Group Portrait of the Echoers

Group Portrait of the Echoers invites Green Island residents to perform as workers of the Green Island White Terror Memorial Park. Together, they relay and sing a song composed in collaboration with a musician, exploring the connection between the site and its historical memories.
 

At times singing alone and at times in chorus, their voices echo throughout the former prison site. Drawing from historical accounts of political prisoners singing farewell songs to fellow inmates, the composition moves through Mandarin, Taiwanese, Japanese, and English. The lyrics incorporate the phrase, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” Through song, the performers become vessels for voices from the past, traversing the boundaries of time and space within the moving image.

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Voices from different times are brought into dialogue in the present. Songs and memories resonate throughout the site, paying tribute to those who were once imprisoned there.