I had a chance to chat with art critic/curator Jason Chia-chi Wang (
Wang's passion really comes out when he talks about one of his favorite subjects: Chinese ink painting.
Taipei Times: You recently curated the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of art this summer, and for architecture the year before (in Venice), plus you were the co-curator for the Taipei Biennial 2002 and now have this exhibition at MOCA. What is in your future?
Jason Chia-chi Wang: Since I've done all the major exhibitions recently, the next ones will probably be two or three years from now.
TT: You work independently as a curator rather than being affiliated with an institution?
JW: Yes. When they were establishing MOCA, I was the in-house curator. So I got this certificate that they gave me. It was number one. But I didn't stay. I stayed for three months. I put on the first exhibition and decided to leave. They wanted me to punch a time card: I said "No way." (Laughs.)
TT: So, basically you're a freelancer at heart?
JW: Definitely, I am a free spirit.
TT: How do you first conceive of an exhibition? Do you come up with the idea first, or think about the space and the funding?
JW: I think both. As a freelancer, I have to work with every gallery and institution and have to know how to work with them, in terms of the human relationships and support that they can give and the criteria they set up in advance.
TT: So each time it's different?
JW: Yes, each situation has a different structure. There are usually difficulties in terms of space and funding. Working with museums is easier as you usually don't have to worry too much about money.
TT: What's most important for you?
JW: The kind of space, the budget and what can work together -- a mixture of everything.
TT: What is your educational background?
JW: I did my undergrad in English literature at Fujen University. Then my first MA in Chinese art history. I mostly studied traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. I went to UC Berkeley for Asian Studies with a focus on Chinese art history. I returned and worked in a publishing company for seven years.
TT: How did you get into contemporary art?
JW: I started hanging out with artists and realized this is fun and this could be a career. By making friends with artists I knew what was in their lives, their work and what is in their thinking. I became most familiar with Hanart Gallery as they featured the "Chinese-ness" of art, and then I expanded over the years, especially after 1996, with the fever of curatorship. It was a very new idea in Taiwan, curatorship without the museum, without the institution.
TT: When was your first exhibition?
JW: In The Edge of Tradition at Dimension Art Endowment it was about Chinese ink painting. I am still very concerned about the development of contemporary ink painting and how one can inherit tradition and go a new way to be contemporary.
TT: Would you say the turning point in your curating career was the 2002 Taipei Biennial co-curated with Bartomeu Mari that helped put you on the international stage, as now you can get big artists to participate in your exhibitions?
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