2026 Piaoniao 197 – Valley Land Art Festival: Witnessing Land Rebirth in Guangfu and Fataan – Bamboo Lotus Blooms Toward Morning Light from Post-Disaster Memory

Arriving in Hualien’s Guangfu, distant mountains remain quiet, and fields stretch peacefully under sunlight. Wind sweeps through the valley, and the scenery appears calm, yet the land still carries wounds that have not fully healed. In September 2025, heavy rains caused the Fataan landslide dam to burst, sending floods and debris through Guangfu Township, leaving indelible marks of disaster. The 2026 Piaoniao 197 – Valley Land Art Festival places three artworks in Danongdafu and Fataan Wetland, not avoiding scars nor dramatizing sorrow, but responding to the land’s journey through storms with themes of protection, companionship, and rebirth.

Shovels Forming Infinite Protection – The Three-Stone Stove Preserves the Warmth of Home

At Danongdafu’s flower meadow, Lin Chun-yong’s Infinite Protection features shovels arranged in a circular, three-directional formation. Shovels are common rural tools, but in post-disaster recovery, they become familiar objects in the hands of residents and volunteers. When enlarged, intersected, and linked, the shovels resemble countless hands that never cease, passing on love, warmth, and courage.

Beneath the artwork lies an artistic reference to the Amis people’s traditional three-stone stove. Three stones support a cooking pot—and by extension, a family’s meals, warmth, and gatherings—forming the most humble yet essential core of daily life. Bamboo joints and rebar wrap around river stones, preserving the land’s warmth within rigid materials. The work intertwines post-disaster reconstruction with Amis culture, reminding us that rebuilding a home is not only about roads and houses, but also about cultural memory, ways of life, and the deep emotional bonds between people and land.

Bamboo Strips Weave Mutual Support – Gaps Still Hold Companionship

At Danongdafu’s Ridiyue Pond, A-Tang Chen Quan-rong’s Togetherness uses bamboo strips to weave human figures that lean on one another while maintaining space. The bamboo strips cross and connect, yet the figures do not fully merge. These intentionally preserved gaps allow the artwork to breathe, offering a gentler interpretation of companionship. True togetherness does not demand sameness, but rather the willingness to reach out and carry each other’s weight, even while maintaining individual shape and distance.

Bamboo is soft, yet through repeated weaving, it forms a stable structure. Human relationships are similar—seemingly invisible in daily life, yet during storms, they may become the most steadfast force supporting an entire household. As viewers slowly circle the piece, the figures’ silhouettes shift—sometimes resembling embraces, sometimes mutual support, sometimes a group standing shoulder to shoulder, quietly guarding the land.

Bamboo Lotus Emerges from the Pond – Blooming Toward Light from Post-Disaster Soil

The journey concludes at Fataan Wetland. At the center of a lotus pond, British artist Tim Norris’s Emergence rises like a giant bamboo-woven lotus blooming from water. Crafted from fresh bamboo harvested locally in Hualien, part of the structure submerges underwater, while the upper portion rises about four meters above the surface. Its pentagonal shape echoes the five elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—while the bamboo symbolizes life’s resilience, extension, and growth.

Sunlight filters through the bamboo weave, and the reflections of mountains, clouds, and pond water enter the artwork. The image sways gently on the water, making the sculpture appear suspended between floating and growing—like something just awakened from beneath the water, preparing to unfold toward the sky. The lotus, rooted in mud and water, always grows toward the light. This image resonates deeply in Fataan Wetland, a place once struck by disaster.

The artwork’s completion is not solely the artist’s achievement, but the result of collaboration among artisans, residents, and Indigenous people. Each bundle of woven bamboo preserves local knowledge and bears the traces of people walking together through hardship.

Sunlight, cloud shadows, and pond water pass through the bamboo structure of Emergence, allowing the landscapes of forest and wetland to intersect inside and outside the artwork, forming a flowing image of rebirth.

From Infinite Protection to Togetherness, and finally to Emergence—this route unfolds like a slowly opening emotion. First, we see the hands cleaning homes; then, we feel human connection; finally, on the water’s surface, we encounter a life stretching once more toward the light. The scars remain, but the land has already grown new scenery in the wind and morning light.