SHANGHAI, CHINA: Opening on 10 October 2019, the Institute of Contemporary Arts at NYU Shanghai (ICA at NYU Shanghai) will present an exhibition of Hong Kong-based artist ZHENG Bo, Goldenrod (on view through 21 December 2019). The inaugural exhibition marks the re-opening of the university art gallery of NYU Shanghai after a two-year hiatus and the launch of its new institutional identity as the ICA at NYU Shanghai. The Fall 2019 exhibition and related events are also the first season of a two-year artistic research program, The (Invisible) Garden.

ZHENG Bo, Plants Living in Shanghai, 2013. Public art and education project. Courtesy of the artist.

郑波，《住在上海的植物》，2013。公共艺术和教育项目。感谢艺术家提供图片。

Zheng Bo, A Chinese Communist Garden in Paris, 2016-ongoing. Workshops at Villa Vassilieff and École du Breuil, Paris. Courtesy of the artist.

郑波，《巴黎之中华共产主义花园》，2016年至今。巴黎瓦西列夫别墅的工作坊。感谢艺术家提供图片

ZHENG Bo, Pteridophilia 3, 2018. Video (4K, color, sound); 15 min. Courtesy of the artist.

郑波，《蕨恋3》，2018。录像（4K，彩色，有声）；17分钟。感谢艺术家提供图片。

Goldenrod and its related events are presented as the first season of The (Invisible) Garden, a two-year artistic research program that inquires into the garden as a method that shapes our understanding of Nature and our relationships to other species. For four seasons, from Fall 2019 through Spring 2021, the ICA at NYU Shanghai will present artists, thinkers, and practitioners, through exhibitions, events, and a publication, to consider the garden and ask how might we denature Nature?

About the Artist
ZHENG Bo is an artist committed to human and multispecies equality. He investigates the past and imagines the future from the perspectives of marginalized communities and marginalized plants. He is learning to cultivate ecological wisdom for a Good Anthropocene.

He has worked with a number of art spaces and museums in Asia and Europe, most recently @KCUA (Kyoto), Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong), Parco Arte Vivente (Torino), TheCube Project Space (Taipei), Villa Vassilieff (Paris), Times Museum (Guangzhou), and Sifang Art Museum (Nanjing). In 2018, his works have been included in perennial exhibitions such as Manifesta 12, Cosmopolis #1.5, the 11th Taipei Biennial, the 2nd Yinchuan Biennial, and the 1st Thailand Biennial.

He taught at China Academy of Art from 2010 to 2013, and currently teaches at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

About ICA at NYU Shanghai
The Institute of Contemporary Arts at NYU Shanghai is a non-profit kunsthalle and research center committed to the development, presentation, and exchange of diverse ideas through contemporary arts. Our commitment is based on a core belief that engagement with art engenders critical thought, creativity, and openness to complexity, across disciplines and society and in everyday life.
From 2015 to 2017, the NYU Shanghai Art Gallery was established as one of the few university-affiliated art institutions in China to focus on contemporary art.

In Fall 2019, following a two-year hiatus, the university art gallery of NYU Shanghai reopens to the public with a new mission and reinvigorated vision as the Institute of Contemporary Arts at NYU Shanghai. The ICA at NYU Shanghai builds upon the earlier ambitions of the Gallery, while expanding our aims to emphasize experimentation, to further understand art and exhibition-making as a form of research, and to learn from artists living and working today.

About NYU Shanghai
NYU Shanghai is China’s first Sino-US research university and the third degree- granting campus of the NYU Global Network. It was founded in 2012 by New York University and East China Normal University with the support of the city of Shanghai and the district of
Pudong. NYU Shanghai seeks to cultivate globally-minded graduates through innovative teaching, world-class research, and a commitment to public service.

All undergraduate students pursue a course of study that will equip them with a broad knowledge base and tools to become creative thinkers and active learners throughout their lives. Our undergraduate student body currently consists of 1,300 students, half of whom are from China. Students from the United States and some 70 other countries represent the other half. Our faculty of renowned scholars, innovators, and educators are recruited from the world’s best research universities.

