What is a wormhole? In the eyes of scientists, it is like a crack or a fold of time and space, a four-dimensional opening that connects the past and future, or a mysterious passage into multiple universes. In the presence of a wormhole, contingency and determinism coexist in extreme opposition against each other. For many, the wormhole is like a fantasy. Even though it is based on a well-developed scientific theory, it is difficult to empirically prove its existence and, therefore, it remains a mysterious fantasy. In this fantasy, the reality we are located in is like a theater in which it is always ready to change the scene and the next moment is probably the moment of doomsday or the moment of salvation.

We draw inspirations from the Theaters photo series by Hiroshi Sugimoto, a Japanese photographer. In this series, each photo features a white and illuminating silver screen in a movie theater. The silver screen can be interpreted as an expression of “image durée”. However, in our eyes, it is more like a mysterious entrance or passage into a different world, allowing people to have either adventures in this imaginary world or have escape from the reality. Sugimoto is like an escape master and the silver screens in his photos are the unique escape devices he has developed to guide us on an adventure or escape from all the dissatisfaction in reality and quench our long-lasting yearning for escape.

The Wormhole Theater (Document No. E120N23) draws references from the theoretical concepts of wormholes, crossing in time and space, parallel universes, and subversions of linear time and space. Based on these concepts, this exhibition is intended to explore the spiritual dynamism beneath the sub-consciousness of the sense of “doomsday” in social reality, religious beliefs and history and then propose a kind of aesthetics in the “escape” from the doomsday. In this exhibition, totally ten imaginative and creative artists are invited to form an escape team and create works in response to five scenarios of doomsday—natural disasters, man-made catastrophes, ossified institutions, authoritarian visual dominance, and ideological manipulation. From their works, the artists raise questions to what they have observed and propose their escape action plans in response or resistance to the doomsday. Through the thinking, choices and actions of “escape”, the artists and the viewers together start to reflect upon the current reality and imagine what kind of future humanity will have after the doomsday. In the “Wormhole Theater”, the artists and the viewers can have rehearsals of what to do in the escape from the impending doomsday amidst all the shock and panic. Through the theater space, works, and different scenarios in this exhibition, a territory of imaginary experiences is created in which viewers can roam around and indulge themselves in the imagination about life of rebirth, salvation and/or devastation during or after the doomsday. Everything in the “Wormhole Theater” is recorded in the document numbered “E120N23” named after Taiwan’s coordinates.

*image (left)
© Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts