A vigorously cynical look at the world and its social realities marks the fourth Taipei Biennial that opens today with works from a roster of 40 well-known international artists and some thoughtful pieces from local talents.
Highlights of the biennial, which is called, Do Your Believe in Reality? are projects from pioneering artists such as Yoko Ono, Martha Rosler and Rem Koolhass. The work of Agnes Varda is highly regarded and her film that paints a picture of capitalism's downside is one of the main themes of the event. Young filmmakers and artists include Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Steve McQueen, Anri Sala and Heri Dono.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES:
At the press premier yesterday held at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum on Zhongshan North Road, electricians were monitoring video screens that were part of the exhibition, pictures were being framed on the wall and artists were overseeing the installation of works.
In the entrance to the museum, large sections of what appeared to be balsa-and-paper aeroplane fuselage were being wired to the ceiling, where they provided a screen to project moving images of children burrowing around in garbage tips and communities being ripped apart by the bulldozer, questioning notions of social progress.
The artists, one Taiwanese (Chen Chieh-jen,
One of the two curators of the biennial, Barbara Vanderlinden from Belgium, said yesterday the selection of artworks was based on providing an analysis of the world we live in. She said the artists were generally commenting on their social environments.
"Conceive of the artist as a citizen and the museum as a platform," Vanderlinden said in her opening address yesterday. The other curator is Amy Cheng, who lives in Canada and Taiwan and is a well-known art critic.
Hongjohn Lin (
"We [the artists] all seem to be on the same track. The subject matter of the biennial has really been tied up. It is, first, about art in the social domain. Second, it is about how fantastic art reflects on reality."
Lin added that another of the big themes of the biennial was that of the competing forces of globalization and localization. "With this attitude of social reality, we somehow take on local matter and make it much better. We must show things for what they really are."
In his opening remarks the city commissioner of cultural affairs Liao Hsien-hao (
"How do we stay local without being globalized? How do we adapt, yet keep hold of our principal values? These are themes worth exploring," Liao said, adding the biennial was also a good opportunity for the country to show off its cultural development.
"The city of Taipei is Taiwan's window on the world and its biennial is the way that this city showcases itself culturally."
What: Do Your Believe in Reality?
Where: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 181 Zhongshan N R, Sec 3, Taipei (
Admission: NT$30 or less
From: 9:30am to 5:30pm, until Jan.23, 2005
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