Welcome Back to the Horizon

歡迎回到海平線

2026

Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei ( MoCA Taipei )  台北當代藝術館

I had a dream: an octopus was at the far edge of the coastline.
This work is a sculptural installation presented as an essay film that merges reality and dreamscapes. It explores the symbiotic relationship between the protagonist and the octopus from my dream. The octopus's eight tentacles can operate independently and have their own memory. When necessary, they can also detach to survive.
I drew on a dream I once had at the ruins of a forestry station in the mountains as an index, responding to the traumas rooted in the historical memory of the forestry industry, those buried by landslides, and the pains that have been forgotten or abandoned but still had to be endured. Using the octopus as a metaphor, the tentacles emerging from the tree trunks represent the grafting of memory, continuously coiling, fracturing, and seeking a place to ground themselves.
For those who have never left the mountains, who does the coastal image truly belong to?
In a state of dissociative amnesia caused by intense pressure, others' memories are confused with personal experiences. As memories become tangled, language is lost, fragmented, and reorganized. The linear flow of memory, the horizon from the mountain top, and the coastline in the dream—later, I will take you down the mountain and back to the sea horizon.

我做了一個夢，在海岸線的那端有一隻章魚。

此作是現實與夢境相融而成的散文電影雕塑裝置，主角與夢中出現之章魚的相生。

章魚的八隻觸手能獨立運作與記憶，必要時，也能斷手求生。

在藝術家過往於深山林業工作站遺址時所做之夢為索引，回應林業歷史記憶中的傷痛 —— 那些在開發之中被土石掩埋的，被遺忘、遺棄的，以及不得不承受的痛苦。這些殘留不只屬於過去，而是人類世持續運作的痕跡，地景與敘事被改寫，遺失之物，仍在時間之中緩慢滲出。

以夢裡的章魚作為隱寓，從樹身中長出的章魚腳，是記憶的接肢，不斷盤繞，斷裂，尋找著地之所。也或許那不是夢，而是一段無法被辨認來源的記憶。這種混合的接肢，構成一種克蘇魯式的身體，指向更深層的不安，使得原本潛伏於深層時間、記憶與不可知之域的存在，從虛幻開始滲入現實。於是，接肢不再只是對創傷的回應，更是一種無意識中完成的召喚。

從未下山的人，那海岸線的畫面究竟是屬於誰的。在巨大壓力之下的解離性失憶，將他人的記憶誤讀為自身的經驗；在多重記憶纏繞下、語言的遺失、分裂與重組。經驗從意識中被割離，成為難以辨認來源的片段。當這些碎片再次浮現，語言失去穩定的指涉，情感與表述之間逐漸產生落差。記憶再次被讀取時，所接收到的已不再是完整的過去，而是殘缺而扭曲的訊號。

記憶的線性、山頂望下的水平線、夢中的海岸線；之後，帶你下山，回到海平線。

圖片提供 Photo：台北當代藝術館 MoCA TAIPEI／攝影：ANPIS FOTO王世邦

Realistic Fiction and Dissociative Memory
→ When memory is extracted into a vacuum, heterogeneous memories seep in and fill the void.
Tsai Yu-Ting uses dreams as a portal, blending personal experience and historical trauma into a mnemonic structure that swings between reality and fiction. The octopus imagery symbolizes the fragmentation and renewal of memory, allowing others' experiences to infiltrate the self, creating a perceptual state in which the origins of memory become unstable and unidentifiable. In this condition, memory cannot stand on its own; once it is displaced, residues of history and dream-like images seep in to fill the void. It is precisely through this process of substitution that memory becomes continually distorted and misinterpreted. As individuals attempt to extract memory and place it into a vacuum, they simultaneously lose the grounding of their own experiences, resulting in a dissociative dilemma that remains both unconfirmed and unresolved.

真實虛構與解離性記憶
→ 當記憶被抽離為真空，異質記憶隨之滲入並填補其間
蔡昱廷以夢境為入口，將個人經驗與歷史創傷交織為一種游移於真實與虛構之間的記憶結構。作品中章魚的意象指向記憶的分裂與再生，使他者的經驗滲入自身，形成無法穩定辨識來源的感知狀態。在此，記憶無法單獨成立，當其被抽離之際，歷史殘影與夢境影像隨之滲入並填補其間。然而正是在這種交替之中，記憶也不斷被扭曲與錯認，使個體在試圖將記憶抽離並置入一種真空狀態之際，卻同時失去自身經驗的支點。停留在既無法確認、亦無法抽離的解離性困境之中。

《歡迎回到海平線》
聲音設計：黃詠仁
旁白配音：許淨凱
動畫協助：周永航

《接肢》
贊助：騰設創意工作室
模型協作：磨學毅
特別感謝：楊健生、吳安順、李易修、柯國騰