Hanart TZ Gallery and School of Creative Media (City University of HK) jointly presents Chen Chieh-Jen’s latest project “Happiness Building I”, showing the video, installation and production process. 

Before filming "Happiness Building l", Chen Chieh-jen invited young people representing various segments of society and in need of steady work to compose poetry or prose describing parts of their lives. Next the artist wove together their impressions using a fictional narrative to explore atomism and exile at-home, which have resulted in a society of isolated wanderers deprived of real community, family or household on which they can rely. 

Chen constructed a set resembling an old rental-apartment building for this video. Using minimal movement and no dialog, Chen strings together the individual stories of fictional residents preparing to move from the soon to be renovated building. Characters include an unemployed man, a young woman orphaned at an early age, a gay woman whose father committed suicide as a result of long-term unemployment, and a female sound artist who left home after her parents separated because she could no longer face her broken home. Outside the building, Chen films a single woman exhausted from protesting against laws concerning dispatched workers; young women who work at dismantling computers at an electronics recycling center; a disabled stage actor involved in both Taiwan’s theater world and a long-term protest called Silent March; a worker with the Losheng Sanatorium history project who dropped out of school due to dissatisfaction with the educational system; and a social activist who comes to help elderly residents living alone to move out, but is greeted only with piles of boxes. These strangers gather in the courtyard of the building on the afternoon before renovation. Exchanging silent glances, they begin to help the social activist move boxes belonging to the elderly residents. 

Using the production set as a public space makes the "Happiness Building I" project more than just a film. It transforms traditional production relationships and viewing patterns into an experiment of temporary community formation in an atomized society, and gives a presentation of the perspectives of production assistants. The project also constructs a platform together with the audience, where views regarding the community fabric could be exchanged.

Image: © Chen Chieh-Jen