Political divisions reflected in new exhibition

The surge in number of abandoned-spaces-turned-galleries across the country has given rise to more and more art exhibitions in recent years. But this has been an increase mostly in quantity, not variety. Exhibitions have differed mostly in terms of scale, as viewers see the same names or the same works and curatorial ideas. Few exhibits stick in the memory.

Aspiring to be one of the major art events in Taiwan in addition to Taipei Biennial, Taiwan Avant-garde Documenta (C02) aims to change all that when it opens on Nov. 23. The non-curatorial event completed registration last Tuesday with nearly 200 applicants. Around 150 applicants are going to have their works shown at one of CO2's four venues.

This large-scale exhibition is the latest attempt by its organizer, the National Culture Association (文化總會), to change the public's perception of it as "the president's cultural stylist," and transform itself into a promoter of culture like the Council for Cultural Affairs and the Taipei City Cultural Bureau.

Established in 1967 as the Chinese Culture Restoration Committee in reaction to China's cultural revolution and chaired by late president Chiang Kai-shek, it used to be more of a political apparatus.

Having restructured and renamed itself as part of a modernizing face lift in 1991, it still did not try to reach out to the general public until recently. One such attempt was the Presidential Culture Award last year, which honored people in fields as diverse as fine art and community building. Another is a program financing aspiring filmmakers.

"The National Culture Association is a civil organization," said Lin Man-li (林曼麗), vice-secretary general of the association and convener of the event. "Now we want to remind people of this fact by interacting with the general public, to let them realize that what the association can do is quite flexible."

Lin's particular background in Taiwan's art scene has provoked great public expectations for this first-time event while her history of political controversy gives this cultural event political overtones.

Lin became director of Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 1996 at the then mayor Chen Shui-bian's invitation. Previously a professor of art, Lin put forward at the early stage of her tenure the "greater museum plan." The previously abandoned former Taipei City Hall building (currently the Museum of Contemporary Art) was renovated to become the second Taipei Fine Arts Museum while plans were made for a third TFAM somewhere on Chungshan N. Road. Lin later launched the Taipei Biennial, whose success significantly raised Taiwan's profile in international fine art.

The establishment in 1998 of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taipei under the then recently-elected mayor Ma Ying-jeou led to disputes over management between Lin and the bureau chief Lung Ying-tai (龍應台). The disagreement between the two about museum policies, including the city government's cancellation of the "greater museum plan," roused much speculation about whether political wrangling was getting in the way of cultural policies. On many occasions, Lin appealed for professionalism, only to see herself forced to resign from TFAM on the eve of the second Taipei Biennial in 2000.

Lin organized CO2 with five other scholars, among them Huang Hai-ming (黃海鳴) and Shih Ruei-ren (石瑞仁). Those closely following local art events have come to see Lin's new brainchild as her comeback on the art scene and a sucker punch to the third Taipei Biennial, slated to begin in the same week.