PALAFANG Hualien Art Festival
“Palafang” means “to visit” in Pangcah. Visitors come with a sense of yearning while the hosts offer sincere hospitality, and each visit is cherished as an opportunity for exchange. “Tiaolang” (which means “jumping around the waves”) is the informal name of an area south of Yanliao Harbor in Hualien but also implies a way of life. Before Highway 11 was built, people here had to time the waves and run and jump around them to make their way among the reef rocks up and down the coast. Both meanings of the word imply the idea of returning home. The main focus of the art festival is to build a new relationship between you and Hualien.
Artists express Hualien as they see it and feel it at the main venue, and life experiences with Hualien are on display at the satellite exhibits. For those just visiting as well as those who have either stayed in or returned to their hometown of Hualien, the festival can connect them to each other’s feelings for Hualien, and each such connection and exchange rolls like a group of waves within the new tide of Hualien’s contemporary aesthetic.