Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Writer: So your story does have a happy ending.
Adult Pi Patel: Well, that's up to you. 
– Life of Pi

An "open ending" refers to a story without a definitive conclusion, a path leading to an unknown destination. It leaves the literary or dramatic text in suspense, granting the viewer freedom to interpret. This way, the story is not merely a pre-imposed answer template in the traditional viewing experience but rather a two-way dialogue between the viewer and the creator. Just like at the end of Life of Pi, where director Ang Lee posed the question through the protagonist Pi to the writer/viewer beyond the screen: "Which story do you prefer?"

Since last fall, TFAM is transforming its underground space from a traditional "white cube" gallery into a unique art cinema. Through cross-disciplinary curatorial collaborations, we have invited prominent visual artists and filmmakers from Asia and Europe to curate a "mini-film festival" featuring a selection of rare single-channel video works. These include seldom-seen video art, short films, documentaries, art films, experimental films, and animated shorts. Unlike mainstream narrative feature films, these works often lack specific plot direction or strong emotional rendering. Instead, they offer open-ended reflections on contemporary issues and explore various experimental cinematic techniques.

An Open Ending: TFAM Screening Project seeks to expand upon the familiar cinematic/dramatic concept of an "open ending" by presenting a variety of themes and film lists combinations throughout the exhibition period to open up more imaginations and possibilities. This "openness" not only encourages viewers to form their own interpretations but also deconstructs traditional cinematic forms, pays homage to alternative film movements, and challenges conventional definitions of art. In this space, directors and artists craft the narrative, while viewers are invited to define the conclusion.

Organized by Taipei Fine Arts Museum 
Curatorial Team: Cheng-Yi Chien, Hsuan-Chun Tseng, Wood Lin, Alexandre Huang 

Introdction：

The End Is Opened（Screening Date：2025.1.1－3.30）
Perhaps it could be said that all cinematic narratives are inherently closed. As a medium, film encapsulates stories within itself, unfolding in sequence—beginning, middle, and inevitably, end. The notion of an "open ending" often owes its allure to suspense rather than actual openness. However, exceptions exist, especially when films are intricately linked to reality or even directly stem from it—in such cases, it becomes difficult to convince oneself that film is merely pure illusion.

Like many great narrative works, before a story reaches its end, there are countless forces at play. The progression of these narratives sometimes relies on assumptions, sometimes on analysis, observation, interpretation, or witness. Tracing past to this point not only tells us how a story arrived here but also unveils how narrative itself can be opened.

The films selected for this section focus on creators who actively deconstruct power structures, participate in history, uncover hidden aspects, and rewrite texts. Through film, they document and depict both physical and spiritual worlds, emphasizing processes and causes rather than simple endings—because the complexity of the contemporary world makes any "ending" impossible to define easily.

The inversion of “open ending” to a passive form, “the end is opened,” also suggests that when film and reality are tightly interwoven, we, as inevitably involved observers, could consider how to respond, perceive, and further contemplate.

Adachi Masao｜AKA: Serial Killer
Green Team｜The Taoyuan Airport Incident
Harun Farocki & Andrei Ujica｜Videograms of a Revolution
Apichatpong Weerasethakul｜Mysterious Object at Noon
Pedro Costa｜In Vanda’s Room
Kidlat Tahimik｜Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III
Thunska Pansittivorakul & Harit Srikhao｜Homogeneous, Empty Time
Wang Bing｜Dead Souls
Mohanad Yaqubi｜R21 aka Restoring Solidarity

Revisiting History/Stories （Screening Date：2025.1.1－3.30）
In many languages, the words for "history" and "story" are one and the same, like two sides of a coin. Only when multiple versions exist—narrated from different perspectives and expressed through diverse forms—can history/stories open avenues for dialogue during the process of transmission, or even more ambitiously, facilitate the exchange of emotions, encouraging people to empathize with each other.

The act of revisiting can be understood as returning to history to re-examine, read, and deconstruct existing stories, and then rewriting, retelling, and re-creating new versions of those stories from fresh perspectives, techniques, and media. Since history and story are interrelated, creators can also reflect on the stories to re-evaluate history and rewrite overlooked versions.

The selection of films in Part II will focus on animation, inviting the audience to explore the dual pathways of revisiting history/stories via the art of movements that are drawn between each frame. This section will be divided into two animated short film programs:

Animated Short Film Program A (history / stories):
presents 11 works that revisit art history, creatively transforming paintings, artists, and even the museums and galleries that house iconic collections. Through hand-drawn animation, stop-motion animation, live-action animation, these works give the stories fresh dimensions, empathy, and meaning.

Animated Short Film Program B (stories / history):
features 7 works by female directors who delve into personal experiences. Employing hand-drawn, cutout, scratch film, and pinscreen animations, these directors turn their stories into a means of exchanging sensory experiences with the audience. Perhaps, unlike Program A which revisits primarily male-dominated art history (history), Program B brings together an animation art history (herstory) told from a female perspective.

Animated Short Films A:
Paul Bush｜The Five Minute Museum
Joe Hsieh｜The Garden of Delights
Paul Wenninger & Susan Young｜Dead Reckoning
Norman McLaren｜A Little Phantasy on a Nineteenth Century Painting
Craig Welch｜How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels
Georges Schwizgebel｜From One Painting… to Another
Elizabeth Hobbs｜I’m OK
Léo Verrier｜Dripped
Akino Kondoh｜Ladybirds’ Requiem
Veljko Popović｜Cyclists
Aggie Lee Pak Yee｜Muteum

Animated Short Films B:
Martina Scarpelli｜Egg
Špela Čadež｜Nighthawk
Moïa Jobin-Paré｜No Objects
Jeong Dahee｜Man on the Chair
Magda Guidi & Mara Cerri｜Via Curiel 8
Huang Shi-Rou｜Girl in the Water
Michèle Lemieux｜Here and the Great Elsewhere