Read more on Artnews

Bruno Latour

Bruno Latour is professor at Sciences Po Paris and director of the TARDE program (Theory of Actornetwork and Research in Digital Environments). From 1982 to 2006 he was professor at the Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation (CSI) at the École nationale supérieure des mines in Paris and, for various periods, visiting professor at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. In addition to work in philosophy, history, sociology, and anthropology of science, he has collaborated on many studies in science policy and research management. He has published various books and articles, including: Laboratory Life. The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton University Press, 1986), Science in Action (1987), The Pasteurization of France (1988), Pandora’s Hope. Essays in the Reality of Science Studies (1999), We Have Never Been Modern (1993, all with Harvard University Press), Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Oxford University Press, 2005), On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods (Duke University Press, 2010). Together with Peter Weibel he curated the major exhibitions “Iconoclash. Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art” (2002) and “Making Things Public. The Atmospheres of Democracy” (2005) at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, both accompanied by comprehensive publications with The MIT Press. In 2013 he received the Holberg Prize.

Martin Guinard-Terrin

Martin Guinard-Terrin is an artist and curator, with a background in History of Art and Fine Arts (Concordia, McGill, Central Saint Martins). He has worked at the Palais des Beaux-arts in Paris under the direction of Nicolas Bourriaud. He co-curated an international exhibition called Reset Modernity! at ZKM I Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. The project was realised in collaboration with the AIME project, under the direction of the philosopher Bruno Latour. In recent years, Guinard-Terrin has been working with the Museum of Old and New Art to work on a residency project that connects the arts and the sciences.

At the beginning of the New Year, Vanguard Gallery is presenting paintings and video installations works by Jin Haofan, Liao Fei and Kelvin Kyung Kun Part for the Warehouse Story series this year.

Jin Haofan was tired to construct figure and scene constantly to show the anxiety and self-doubt through strange scenario from the early time. In his recent works, He try to reduce too much imagination and want to get rid of his personal feelings of the one-sided narration, instead of concerning the imagination of “emotion”, which has been disturbed by all kinds of troubles and problems.

For Liao Fei, working begins from the doubts he had about surroundings and himself. Liao has strong suspect about duality, but on the other hand, he holds severe interest in the aesthetic feeling based on that. This has encouraged him to practice his creation and took “material” as a clue from 2011. He gradually expanded his working scope to the measurement based on duality and the system itself. He continuously pays close attention to the construction and operation of cognitive system, and the presentation of power discipline in the spatial planning. He uses installation, video and other channels to reveal the absurdity under the seemingly reasonable surface. In this exhibition, we will present Liao’s early drawings and paintings, which help to better understand his current works by tracing back to the origin of his artistic creations.

Kelvin Kyung Kun Park has been engaging with film & video practice for the past decade. His work walks through the labyrinth of the recent industrial history, the military trauma and psychology of pop culture in South Korea.Stairway to Heaven is a live video performance based on the popular K-soap opera, “Stairway to Heaven”(2003), which reveals structures of emotions for romance. Characters in a double love triangle make emotional decisions based on relational situations rather than having their own subjective drive, or will. A non subjective subjectivity is the archetype of emotional structures of Asian soap operas.

The exhibition will be open for view starts from January 1st to March 3rd.

About the Artist

Jin Haofan
Jin Haofan was born in Guangdong Province in 1987. He graduated from Oil Painting Department from Sichuan Fine Art Institue in 2010. Jin now works and lives in Shenzhen, China. Recent exhibitions include: Shenzhen biennale of Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China(2017); Good Night, ldiot, Tenjinyama Art Studio, Sapporo, Japan(2016 solo exhibition); Sullivan’s Attic, MOU Art, Beijing,China(2016); MTRRAGE(with He Shaotong), Gallery 55, Shanghai, China(2015 solo exhibition).

Liao Fei
Liao Fei was born in Jiangxi in 1981. He graduated from Shanghai Normal University in 2006. He is now Based in Shanghai. Recent exhibitions include: Res Extensa, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China(2018 solo exhibition); Botanic Project, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea(2018); Frontier:Re-assessment of Post-Globlisational Politics, OCAT Institute, Beijing, China(2018); The 5th Huayu Youth Award, Huayu Art Center, Sanya, China(2017); Shanghai Galaxy Ⅱ, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China(2017); Today’s Yesterday – Anren Biennial, OCAT, Chengdu, China(2017); All happens after sunset…, MOCA Pavilion, Shanghai , China(2017); Any Ball，CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China(2017); The New Normal: China, Art, and 2017, UCCA, Beijing, China(2017); The 11th Shanghai Biennale “Why Not Ask Again: Arguments, Counter-arguments, and Stories”, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China(2016-2017); Plain, Shanghai Museum of Glass, Shanghai, China(2016 solo exhibition); Perspective, YveYang Gallery, Boston, USA(2016 solo exhibition); The Equater, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China(2016 solo exhibition).

