“Tropic of Cancer” by Karolina Breguła at the Inaugural Exhibition of the Taichung Art Museum

The film “Tropic of Cancer” by Karolina Breguła is presented at the inaugural exhibition of the newly opened Taichung Art Museum in Taiwan. The work by the Polish artist and filmmaker has been included in the international program of the exhibition “A Call of All Beings”, which opened on 13 December 2025 and will be available to the public until 12 April 2026. Adam Mickiewicz Institute is a partner of the short film. 

Inaugural exhibition of Taichung Art Museum – “A Call of All Beings: See You Tomorrow, Same Time, Same Place”

Taichung Art Museum opens with the inaugural exhibition “A Call of All Beings (萬物的邀約): See You Tomorrow, Same Time, Same Place”. The curatorial team consists of Taiwanese curator Ling-Chih Chow, American curator Alaine Claire Feldman, and Romanian–Korean curator Anca Mihuleţ-Kim. The exhibition can be viewed from 13 December 2025 to 12 April 2026 in Taichung, Taiwan.

The new contemporary art museum is situated within the landscape of Taichung Central Park. This area, formerly occupied by a military base and the Shuinan Airport, has been transformed into a metropolitan green space. Drawing on the history and dynamics of this changing site, the inaugural exhibition examines both visible and invisible correlations between humans, animals, and plants, as well as their constantly transforming environments. It reflects on forms of coexistence that transcend the boundaries between natural and urban worlds.

Contemporary art in Taiwan – the human–nature relationship in “A Call of All Beings”

“A Call of All Beings” seeks observation and reflection across multiple scales, proposing a renewed view of art as a tool for sharpening perception and opening up new ways of understanding – ways that can accommodate richer and more expansive stories that are still waiting to be told. The subtitle “See You Tomorrow, Same Time, Same Place” is a promise of the museum as a host and guardian of memory, and at the same time a gesture towards a future based on shared responsibility. 

The exhibition “A Call of All Beings” is an invitation to a shared encounter and collective reflection, in which artists, audiences, and the narratives of human and non-human beings – from different times and places – can meet and permeate. The exhibition encourages the exploration of multilayered relationships between humans and the environment through themes such as the histories of flora and fauna, fairy tales and mythologies, migration and movement, as well as language and storytelling. It also examines tensions between the body and the perception of space, along with the resilience of wildness and the agency that persists within systems of power and domestication. These issues unfold across five interconnected thematic sections. Beyond the gallery spaces, some works extend into the public realm, entering into dialogue with their surroundings. These works challenge the boundaries between public and private, wild and domesticated, weaving the exhibition’s themes into the fabric of everyday life.

“Tropic of Cancer” – a work by a Polish artist as a part of the program of an international exhibition in Taichung

The exhibition “A Call of All Beings” also features a work by a Polish artist. Karolina Breguła presents her latest short film “Tropic of Cancer” in Taiwan. The film tells the story of three sisters living in a small seaside village. Their home – shared with snails, crabs, and other wandering creatures – stands low by the shoreline and has already been flooded by the sea in the past. Now, however, time is about to begin flowing backward. A returning surveyor constantly warns the sisters about the coming reversal of time. As time begins to disintegrate, the protagonists realize that water will return along with it. They begin to prepare, while military aircraft, resembling bats, fly overhead. Water, animals, plants, and objects washed ashore by the waves coexist in a state of anticipation – waiting for the transformation that the returning sea will bring.

Karolina Breguła is a visual artist and film director working between Poland and Taiwan. She creates stories about art, architecture, and urban spaces, which serve as fields for her anthropological and sociological observations. She is interested in narrative – the role of retelling memory, the constructive and destructive impact of fiction, and the healing as well as destructive power of imagination.

“Tropic of Cancer” by Karolina Breguła: a film about time, water, and coexistence

• Screenplay, direction, and editing: Karolina Breguła

• Cast: Tsai An Chi, Tsai Me Xin, Tsai Me Fang, Tsai Yi Lun, Tsai Mao Fa, Yang Shu Chuan, Lee Wen Hsien, Tsai Qing

• Sound design: Weronika Raźna

• On-set sound recording: Nigel Brown

• Production: Liao Hsiu Hui, Tien Zong Yuan, Huang Ting Yu

• Local coordination: Wu Chia Chun

• Set design: Tsai Wen-Chang, Liao Hsiu Hui, Tien Zong Yuan, Huang Ting Yu

• Color grading: Robert Mleczko

• Visual effects: Konrad Wujciów

• Partners: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Fotoaura – Institute of Photography, Fotoaura Light Gallery, Your Bros. Filmmaking Group

• Commissioned by: Taichung Art Museum

• Year of production: 2025

• Running time: 37 minutes