paris. They occupied three “tunnels” under a bridge about 20 years ago and transformed them into a place for exhibitions, performances, and film screenings. The “tunnel” we picked contained three smaller tunnels. Our works combined with the hundred-year-old bridge fittingly reflected our title, Metamorphosis of Time.

My work, 40, for the exhibition was the year-long accumulation of thoughts leading up to my 40th birthday. I wanted to utilize many different media to express what I wanted to say. In addition to the installation piece made from rice paper, ink, and light (collaboration with CHIANG Chi Yang on the lighting), there were also video (interview with 10 female artists around my age in Paris), performance art (collaboration with a South African performance artist, Marinda Du Toit), food (collaboration with a Parisian artist, Margarita Satt), and original music (collaboration with James Williams, and vocals provided by my interviewees). The final piece was a combination of the video documentation, animation, and performance art.

My 6-month artist residency in Paris was a very important experience for me. When I returned to Taiwan, I impulsively opened Studio 2244, an art space named after my room number in Paris, to pass on the spirit of my residency in France and to foster a platform on which artists from different areas can meet and collaborate.