Kelvin Kyung Kun Park
Kelvin Kyung Kun Park is an artist based in Seoul, Korea, working primarily in the medium of film & video, photography, and installations. In 2018, he won 2018 BIFF Mecenat Award (Documentaries). He has screened his highly acclaimed first full-length film, “Cheonggyecheon Medley”, 2010, at various international venues, including the Berlin Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Warsaw Planet Doc Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Hot Docs, among others. Park’s video installation works have been shown at the Ilmin Museum of Art in Seoul and Daegu Art Museum, Arko Art Gallery, Opsis Art Gallery, and the 2012 Taipei Biennale. Park followed his debut up with “A Dream of Iron”, which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film featuring a series of visual tableaux filmed at the Pohang Steel Company and Hyundai Shipyard, won the NETPAC Award at Berlinale and subsequently played at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Sharjah Bienniale. Recent exhibitions include: Busan Biennale 2018, Busan, Korea(2018); Our Bright Future—Cybernetic Fantasy, Nam June Paik Art Center , Seoul, Korea(2017); A Dream of Iron, Sin Ricoh Gallery, Seoul, Korea(2016 solo exhibition); Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea(2016 solo exhibition); Intuitive Landscape, Arario Gallery, Seoul, Korea(2016 solo exhibition); ARTSPECTRUM 2016, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea(2016 solo exhibition); Brilliant Memories, Buk Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul ,Korea(2016); Korea: 70th Anniversary of Liberation, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea(2016); Resonating Triangle, ARARIO Museum, JEJU, Korea(2016); Obejectology II: Make, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea(2016).

For this exhibition, Madani presents new paintings and animation works. In two large corner paintings, men point handheld projectors at the wall, screens flashing in the distance. Behind the wall, short films combine live imagery with painted animations. In one of them, a group of men struggle to prevent themselves from being crushed by a giant pink penis that has fallen from the sky. In another, a man is trapped in a loop of stairs and escalators in a faceless atrium, eventually caught and dismembered by a crowd. This is one step removed, cinematic, there is an audience looking on; there’s something natural in it all.

Tala Madani, The Shadow, 2018. © Tala Madani, courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

塔拉·马达尼，《阴影》，2018，图片由塔拉·马达尼和纽约303画廊提供

In a group of paintings, infants are portrayed innocently discovering their imagination. One child crawls toward a light source with his hand outstretched, projecting a mammoth shadow of himself. Another canvas shows a billboard of a child carving glowing lacunae into a body, multiplying the sun. These base instincts hold a puerile allure, where a lack of inhibition is infantile and callow, but also human and liberating. You find these humans crawling into glowing gas ovens to stick their heads inside, returning to a fetal posture of sincere and relatable ignorance. Exploring from beginning to end.
 
Born in Tehran in 1981, Madani received her MFA from the Yale University School of Art in 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include: La Panacée, Montpellier, 2017; First Light, MIT Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, 2016; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, 2014; Nottingham Contemporary, 
2014; Rip Image, Moderna Museet Malmö & Stockholm, 2013; The Jinn, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, 2011. Madani has also been included in: The 2017 Whitney Biennial, New York; Hope and Hazard: A Comedy of Eros (Curated by Eric Fischl), Hall Art Foundation, New York 2017; Los Angeles – A Fiction, Musée d’art Contemporain de Lyon, 2017; Zeitgeist, MAMCO, Geneva, 2017; Invisible Adversaries, The Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, 2016; The Great Acceleration: Art in the Anthropocene, Taipei Biennial (curated by Nicholas Bourriaud), 2014; Made in L.A. 2014, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Where are we Now?, 5th Marrakech Biennale, Marrakech, 2014; Speech Matters, La Biennale di Venezia, 2011; Greater New
 York, P.S. 1, New York, 2010; Younger than Jesus, New Museum, New York, 2009. Madani lives and works in Los Angeles.

