...TAIPEI BIENNIAL 2008...

2008 TAIPEI BIENNIAL   
9.13.2008 1.4.2009                       
 
Organized by   Taipei Fine Arts Museum of Taiwan 
Preview  11 & 12 September, 2008   
Curators Vasif Kortun, Manray Hsu 
www.taipeibiennial.org 





Concept for 2008 Taipei Biennial
 
The 6th Taipei Biennial, like our lives, is uncertain, fragmented and fragile. The
project does not have a single theme, but a constellation of correlated themes, most of
which address the chaotic states of things in this time of globalization. The exhibition
engages with the city of Taipei in various ways. It does not only take place in the
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, but also exists in a range of urban spaces. There will be
performative works and interventions in the city, some of which will be documented
and reconfigured in the exhibition venues. These venues will include the Beer
Brewery, a site that has been through an extended process of transformation from its
inauguration as Taiwan's first beer factory (a production and distribution site built
during the Japanese occupation), to a state monopoly that involved privatization and
re-branding and finally to its relocation outside of the city center. While the factory's
history can be read as a classic example of shifting states of use in any
post-industrialized city in the world, the exhibition is interested in seeking the
nuances and specificities found within the general. The brewery's daily operation will
continue during the exhibition run, and its space will be utilized as a real place rather
than an insular exhibition zone. In addition, the curators plan to employ a number of
advertising boards in the city, spreading the biennial throughout different
neighborhoods and bringing the project into view when least expected.

The biennial does not only refer to the physical site of the museum, where the art of
the day turns to and reflects on, but also to other spaces, mental sites where
discussions pertaining to globalization and its discontents, the states of things and the
opportunities of change are at the core of daily life. It is here that the impacts and
import of globalization in Taipei, the transformations that effect the mobility of people
and the current conditions of labor are felt, and it is these spaces that artists learn from,
feed-back into and to which their practice responds to. While art does not provide
answers, it has the capacity to reflect on these issues from multiple angles, to work
with different forms of enquiry and determine when to focus on individual moments.
As with the approach of the biennial, no story is infinitely singular. A story in Taipei
for example will link to many other places in Asia and the globe. Hence, the
exhibition focuses on issues such as globalization and its resistances, the neo-liberal
habitat, mobility, borders, divided states and micro-nations, urban transformations,
informal economies, politics, and conditions of war. Each area of focus is associated
with many other questions, for example, the mobility of a tourist, a temporary worker
or a foreign bride are certainly not the same, not even similar. Towards this end, the
biennial has been commissioning as many new works as possible, or asking the artists
to rethink and adapt previous projects in the light of their presentation in Taipei. There
will also be existing works juxtaposed against the new ones. The exhibition will have
thematic compilations and farcical and biting videos. By means of these projects the
curators and artists will explore the diverse opportunities that this biennial is capable
of creating and responding to.
 



List of the Participating Artists

Lara Almarcegui Netherlands)
Yochai Avrahami (Israel)
Matei Bejenaru (Romania)
Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkacova Romania)
Democracia (Spain)
Didier Fuiza Faustino (Portugal)
Mieke Gerritzen (Netherlands)
Shaun Gladwell (Australia)
Nicoline van Harskamp (Netherlands)
Oliver Ressler (Austria) & Zanny Beggs (Australia)
Mario Rizzi (Italy)
Katya Sander (Denmark)
Saso Sedlacek (Slovenia)
Superflex (Denmark)
Bert Theis (Italy)
Nasan Tur (Germany)
Wong Hoy-cheong (Malaysia)
Ziad Antar (Lebanon)
Nevin Aladag (Germany)
Lene Berg (Norway)
Roderick Buchanan (Scotland)
Che Onejoon (Korea)
Burak Delier (Turkey)
Internacional Errorista (Argentina)
Minja Gu (Korea)
Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) (USA)
Irwin (Slovenia)
Liu Wei (China)
Christodoulos Panayiotou (Cyprus)
Saso˘ Sedlaček (Slovenia)
Kuang-yu Tsui (Taiwan)
Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas (Lithuania)
Mali Wu (Taiwan)
Jun Yang (Austria)
The Yes Men (USA)
Yu Cheng-Ta (Taiwan)
RTMark (USA)
Zanny Begg (Australia)
Bernadette Corporation (France, USA, Germany)
Chris DeLaurenti (USA)
Noel Douglas (Great Britain)
John Jordan / Rebel Clown Army (Great Britain)
Oliver Ressler (Austria)
Allan Sekula (USA)
Gregory Sholette (USA)
Nuria Vila & Marcelo Expósito (Spain)
Dmitry Vilensky (Russia)


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a small museum and a large library of contemporary art




PARKETT ART : Parkett is published in direct collaboration with important international artists, whose oeuvre is explored in several essays by leading writers and critics. Each artist also creates a special signed and numbered edition exclusive to Parkett, which may take any form, from unique works of art to prints and multiples.

COLOUR (Documents of Contemporary Art) : Whether it is scooped up off the palette, deployed as propaganda, or opens the doors of perception, color is central to art not only as an element but as an idea. This unique anthology reflects on the aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical meaning of color through the writings of artists and critics, placed within the broader context of anthropology, film, philosophy, literature, and science. Those who loathe color have had as much to say as those who love it. This chronology of writings from Baudelaire to Baudrillard traces how artists have affirmed color as a space of pure sensation, embraced it as a tool of revolution or denounced it as decorative and even decadent. It establishes color as a central theme in the story of modern and contemporary art and provides a fascinating handbook to the definitions and debates around its history, meaning, and use.

MAGNUM Photography: Magnum Magnum brings together the best work, celebrating the vision, imagination, and brilliance of Magnum photographers, both the acknowledged greats of photography in the twentieth century - among them Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Eve Arnold, Marc Riboud, and Werner Bischof - and the modern masters and rising stars of our time, such as Martin Parr, Susan Meiselas, Alec Soth, and Donovan Wylie. And it shows the work at a breathtaking scale: the vast page size of Magnum Magnum gives the photos an impact never seen before in book form.