Tsai Ming-liang's Withering Flower consists of three parts: a bronze statue of Chiang Kei-shek transplanted from Taipei to a bunker. The statue stands at the lookout point facing the same direction as guns did for years: towards China. Withering Flower's second component will be three performances during the opening ceremonies based on a short story by Chang Ai-lin in which a young girl withers in suffering (alluded to in the poem above). Along with a selection of stage props on view, recordings of the performances will be projected for the duration of BMoCA. The third component will be a screening of an excerpt from Tsai's famous film The River, in which a father and son have sex in a bathhouse unwittingly.

Born in 1957 in Malaysia, after graduating from Department of Film and Drama from the Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Tsai Ming-liang launched a versatile artistic career. TsaiÌs debut film, The Rebel of Neon God, won the Bronze Sakura Medal for Young Directors at the Tokyo International Film Festival, the first of many directorial awards. Other awards include the International Venice Film FestivalÌs Golden Lion Award for Vive l'Amour; the Silver Berlin Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for The River; the International Cannes Film Festival film criticÌs Fipresci Award for The Hole, and an award at the International Venice Film Festival for Goodbye, Dragon Inn. Tsai, whose films often depict the slow pace of ordinary lives to reflect the gaze of history upon us, was recently awarded the French Medal of Knighthood for Literature and Art.