The theme of the 2026 Wanjichang Art Festival is "Gathering of Masks", exploring social roles and true self in the digital era

Zhang Yawei and Zhang Yayuan will present "Golden Love Water" at the 2026 Wanjuchang Art Festival, using the golden songs of the 1980s and 1990s as the background to respond to the disciplines of the times through collective action. The picture shows the 2026 Qin Art Museum's "Are You Short of Artists?" Draw first, then talk!" Closing performance photo. (Provided by Zhang Yawei)

[Reporter Dong Baiting/Reporting from Taipei] The "2026 Playground Art Festival" organized by Taiwan's Contemporary Culture Laboratory (C-LAB) will be held in conjunction with the "Clear Sky Season 2026" this year in the "Clear Sky Performance" section at the Air Force National Cultural Base on September 12th and 13th. Entering its ninth edition, the festival continues the core spirit of "games" and "gathering." It invites the cross-disciplinary curatorial team "Clear Lab" (Li Mingjie, Li Xinying) and choreographer Liu Yiling to jointly plan the festival, with the theme of "Assembly of Masks" and uses humor, rituals and gamification to lead the public to examine social roles and find their true selves in the era of digital networks and AI.

Li Lu will present "Song of Flamenco" at the 2026 Wanjuchang Art Festival, using flamenco music and dance to echo the similar historical memories of silence in Taiwan and Spain. (Photography by Guo Junyan, provided by Li Lu)

C-LAB pointed out that in a modern society where AI technology is rapidly developing and digital networks are intertwined, the "masks" worn by individuals in the workplace, social circles, and online are like the color-changing protection mechanism of insects to adapt to the environment. Mask is no longer just a binary opposition between true and false, but a survival strategy evolved by contemporary people to adapt to society. Behind it is the original intention of protecting oneself. This year's art festival creates a participatory mobile experience throughout the park, hoping to promote cross-identity communication between different generations and ethnic groups through a bold and playful gathering format.

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C-LAB explained that this year’s program focuses on issues of cross-domain cooperation and diversity and inclusion. Performance highlights include Silent, a collaboration between the choreographer and deaf athletes. "Dunk: Deaf and Happy for Good", which transforms a basketball game into a life narrative; the sound performance "Into Her Daily Life: Sound Stories of Migrant Workers Walking Their Dogs" presents the experience of caring for pets and the actual working environment through oral recordings of foreign migrant workers; the dance work ""Insect Fire" Art Project: Land, Migration and Gods" Using the living conditions of fireflies to compare the situation of migrant workers and the undocumented community; "Daily Life of Kay^ing" combines cooking behaviors, physical expressions and verbal narratives; there is also an outdoor parade created by modern dance, traditional music of Beikuan and costume designers, and non-standard flamenco dance performed on the grass.

Pampanai 2024 "remake kita from here to there". (Photography by Jc Pan, provided by the Aboriginal Foundation)

In addition, choreographer Liu Yiling specially planned "So, What Are You Trying to Say?", which is the first time that contemporary dancers and stand-up comedians are on the same stage to create a performance experience that is both physical and humorous. During the festival, promotion activities such as the "Nomad Co-Creation" music workshop, the "Secret Player Development Program" and moss ball handicrafts are planned simultaneously to guide the public to participate personally through the collection of sounds from daily objects and physical communication. The event is free, please contact the official website of Wanjuchang Art Festival for details.

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