About TESA
Art has the power of transformation and regeneration, it empowers creators different energies at different occasions. Thus art for a certain place must incorporate the sensibility and experience of living in the place.
To a creator, art sets out from life and is a part of life.
How it is like to make art away from the urban clamor and reconnect with the tranquility of nature? And what it means to life?
Our place is a part of the sustainable ecosystem in nature and we welcome artists from all over the world to experience the space and the environment, to exchange thoughts and to develop their artworks.
Issues and Missions
The lands nourishing us and the cities sheltering us shape our aesthetics and cultural identity. Unfortunately, the formation of the environment and the sustainability of the ecosystem are often concerned only in our conversations. Our taste of aesthetics of the living and how it is integrated into the sustainable environment can’t be achieved without the participation and commitment of the public and decision-makers.
Affiliated to the Taiwan Environment and Sculpture Association, TESA is a non-profit organization, whose goals are to promote the knowledge of sculpture and elevate the aesthetics of spatiality through sculptural works. The chairman of the Association and the Creative Director of the TESA Prof. Chang Tzu-Lung has devoted himself to the art of sculpture for over forty years and has an insightful view of art in practice. Setting out from his long-term observation and experience in the business of art projects in public spaces, the architecture of TESA Creative Center is the embodiment of the concepts and idealism he has developed over the past decades.
Given the public’s insufficient understanding of the aesthetics in public spaces, TESA Creative Center actively interacts with the art society and local communities; it organizes exhibitions, panels, speeches among other events. Artist-in-residence program deepens the exchange of artists from all over the world, new ideas about art, spaces and the environment will be sparkling during these multiple layers of exchange. Through interactions with artists of different cultures and experiences, TESA broadens the horizon of environmental aesthetics for Taiwan. In the meantime, the achievement of Taiwanese artists will be introduced to the world through these artists.
Locations
TESA
Creative Center
TESA is a multi-functional art space.
Sitting on a hill facing the Baisha Bay, TESA is 30-min drive from downtown Danshui. On the greeny campus are burbling streams, chirping bugs and singing birds. In spring a variety of flowers bloom, and in summer the sunset over the Bay is the daily fest. In autumn the panoramic view of the Qixing Mountain Range is most magnificent, and in winter the chilled drizzles are poetic.
Surrounded by nature, TESA is an art base stimulating unrestrained thinking and creativity. The building is a 3-storey structure, on the ground floor are a multimedia lab and a saloon of flexible use. On the second floor is an art gallery, and on the third floor is the office of the administrators. On the top of the building is a 360-degree scenic deck, which can be used for small meetings. In addition to the main building, two living quarters, an all-purpose workshop and a carving workshop are standing among the abundant vegetation, in the landscape of indegenous species. It is also ideal for outdoor exhibits.
Danshui House
of Ceramic Art
Danshui House of Ceramic Art is TESA’s ceramic workshop.
Sunlight filters into the House of Ceramic Art through glass windows. The temperature of clay in hands keeps changing as it is kneaded, squeezed, or spread. The heart of the artist throbs with the play of clay in hands.
Creativity is at everyone’s disposal, as long as one is willing to slow down to listen to the voice of one’s self. Danshui House of Ceramic Art is not to teach skills or to help people make works similar to that of the teachers. It is to assist learners to develop their own aesthetics through experience and imagination.
In the House of Ceramic Art, we seek meanings of mutual learning and know better about ourselves through differences.