Macuga, who always works in collaboration with others, is showing with a group of Polish artists called the Foksal Foundation at the Gwangju Biennale in Korea, and has plans to build a small wooden house within a dark space at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
She explains that there will be a light shining out from one of the house's windows giving the impression, in her words, of, "a magical story-book setting." The house can be entered, and a crucial part of this proposed artwork is the active involvement of a number of local Taiwanese artists who will fill it with their art work. Macuga hopes that these artists will bring to the house distinctive elements of Taiwanese culture and creativity.
In both our artists cases,the very act of making the work from material made or found in Taiwan will give the works a Taiwanese flavor, and the fact that the artists will also have a chance to digest Taiwan's rich cultural scene will inform the works still further. After only a few weeks in Taiwan, Young has already spoken of the impressive exhibitions and performances she has enjoyed in Taipei and of the rich temple culture in Tainan, which she senses reveals the "skin-like religious certainty" of the Taiwanese.
I am very confident that given the innate inquisitiveness of our two artists, the superior nature of their accommodation and the support mechanism provided by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum combined with Macuga's and Young's natural talent for invention, the problem of how to make the exhibition dance and sing will be solved.
We, and that includes our two artists, won't know exactly how until May 11th, but you have to leave the door open to an element of risk, that's why art's so exciting.
London Underground opens to the public on May 12 and runs through until June 7.
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