2026.06.08
TEA+ Exchange Artists+ Program—Aki YAHATA: Open Studio and Exhibition
Aki YAHATA, an artist participating in “TEA+” program, will hold an open studio and an exhibition at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts to mark the end of her residency.
Date and Time | June 11–14, 2026, 10:00 AM–5:00 PM
Venue | Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taipei)
《熊人內經圖 | Bear-Human Neijingtu》 (2026, Taiwan)
（Trailer）
In this project, I reinterpret the Neijingtu (Chart of the Inner Landscape)*—a traditional Chinese diagram of the body—as a framework for thinking about contemporary ecological relationships between humans and bears. This approach emerged from my sense that changes in the environment and changes within the human body are deeply interconnected.
In the Neijingtu, the human body is depicted as a landscape. In this work, I reimagine the city, the satoyama (the transitional zone between human settlements and the mountains), and the deep mountains inhabited by bears as parts of a single body, reconstructing them as a Bear-Human Neijingtu.
One of the most fascinating aspects of this project has been discovering how East Asian medical thought offers alternative ways of understanding bear behavior. For example, what is often interpreted as increasing bear aggression can instead be viewed as part of a larger process of restoring balance between yin and yang, or as a symptom of imbalance within the mountain ecosystem itself. (There is much more to this interpretation, but I have simplified it here.)
The tapping on the back of the head at the beginning of the video is a traditional practice called Ming Tiangu (“Beating the Heavenly Drum”), which is used in East Asian medicine in relation to kidney deficiency. In this work, it is incorporated through an interpretation that associates bears and deep mountains with the kidney system.
The project also explores ways of translating the Neijingtu into drumming and bear-inspired movement by drawing on the qigong principles and yin-yang / five-element structures embedded within Taiwanese and Chinese lion dance traditions.
(The lion dance traditions referenced here also carry a historical significance: during the Japanese colonial period, when martial arts were restricted, they sometimes functioned as a means of preserving local autonomy and martial practice in Taiwan.) (Aki YAHATA)