JOINT PRESS RELEASE ON AUSTRALIA-TAIWAN ARTS EXCHANGE PARTNERSHIP
ANNOUNCEMENT OF 2024 EXCHANGE ARTISTS
AUSTRALIAN OFFICE, TAIPEI
NATIONAL CULTURE AND ARTS FOUNDATION
13 June 2024
Following the signing of an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Australian Office Taipei and Taiwan’s National Culture and Arts Foundation (NCAF) on 1 June 2022, we are pleased to announce the artists participating in the Australia-Taiwan Arts Exchange Partnership in 2024.
The Australian artist is Mr Daniel Riley, a Wiradjuri man and the sixth Artistic Director and the first First Nations Artistic Director of the Australian Dance Theatre founded in 1965. He currently sits on the Board as an Associate of Australia’s leading arts and culture think tank ‘A New Approach’ and is an Honorary Fellow through the Faculty of Fine Arts (Dance) at the University of Melbourne.
Since graduating from Queensland University of Technology in 2006, Daniel had danced for a number of leading contemporary dance companies in Australia and UK, including Fabulous Beast (2014), Chunky Move (2019), Australian Dance Theatre (2022-23) and Australia’s leading national Indigenous contemporary dance company - Bangarra Dance Theatre (2007-2018). He has also worked for ILBIJERRI Theatre Company and was a lecturer and founded a mentoring program for First Nations dance students. He has choreographed for a number of dance companies, theatre company, films and art festivals. He has been nominated for Australian Dance Awards and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deadly Awards.
The Taiwanese artist is Mr Fangas Nayaw, an Amis Indigenous performing artist and the Artistic Director of Fist & Cake Production. Fangas is known for an interdisciplinary creative practice ranging from visual works, theatre and dance performances, and focusing on the continuation of traditional Indigenous cultures in the era of globalization. His directing work, Mailulay, won the 14th Taishin Arts Award in 2016. He was the lead choreographer for the opening ceremony of the 2017 Taipei Universiade.
He was an artist-in-residence at Cite Internationale des arts, and his curatorial and directing work ‘masingkiay’ was exhibited in Pompidou Centre in 2019. He has coordinated a performance for Nuit Blanche Taipei and Taiwan Cultural Expo, and created a video work for the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Australia (2021). As a director, choreographer, performer and lecturer, he often receives invitations to take part in art festivals, performances and exhibitions.
Daniel Riley is undertaking the program in Taiwan from 10-21 June and Taiwanese artist Fangas Nayaw plans to undertake the exchange program in Australia in 2025.
Australian Representative, Mr Robert Fergusson, and NCAF Chair, Professor Chi-yang Lin, extend their congratulations to the artists and, through their art, look forward to their contributions further enriching Australia-Taiwan cultural exchanges and deepening our people-to-people links.