Tala Madani, Corner Projection with Prism Refraction and Buckets, 2018. © Tala Madani, courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

塔拉·马达尼，《棱镜折射与感光元件角落投影》，2018，图片由塔拉·马达尼和纽约303画廊提供

Tala Madani, The Audience, still, 2018. © Tala Madani, courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

塔拉·马达尼，《观众》，截图，2018，图片由塔拉·马达尼和纽约303画廊提供

Tala Madani, Corner Projection with Squares, 2018. © Tala Madani, courtesy 303 Gallery, New York. 

塔拉·马达尼，《方块角落投影》，2018，图片由塔拉·马达尼和纽约303画廊提供

Installation view, Tala Madani: Corner Projections at 303 Gallery, New York, 2018.

塔拉·马达尼：《角落投影》展览现场，纽约303画廊，2018

Installation view, Tala Madani: Corner Projections at 303 Gallery, New York, 2018.

塔拉·马达尼：《角落投影》展览现场，纽约303画廊，2018

Installation view, Tala Madani: Corner Projections at 303 Gallery, New York, 2018.

塔拉·马达尼：《角落投影》展览现场，纽约303画廊，2018

TAIPEI (27 September 2018) – Taipei Dangdai, the new international art fair taking place in Taiwan in January 2019, will feature a world-class line-up of 90 galleries from around the globe, about 20% of which have spaces in Taiwan. The inaugural edition of the fair aims to place a strong emphasis on the region, as well as showcasing some of the world’s best galleries from Europe and the USA. Under the directorship of Magnus Renfrew, Taipei Dangdai will present a vital understanding of the Asian cultural landscape on a global platform, setting the pulse of the art market for the year ahead.

With over 160 applications submitted, the fair’s selection committee carefully chose 90 galleries for the first edition of the fair, ensuring international standardsof selectivity. Convening premier galleries and thought leaders around the world, Taipei Dangdai aims to presenta survey of Asia’s contemporary art scene, whilst showcasing global talent in Taipei.

“Ahead of our first edition in January we are working hard to lay solid foundations for the long term. The caliber of international galleries that have been selected for the inaugural edition of Taipei Dangdai, is a testament to the vitality and potential of the art scene in Taipei, in addition to the increasing importanceof the wider art market in Asia. Taipei Dangdai will provide a platform to strengthen relationships for the year ahead, engage diverse audiences, spark debate, connect across disciplines and cultures, and develop long-term patronage with art and ideas.” said Magnus Renfrew,Fair Director.

“The exceptional list of exhibitors underlines both Taipei’s potential as an art market and its growing status as a cultural destination. UBS’s partnership with Taipei Dangdai, will provide clients, employees and the general public with access to the most significant galleries, dynamic artists, and some of the highest-quality art available today,” said Dennis Chen, Country Head and Head of Wealth Management, UBS Taiwan.

“This is without question the strongest exhibitor list I have seen for a first-year fair in Asia. We very much look forward to our participation in January”,says Nick Simunovic, Managing Director Asia of Gagosian. 

Rudy Tseng, Taiwanese collector, curator and member of the Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee for Tate, remarks, ”It is extremely exciting to see international heavyweights coming to exhibit in Taipei for the first time. Through assembling such a strong exhibitor list, Taipei Dangdai has already redefined the potential of the city to attract world-class quality. The spotlight of the international art world will be on Taipei in January and this is a cultural event not to be missed.”

“The timely arrival of Taipei Dangdai will bring international standards to Taipei whilst introducing the strength of the city’s vibrant gallery scene and wider cultural and institutional context to an international audience. This fair marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter of possibilities for the art scene in Taipei.” says Tina Keng, Founder of Tina Keng Gallery 

Presented by UBS, Taipei Dangdai is a joint venture between four of the world’s leading art event organizers: Single Market Events, Angus Montgomery Limited, Ramsay Fairs Limited, and ARTHQ / EVENTS Limited, who have years of experience in successful cultural events.The fair’s program will bring together galleries and thought leaders from a wide range of disciplines, who will participate across the fair’s four gallery sectors, its Ideas Program and Media Partners zone.

SECTORS

The Galleries sector will present 73 participants from 42 cities including: Chengdu, Hong Kong, Singapore, Busan, Fukuoka, Kuala Lumpur, Makati, as well as Beijing, Osaka, Seoul, and Shanghai to name a few in Asia, as well as New York, London, Zurich, Milan, Paris and Berlin.

