From Contemporary Curatorial Practice in Taiwan to the Future of Curatorial Action in East Asia

In the 1980s, the establishment of three public art museums in Taiwan marked the ‘age of art museums’, followed by the so-called ‘age of curators’ in the mid-1990s. There has since been a trend of collaboration between independent curators and public institutes.

Chiang Poshin, Assistant Professor, Master Class of Art History and Art Criticism, Department of Art History, Tainan National University of the Arts, will begin by reviewing the model of disciplinary museums in order to contextualise the emergence of independent curators in Taiwan. He will also analyse various issues related to curating in three important milieus, namely, Taipei Biennial, the Taiwanese pavilion in the Venice Biennale, and local art activists’ movements. Chiang will reflect on his experiences working on the latest issue of ACT, entitled 'Anarchy in East Asia: The Rise of Art Activism and Multitudes' (tentative title) to demonstrate how Taiwan could initiate a network of experimental curatorial actions in the region.

In conjunction with this event, Chiang Poshin will present another talk at Hong Kong Readers bookshop.
Title: Contemporary Art Criticism in Post-Martial Law Taiwan
Venue: Hong Kong Readers, 7/F, 68 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mongkok, Hong Kong
Date & Time: 3-5pm, 2 Apr 2011
Language: Mandarin
Since the 1980s, the art community in Taiwan has responded to a collective urge to institutionalise art criticism. Starting in the mid-1990s, various kinds of institutionalisation—including art writing awards, institutes of art criticism, art magazines, and art critic associations—have been established, gradually creating a supply chain of professional art critics in Taiwan. Looking back at the past decade, how do these institutionalisations contribute to the development of art criticism? Have any new means of visual analyses, visual literacy, or visual expression been created in the systematisation and canonisation of art criticism? How do these institutions adjust for and negotiate with the visuality and visual literacy of topics such as localisation and globalisation in the realm of Taiwanese art? Chiang Poshin will critically examine these questions, and share his personal observations and experiences as editor of the art magazine ACT

For more information and registration, please click here

About the speaker
Chiang Poshin is Assistant Professor of the Graduate Institute of Art History and Art Criticism at Tainan National University of the Arts, where he teaches Taiwanese art history, visual culture, and art criticism. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei. He is currently the chief editor of ACT and a member of Group Art Criticism in Taiwan, ACT. His research interests include the history of vision in colonial Taiwan; curatorship in Contemporary Chinese and Taiwanese Art; cross-cultural comparative art between China and Taiwan; and issues of visuality and subjectivity in art practice. He has published widely on modern Chinese art history, visual culture in the 1920s, and contemporary Taiwanese art in recent years, including the books Taiwan Art Criticism: Liu Guo-sung (1999) and Curatorial Apparatus and Bio-politics (2010). He is currently working on a project entitled 'Contemporary art activism in East Asia'.