Project / Keelung Ciao Art Festival: A Day by the Sea, 2020
Installation / The Dream of the Sea Dragon Palace
Exhibition Period / September 25 – October 11, 2020
Location / Keelung, Taiwan
Venues / Zhengbin Fishing Port, Agenna Shipyard, Military Dependents’ Village
Curator / Chen Yan-an
Organizer / Keelung City Government, Keelung City Cultural Affairs Bureau
Supervisor / Ministry of Culture
Concept & Design / AMCP Studio

Created for the 2020 Keelung Ciao Art Festival, The Dream of the Sea Dragon Palace transformed an old fishing boat into a dreamlike installation inspired by the mythical underwater palace of the Dragon King.

The project began with field research at Keelung Harbor, where AMCP Studio interviewed Indonesian fishermen working on local fishing boats. Many of them spent long hours and days at sea in extremely confined cabins, often under difficult working conditions and for very low wages. For some, the brief moments after returning to land — singing songs from home and drinking together with fellow fishermen — became rare occasions of joy, release, and belonging.

AMCP Studio invited several fishermen to sing their favorite hometown songs and recorded their voices as part of the installation. Played inside the captain’s cabin, the songs filled the small interior with memory, distance, and longing, transforming the boat into an intimate listening space.

Through neon light, reflective surfaces, recorded sound, and the existing structure of the fishing boat, the installation brought the hidden lives of migrant fishermen into public view. Rather than presenting the sea only as a place of industry or romance, The Dream of the Sea Dragon Palace reflected the layered realities of maritime labor — between migration and survival, homesickness and companionship, hardship and fleeting moments of rest.