As one of the selected project of 2021 YAV Youth Arts Incubation Programme, Space Ark 2020 is a series of works initiated by the artist Tan Tan, an environmental theater/social intervention performance that is constantly growing. It uses an existing space as stage, real-life experiences as plot, discussing the current situation of humans from a satirical, sci-fi perspective. The performance, originally scheduled for early January in 2022, was presented on 17 September, 2022.

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Space Ark 2020 is a spacecraft that landed in Wuhan, China, on 23 January 2020. By 17 September, it has been on Earth for 968 days. The virus it brought from outer space instantly changed the lives of existing creatures on earth. Some of them, luckily or not, became the first, and probably the last bunch who could choose their journeys. In the spacecraft, time and space fell into disarray. Each individual were isolated into a space detached from each other. What they did not realize was that, they gradually morphed in the everyday randomness and digitization…

The performance is tailored to the spatial environment of the Nan Tou city, where Idea Factory building is transformed into this ship/ark, in an attempt to represent various notions of human being incubated (evolved) in isolation. The performance takes place in the hallway of the three floors of the building. Vertical pillars dividing the space into 18 grid units, with the audience looking up from downstairs platform. Each grid tells a different story— sometimes isolated like they never know the existence of others, and sometimes interconnected for people to get an overview of the entire community.

Performers are recruited from the public, including pedlars, the staff in the building, and security from Nantou City, from 3-year-old kid to elders. Stories are based on real life experiences but without linear timeline. The performance decentralizes the author by letting the audience choose the order of the plot via a computed program. In doing so, the project attempts to convey the inability to plan or act experienced by us, while visualizing such helplessness via game-like setting.