Taiwan's art scene begins its biennial hoopla today, a week ahead of its capper, the opening of the Taipei Biennial. Events today and tomorrow will include betel-nut girls dancing around a metal pole in front of this nation's president, Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), a mega-exhibition at Huashan involving more than 200 artists, a very in-crowd gallery opening, and, if the art world is true to form, lots of fashionable accents and lots of art stars breezing through.
The Taipei Biennial exhibition starts next Friday at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and will attract curators and critics from all over the world. This weekend's local events aim to capitalize on the exposure Taipei will be getting over the next 10 days or so. The blitz begins tonight at 6pm in front of the National Cultural Foundation (文化總會), located at 15, Sec. 2, Chungching S. Rd. (重慶南路二段15號), near the corner of Nanhai Road (南海路). There one of the largest exhibitions of contemporary art ever seen in Taiwan, CO2: Taiwan Avant-Garde Documenta (台灣前衛文件展), will be opened by President Chen. The ceremony will include a 90 minute performance program, including a number by one local artist that has conflated betel nut girls and strippers into a single entity.
At 7:30pm, a convoy of shuttle busses will ferry viewers to the exhibition, which is being held in two warehouses at the Huashan Arts District (華山藝文特區), located at 1 Pate Rd., Sec. 1, (八德路一段一號). The exhibition should fill every inch of that space. It has enlisted six curators who have chosen works by 47 individual artists and 30 groups. It should, and will, be a circus.
Tomorrow night, a new show will open at IT Park, Taipei's premier gallery for contemporary art. Four artists have collaborated to create a piece called Etat Lab 2002 Project: Middle in the Endless. It should be interesting, having the feel of something between a supercollider and a space station. The gallery opening takes place from 7pm, and it's rumored that Biennial curators and artists will attend.
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