Notes

Photologue | A Biennial about Biennials: The 2010 Taipei Biennial

Taiwan’s most important international exhibition of contemporary art, the Taipei Biennial, is showcasing its 7th instalment, and with a duo-curator system in place, this year sees the collaboration of Lin Hongjohn and Tirdad Zolghadr. In the absence of a grandiose curatorial theme, the small but ambitious biennial is engaging in a discourse of self-examination – a biennial reflecting upon the institution of biennials. Putting aside the familiar topics of political or ethical rants on the failures of globalization, this exhibition takes a closer look at how art is being produced, circulated and consumed.

The 2010 Taipei Biennial features 38 artworks by 24 artists: 20 of those are new commissions, 13 pieces are event oriented. The curatorial team decided on a complex approach to the format of the exhibition; this includes the collaboration of seven local art venues, a series of programmes that started prior to the opening of the biennial, an artist cinema featuring 49 films by 38 artists, a ‘sputnik’ consisting of two critics who give constant feedback and critiques, revisiting artists from the previous biennial, a lecture theatre using Taiwanese actors and actresses reading various art texts in Mandarin, and a two-year programme in progress. The result makes for an unsettling yet exciting biennial.

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Author

Larry SHAO, 邵樂人

Topic
Notes
Date
Fri, 1 Oct 2010
Tags
East Asia Exhibition Histories Diaaalogue
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