When thinking of international art centers, cities such as Berlin and New York may first come to mind. Well, it's about time to add Taipei to that list. Last week the Taipei Fine Arts Museum held a press conference at a yoga center to announce the theme and curators for the 2006 Taipei Biennial, scheduled for November.
The Taipei Biennial is important as it is one of the few international links for Taiwan. The yoga center was chosen as a place that focuses on integrating the mind with spirit -- which is the Biennial's theme, namely "Between-ness."
The two curators are artist Wang Jun-jieh (
PHOTOS COURTESY OF IT PARK
Between-ness will feature artists from around the world, whose work will relate to life in a rapidly globalizing world that is intent on satisfying desire while confronting fears of loss, such as aging. The exhibition will explore the contemporary trends of globalization to find out exactly what we desire and fear and address the ambiguity of modern life. The Museum will try to be an artistic space and a real space,
simultaneously.
There are currently two small-scale exhibitions on view which are laid out like individual thoughts. Scott Prairie's A Dangerous Display is on view at the Chi-Wen Gallery (formerly Taipei MOMA).
Prairie, who is known locally for his musical collaborations and performances with his partner Mia Hsieh (
Black painted lines and cartoons scribbled on the walls allow the viewer to follow the train of the artist's thoughts. The work has the raw energy of a punk, but also has the contemplative air of reading someone's private diary.
Prairie will also conduct workshops called "Painting as a Process of Self Exploration." These will be held on Sundays: Feb. 12 to Mar. 5. For further information visit www.amovingsound.com.
At IT Park, the entertaining performative videos of Tsui Kuang-yu (
Tsui's humorous videos transcend language and since he showed his work at the Venice Biennale last summer his work is beginning to get international attention. His interest in science and especially mimicry is one of his themes.
For the new city series, he reconfigures public spaces and daily events into sporting ones. Tsui bowls at a flock of pigeons, waves a checkered flag at cars in traffic, and rappels down a mound of trash. The videos are amusing, making the viewer rethink how we can utilize the city space.
The first room of the exhibition space shows Tsui's thoughts on globalization. Polaroid shots of the artist standing in front of transnational corporations are taped to maps painted on the walls. However, by not offering anything deeper or insightful regarding globalization, it ends up reading like a transitional work that is not yet fully explored.
Art Notes:
What: `A Dangerous Display' by Scott Prairie
Where: Chi-Wen Gallery (formerly known as Taipei MOMA)
Address: 3F, 19, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd, Sec 1, Taipei
(台北市大安區敦化南路一段252巷19號3樓)
Tel: (02) 8771 3372
When: Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 7pm, until Feb. 11
What: Tsui Kuang-yu's `The Shortcut to the Systematic Life: City Spirits'
Where: IT Park, 2/3F, 41, Yitong St, Taipei, Taiwan
(台北市伊通街41號2-3樓)
Tel: (02) 2507 7243
When: Tuesday to Saturday, 1pm to 10pm, until Jan. 28
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would