Nanako Matsumoto & Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos)

Born in 1992 in Osaka, Nanako Matsumoto is a dance artist who works with performance and language; both separately and in various combinations. Driven by an interest in dance as a means to critically engage with the body she creates stage works as well as writing and engaging in volunteer work as a form of public action. In recent years she has created dance works as co-leader of performance unit team chiipro; two of which have been presented at Kyoto Experiment 2021 Autumn and Kyoto Experiment 2022. Matsumoto’s performances are characterized by the use of text based on meticulous research and deal with the intersection between the physical sensations and memories of her own body and various historical, societal, anthropological, and geographical contexts. In recent years, she has been exploring the idea of a "yokai-body", a term coined by herself and defined as a state of transformation achieved by layering multiple images related to a certain place onto the body. She is The Saison Foundation ‘Saison Fellow I’ from 2023-2024.

Anchi Lin, Atayal name is Ciwas Tahos, based between Taipei Taiwan, and Naarm (Melbourne) Australia. New media and performance artist of Atayal/ Itaṟal and Taiwanese Hō-ló descent. Ciwas's body-centered practice weaves the Indigenous Atayal worldview through performance, moving images, cyberspace, ceramics, and kinetic installation to claim a self-determined queer space. Her work is an exploration of cultural and gender identity; using her body as a medium to trace linguistic and cultural experiences of displacement to seek out new forms of understanding. Ciwas’s most notable art project is mgluw tuqiy na Temahahoi (Finding Pathways to Temahahoi). Most recently, Ciwas was awarded the Biannual Prize of Pulima Art Award and was selected as the inaugural Artist for the Australia-Taiwan Friendship Year Arts Exchange Partnership for 2023. In 2023, their work was exhibited at the 2023 Arts Electronica Festival in Austria, the Taiwan Austronesian Art Triennial in Taiwan, and Proto-zone13 at Shedhalle in Switzerland. Ciwas completed an MFA in New Media Art at Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan) and BFA in Visual Art at Simon Fraser University (Canada).