Belonging to the Slope
Beechworth Biennale 2026
This moving image and sound installation emerges from a performance collaboration between Jen Valender and members of the Taiwan Kacalisian Performing Arts Troupe from Taiwan’s Paridrayan village, Paiwan Ravar Tribe. Bringing together a live duet of Paiwan bamboo flutes and Aeolian harps sounded by the wind in Naarm, alongside a workshop documenting the making of Paiwan “nose flutters” (traditional bamboo flutes), the work unfolds as a meditation on sound as an ecological and cultural connective tissue.
The work is centred on the Paiwan kacalisian, “belonging to the slope,” a pan-Indigenous identity for Taiwan informed by the belief their identity is inseparable from the mountain landscape. They are born from and return to it when they pass. The sounds of Taiwanese mountain winds are the voices of ancestors from the past. The harmonics of the lalingedan(Paiwan bamboo flute) mimic and echo these winds. In contrast, the flatter terrain of Naarm produces a softer, more diffuse, wind voice, activated through Valender’s Aeolian harps: sculptural instruments sounded directly by atmospheric conditions. Together, these sonic registers articulate how different landscapes shape distinct modes of listening and expression.
Restaged as a moving image and sound installation at The Chapel, The Grand Oaks, the work creates a contemplative space where spiritual, ecological and cultural resonances are layered rather than resolved. Attentive to breath, wind and vibration, the installation invites audiences to listen across geographies and traditions, and to consider how sound carries memory, belonging and identity. In holding open a shared auditory space, the work proposes listening as a form of temporary community; one carried, quite literally, on the wind.
March 2026
Beechworth Biennale 2026
This moving image and sound installation emerges from a performance collaboration between Jen Valender and members of the Taiwan Kacalisian Performing Arts Troupe from Taiwan’s Paridrayan village, Paiwan Ravar Tribe. Bringing together a live duet of Paiwan bamboo flutes and Aeolian harps sounded by the wind in Naarm, alongside a workshop documenting the making of Paiwan “nose flutters” (traditional bamboo flutes), the work unfolds as a meditation on sound as an ecological and cultural connective tissue.
The work is centred on the Paiwan kacalisian, “belonging to the slope,” a pan-Indigenous identity for Taiwan informed by the belief their identity is inseparable from the mountain landscape. They are born from and return to it when they pass. The sounds of Taiwanese mountain winds are the voices of ancestors from the past. The harmonics of the lalingedan(Paiwan bamboo flute) mimic and echo these winds. In contrast, the flatter terrain of Naarm produces a softer, more diffuse, wind voice, activated through Valender’s Aeolian harps: sculptural instruments sounded directly by atmospheric conditions. Together, these sonic registers articulate how different landscapes shape distinct modes of listening and expression.
Restaged as a moving image and sound installation at The Chapel, The Grand Oaks, the work creates a contemplative space where spiritual, ecological and cultural resonances are layered rather than resolved. Attentive to breath, wind and vibration, the installation invites audiences to listen across geographies and traditions, and to consider how sound carries memory, belonging and identity. In holding open a shared auditory space, the work proposes listening as a form of temporary community; one carried, quite literally, on the wind.
March 2026
Members of Taiwan Kacalisian Performing Arts Troupe
Etan Pavavalung
Zaletj Rupunayan
Sakuliu Mananigai
Dremedreman Talumiling
Sutipau Tjaruzaljum
Sedjam Mananigai
Ancestral leader: Pairang Pavavaljung
Manager: Grace Kuo
The artists gratefully acknowledges MPavilion Parkville and the Museums and Collections team, University of Melbourne, for hosting and supporting the live performance captured in this film, as well as appreciation to Art+Australia and to the collaboration project led by Dr. Chloe Ho for their generosity, dialogue and ongoing support of this work.