Culture Street’s ‘Little Art Jar’ – 1920’s exhibition

In a small alley in Dadaocheng (大稻埕) one can get a glimpse of 1920’s Taiwan, one of the richest periods in Taiwan’s history. Talking a stroll in the old street, one may spot some of the greatest intellectuals of that era, names such as Simone de Beauvoir (西蒙波娃), Lin Huiyin (林徽音), or Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), like a 1920s hall of fame parade. The style of the era - men in Chinese robes, women with braided hair – has been beautifully captured in the Culture Street bookshop ‘Little Art Jar’(小藝埕), which has hosted the ‘Sleepwalking the 1920s’(夢遊1920s) exhibition, awakening the memory of Dadaocheng in the 1920’s.  The Little Art Jar was the starting point of the idea for the cultural village “Dayicheng” (which literally means “The Big Art Jar”) and was the collaborative brainchild of Zhou Yi-cheng, his wife, and their entrepreneurial team. Zhou Yi-cheng had been prominent representative of the student movement, but in 2008 he entered into the cultural and creative industries, where along with the ceramicist Xiao Li-ying launched the pottery brand ‘Hakka-blue’ (台客藍). Following the launch, Zhou Yi-cheng and his wife rented a property in the adjacent Yongle Market (永樂市場), a century-old building of the Lee family and together with their entrepreneurial team, which they met at the KD Art Culture Industry Innovation Incubation Center (臺北藝術大學創新育成中心), gave birth to the Little Art Jar in 2011. Not far from the existing Little Art Jar, another shop – the ‘Folk Art Jar’ (民藝埕)- has now appeared.

In addition to the cultural and creative products, the Little Art Jar is endeavoring to propagate the concept of a public space. This ‘public space’ concept is absolutely not simply a free place for people to come and go, or indeed what many people mistakenly think, a non-profit public space. In fact, the concept is completely unrelated to profit or non-profit, but more similar to the 18th century Western bistro, cafe, and salon. Although these places were all privately run, they were important spaces for the unrestricted exchange of knowledge and literature, as well as hotbeds of creativity in the art world; this is the real value and meaning of a ‘public space’.

The Dadaocheng of 2012 is still brimming with the vitality of Taiwan's traditional industries. Drapery shops, teashops, and traditional Chinese medicine stores are all in profusion, and when it comes to buying goods for Chinese New Year, Dadaocheng is the first name on everyone’s lips. The difference is that with the Little Art Jar and Folk Art Jar, and in the near future possibly a third and fourth shop, Zhou Yi-cheng and his wife’s concept of a cultural village will help push an art renaissance, and a new cultural movement.

PeoPo 公民新聞

Culture Street’s ‘Little Art Jar’ – 1920’s exhibition (by CJ newstory)
URL:http://www.peopo.org/news/103029

(以下是中文對照)

文化街屋小藝埕 展一九二○風華 ( 輔大生命力新聞 )

一九二○年代，是台灣文化最豐沛的年代，在大稻埕老巷弄中即可窺知一二。駐足在老街中，竟然遇到西蒙波娃﹗仔細一看，還有林徽音、蔣渭水…… 遊行隊伍宛若一九二○年代名人堂，穿著長袍、紮著辮子的男女知青共襄盛舉，這是文化街屋「小藝埕」的書店主辦的「夢遊1920s」變裝遊行活動，喚醒了大稻埕一九二○年代的記憶。

「小藝埕」是由周奕成夫婦與理念相同的創業團隊合作經營的文化街屋，也是他們構想中的文化聚落「大藝埕」的起點。周奕成曾為學運的代表人物之一，二○○八年投入文創產業，與陶藝家蕭立應推出「台客藍」陶藝品牌。之後，周奕成夫婦租下位於永樂市場對面、原為李氏家族所有的百年建築，並與他們在臺北藝術大學創新育成中心結識的創業團隊共同創業，二○一一年「小藝埕」在此誕生，現在不遠處已有第二棟文化街屋「民藝埕」的出現。

除了文創產品，「小藝埕」還想傳達公共空間的概念。公共空間絕非只是民眾可以自由來去的公共場所，許多民眾誤以為公共空間一定是非營利空間，其實不然，無關營利與非營利，如同十八世紀西方的小酒館、咖啡廳、沙龍等，雖屬私人經營，但其中知識無阻的交流、文學的對話、藝術的萌發，使這些空間產生了真正「公共」的價值。

二○一二年的大稻埕，仍然充滿台灣傳統產業的生機，布莊、茶行、中藥行林立，年貨大街的稱號家喻戶曉。不同的是，有了「小藝埕」與「民藝埕」的點綴，未來還會有第三棟、第四棟文化街屋的出現，形成周奕成夫婦構想的文化聚落「大藝埕」，促成文藝復興，進而再推新文化運動。

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