If the Taipei Biennial ever had a political goal, it was the amicable diplomacy of art.
But this year the brand of cross-strait bickering usually reserved for government officials has intruded on an exhibition that since 1998 has put the Taipei Fine Arts Museum on contemporary art's international map.
The 2002 Taipei Biennial, curated by Bartomeu Mari of Spain and Taiwan's Jason Wang (
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The opening, held last night, attracted critics and curators from Lyons to Beijing, who had all come to see an exhibition conscientiously designed around artifice, spectacle and the spaces in which people live and act. Its theme is "Great Theater of the World."
The behind-the-scenes intrigue comes from the dark world of politics.
The drama began in March at Brazil's Sao Paulo Biennial, where the Chinese government put pressure on organizers to remove the word "Taiwan" from Taiwan's national pavilion, making it the only one of around 70 national pavilions not designated by a country. The pavilion's entrance merely read "Taipei Fine Arts Museum."
In response, Taiwan's representative artist, Chang Chien-chi (
Chang, a photographer devoted to social issues that are more or less borderless, is not part of this year's biennial, but Wang Gong-hsin (
Word of Wang's presence broke yesterday in a Chinese-language newspaper, which raised the question of his involvement in the Sao Paulo incident.
Museum officials, Wang and the art world in general, denounced the allegation as ridiculous.
Wang, in fact, called the article "amusing," but refused to enter into any debate, saying that as an artist it was more suitable to remain in the province of art.
Taiwanese sources also defended Wang.
The co-curator of the 2000 Taipei Biennial, Manray Hsu (許文瑞), who was also in Sao Paulo, said of the censorship incident, "It had more to do with the [Chinese] government. They were the source of the pressure."
Museum director Huang Tsai-lang (
Even the beleaguered Chang said, "There's no proof of Wang's involvement."
Though the buzz of controversy was still building at last night's opening ceremony, but visiting artists were not impressed.
"The reason we have these exhibitions is to move away from these stupid boundaries and limitations," said Edwin Zwakman, an artist from the Netherlands.
"This is not a propaganda game for governments," he said.
For more information on the art work in the 2002 Biennial, see tomorrow's features page.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by