With the 51st Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition set to begin next month, a small group of young Taiwanese are busy packing for the festival, not as participating artists, but as judges for a "Taiwan Award" to be given to works they judge the best from a Taiwanese perspective.
The "Taiwan Award Goes to Venice Biennale" program, which was proposed by five fine arts graduate students and won the support of the National Cultural Association, is a work of conceptual art meant to give an alternative art critique from a Taiwanese point of view.
"Taiwan's culture and art have always been examined or interpreted by international festivals based on Western aesthetics. The idea of selecting what we think are the best works of art is a wonderful way to insert Taiwan's cultural perspectives in the international arts scene," said the association's secretary-general, Chen Yu-chiou (
Chen will lead the program participants to Italy next month.
According to Chen, the arts scene in Taiwan has long been passive. In seeking attention and approval from the Western world, Taiwan's artists can lose the ability to reflect Taiwan's unique cultural heritage in their works.
"I think this program offers an opportunity for us to promote Eastern aesthetics. It is also a chance for us to think about our own history and culture, and show the world Taiwan's perspective," said Chen, a former culture minister.
One of the "Taiwan Award," program's initiator's, Ho Shih (
"So this award is a critique of the power and a reversal of the power structure in the arts scene," said Ho, who is a fine arts graduate student at Taipei National University of the Arts.
Ho and four other graduate students at the university first created the "award" in 2001, when they gave their own "2001 New Artist Award" in an exhibition at the university.
This was followed by the "Taipei Biennale Award," which the students gave to an artist whose work failed to enter the "2002 Taipei Biennale Exhibition."
The group's latest idea of bringing the award to Venice has received enthusiastic support not only from the association, but also from artists and social groups.
Internationally-acclaimed filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) and art professors including Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) and Lin Ku-fang (林谷芳) will travel to Venice with the group as judges for the award.
All the costs of the trip to Venice are fully financed by donations from social groups and non-profit organizations.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all