The fourth international Taipei Biennial, held at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), closes Jan. 23 and has already become noteworthy for provocative work by well-known and emerging artists, as well as for the conflict that emerged between its curators.
Additionally, discussions arose about other problematic issues inherent in the exhibition's structure, such as not commissioning new works, its mediocre budget and its tight time schedule.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUSAN KENDZULAK
Why does the Taipei Biennial hold such global importance and carry such prestige? Isn't it just about pictures hanging on a wall in a museum? Why does it receive so much press locally and internationally? Why do people in the field get so impassioned over it?
This type of major art exhibition, held every two years, comes from the tradition of the 19th-century's fairs, which were aimed at promoting the advancement of the host country's technologies and achievements. The Venice Biennale is the granddaddy of them all, having started in 1895. Art biennials raise a city's profile, thus explaining the mushrooming of biennials around the world: Shanghai, Havana and Istanbul to name a few. Next year one begins in Luanda, Angola.
Non-Western countries are catching on to this strategy of bringing in big-name curators and famous artists to mingle with the local ones because it gives cachet to the local scene. International press coverage links the famous artists with the local artists, thus giving a huge jumpstart to the local artists' careers.
Biennials also help to strengthen the infrastructure of the local cultural situation by creating more chances for publications and press coverage and reinforcing the various professions of artists, curators, critics and arts administrators.
In Taiwan, the profession of contemporary art is fairly new. When the TFAM opened at the end of 1983, it was the first contemporary art museum in Taiwan and one of the pioneers of contemporary art in Asia.
Lin Mun-lee (
Lin said that choosing the curators for the Biennial is a lot like matchmaking. The past three Biennials saw a kind of mentoring program between an experienced European curator and an emerging Taiwanese one. Yet, this time, it backfired, with no dialogue occurring.
"It's not that the formula is wrong, it's how it is done. How do you use the formula to make it work?" Lin said.
However, she believes the current direction of the Biennial is closing in on itself rather than opening up to the world as she originally envisioned.
The museum also plays a critical role between the foreign and local curators. Lin said it is the responsibility of the museum to consider how the combination of curators would work and that the museum doesn't have a system to analyze and improve the biennial.
Two of the artists in the exhibition agree. Lin Hongjohn (林宏璋) and Chen Chieh-ren (陳界仁) are compiling signatures from artists, critics, scholars and arts administrators to petition the Council of Cultural Affairs and Taipei's Cultural Affairs Bureau to ask for an overhaul of the Biennial.
They are asking for curators to be chosen at least a year before the exhibition opens, not five months beforehand, as was the case this year.
Second, they want the funding to be increased so that more artists can travel and that new artworks can be made. The budget for this year's Taipei Biennial was approximately NT$20 million, much less than other Biennials. And third, they are asking for a special Biennial department that works independently of the museum.
And as Lin stated the "Taipei Biennial represents Taiwan so the government should be more supportive, and not just the city government, but the central one too."
As Taiwan's cultural institutions are run by the government, the future of the Biennial is unfortunately not in the hands of the people who are trained in and are passionate about the arts, but rather in the hands of policymakers.
Exhibition notes
Taipei Fine Arts Museum,181, Zhongshan N Rd, Sec 3, Taipei
Telephone: (02) 2595 7656 or go to http://www.tfam.gov.tw
When: Until Jan. 23. Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30am to 5:30pm, closed Monday.
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