IsLand Bar was originally developed in 2017 by the Artists’ Lab in ADAM – Asia Discover Asia Meeting for Contemporary Performance. The next year, Taipei Performing Arts Centre (TPAC), the organisation behind ADAM, commissioned a full version presented during Taipei Arts Festival 2018, led by Chikara Fujiwara, Lee Ming-Chen, and Scarlet Yu Mei.
A second Taiwanese version was put together by Taipei Arts Festival in 2019, exploring a different format under the leadership of Huang Ding Yun and Henry Tan. That same year, orangconsong collaborated with a few artists from China and Asia for a one-off evening hosted by Rockbund Museum in Shanghai under the title IsLand Bar Shanghai – The Butterfly Dream.
In collaboration with orangcosong, TPAC commissioned a third version for YPAM – Yohohama Performing Arts Meeting‘s fringe programme in February 2020, under the title IsLand Bar (Yokohama) – Port Undersea, before the project was mothballed because Covid—but not forgotten.
An invitation by Spring Festival in Utrecht to reboot the project received the strong support of the Asia Europe Foundation through its Asia-Europe Cultural Festival framework and The Saison Foundation, leading to the European version of IsLand Bar. Under the artistic direction of orangcosong, seven migrant artists from Asia living in Europe explore stories of displacement and of floating cultural heritages, connecting personal experiences to themes of identity and family.
Over the next few years, the performance will evolve and integrate new voices—and new cocktails—in partnership with presenters willing to feature local artists, keeping IsLand Bar alive and relevant.
Artistic Direction
orangcosong
Artists & Performers
Chikara Fujiwara (Yokohama)
Eddie Hara (Basel)
Eva Lou (Amsterdam)
Minori Sumiyoshiyama (Yokohama)
Pepe Dayaw (Berlin)
Rino Daidoji (Cesena)
Scarlet Yu (Berlin)
Serene Hui (Den Haag)
Tam Thi Pham (Hamburg)
Drinks Consultant
Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro (Buck & Breck, Berlin / DE)
Producers
Iris Chan (Hong Kong) & Stéphane Noël (Hong Kong) / Materialise Limited
Communication Manager
Wendy Leung (Hong Kong)
With a big thank you to Yoveza Wong (Hong Kong) …
IsLand Bar (2026) is a coproduction of Spring Festival (Utrecht / NL), orangcosong (Yokohama / JP) and Materialise (Hong Kong).
The project is supported by the Asia-Europe Cultural Festival (AECFest) – Residency Programme 2025, organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).
The project is supported by The Saison Foundation (Tokyo / JP).
IsLand Bar is an open-source project by Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC), first initiated as an experiment in ADAM (Asia Discovers Asia Meeting for Contemporary Performance) 2017, and commissioned in Taipei Arts Festival 2018 led by principal artists Scarlet Yu (HK/DE), Chikara Fujiwara (JP) and Lee Ming-Chen (TW).
orangcosong is an art collective led by Minori Sumiyoshiyama and Chikara Fujiwara, based in Yokohama / Osaka / Kochi (Japan) and active across different cities worldwide. Drawing from their background in the performing arts and their travels, they develop projects that explore themes of human mobility and gravity, often connecting multiple works and contexts. Their practice is characterised by long-term, site-based research and by creating interactive formats that incorporate elements of games, inviting audiences into forms of dialogue and participation. The name “orangcosong” comes from the Indonesian words orang (person) and kosong (empty).
In addition to IsLand Bar, their projects include Engeki Quest, a city-based tour guided by an Adventure Book; Hitsudankai – From now/here, Silence, a performance and workshop based entirely on silence and written communication; the video works Stay Home Labyrinth, an imagined journey created during quarantine, and Maya/Dolores, inspired by a cat in Cyprus; the app-based projects Shuki-Shuki Juicy, exploring 150 years of history in Yokohama’s Chinatown, and Diários à Deriva, embedding fragments of diaries across Macau; and Forbidden Play, an improvised performance and workshop based on AI-generated texts.
Materialise is a Hong Kong-based performing arts production company founded in 2018 with the objective of contributing to Asia’s artistic landscape by providing agency, consulting, curating and production services to regional artists and presenters, and by facilitating the intercontinental circulation of projects, aesthetics, and ideas.
Under the artistic and executive direction of Stéphane Noël, a former advisor and long time member of IETM, Materialise has sought to foster exchanges between Asia and Europe, particularly by supporting the development, production and distribution of Asian artists, but also through international platforms for national cultural institutions such as Pro Helvetia (CH), The Saison Foundation (JP), Korea Arts Management Services (KR), National Arts Council (SG), and the National Culture and Arts Foundation (TW).