The Young Galleries sector will highlight four promising galleries that have been in operation for less than eight years (founded on or after 1st January 2011). These include: A+Contemporary and Gallery Vacancy from Shanghai, Jakarta’s ROH Projects, and Yutaka Kikutake Gallery based in Tokyo.

The Solos sector will place a spotlight on individual presentations by emerging and established artists, as well as history-making 20th-century masters. 13 solo presentations will include works by: Chihoi, Yuko Murata, Chuang Che, Noel McKenna, Kaneko Tomiyuki, Ho Kan, Shyu Ruy-Shiann, Chu The-Chun, Tan Ping, Mao Xuhui, Jie-Chang Yang, Minoru Onoda, (works from his estate that have never been exhibited outside Japan), and Carlos Cruz-Diez.

Additionally,in a unique concept to Taipei Dangdai,each of the 90 galleries will have the opportunity to present one artwork priced below USD 8,000 in a group showcase at the fair’sSalon sector, designed to encourage young and new collectors.

Complementing the gallery sectors will be the Ideas Program – a platform for creative ideas and thought leadership bringing together renowned cultural figures from Taiwan, the wider region, and beyond. Through this curated gathering of industry experts and recognized specialists from a diverse array of disciplines, this highly multi-disciplinary program will take place over the fair’s duration, with one day each addressing the Past, Present, and Future.

Highlights on the Ideas Program will be announced soon.

With a dynamic art scene that includes over 180 galleries, reputable museums, exhibitions and festivals, including the 11th edition of the Taipei Biennale (November 17, 2018 – March 10, 2019), non-profit venues and new arts spaces set to open in the next few years, Taiwan holds a unique place in the energetic cultural scene in Asia.

TAIPEI DANGDAI EXHIBITOR LIST FOR 2019

Selection Committee Members Waling Boers (Boers-Li Gallery), Edouard Malingue (Edouard Malingue Gallery), Elisa Uematsu (Taka Ishii Gallery), Isa Lorenzo (Silverlens Galleries), Patricia Crockett (Sprüth Magers)

Advisory Group Members Alan Lo, Benjamin Cha, Ellie Lai, Evan Chow, Ivan Pun, Jam Acuzar, Jason Chi, Lawrence Chu, Leo Shih, Leslie Sun, Patrick Sun, Rudy Tseng, Sylvain Levy.

About Magnus Renfrew  Magnus Renfrew has 20 years’ experience in the international art world, the last decade of which has been spent in Asia. Previously, he served as Founding Director for ART HK – Hong Kong International Art Fair (2007–2012) and Art Basel Hong Kong (2012–2014). Renfrew has been widely recognized by art industry media and has been named twice in ArtReview as one of the 100 most influential people in the international art world. In 2013,he was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2017, he founded the ARTHQ / Group, a leading service provider for the art world, with offices in Hong Kong and London. The author of Uncharted Territory: Culture and Commerce inHong Kong’s Art World(Penguin, 2017), Renfrew served on the Hong Kong ArtsDevelopment Council (2014–2016) and currently serves as Chair of the Advisory Council for Para Site art space in Hong Kong.

PRESENTED BY UBS

UBS provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as private clients in Switzerland. The operational structure of the Group is comprised of our Corporate Center and five business divisions: Wealth Management, Wealth Management Americas, Personal & Corporate Banking, Asset Management and the Investment Bank. UBS’s strategy builds on the strengths of all of its businesses and focuses its efforts on areas in which it excels, while seeking to capitalize on the compelling growth prospects in the businesses and regions in which it operates, in order to generate attractive and sustainable returns for its shareholders. All of its businesses are capital-efficient and benefit from a strong competitive position in their targeted markets. UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in 52 countries, with about 34% of its employees working in the Americas, 34% in Switzerland, 18% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 14% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs approximately 61,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). UBS has had a presence in Taiwan since 1988 and has offered wealth management solutions to high net worth individuals since 2000. In 2008, UBS WM Taiwan was granted licenses to open bank branches in Taichung and Kaohsiung. UBS Taiwan was named four years in a row Best Domestic Private Bank in Taiwan by Asian Private Banker from 2013-2016. In 2017, Private Banker International also named UBS Taiwan Best Private Bank in Taiwan (Foreign).

UBS AND CONTEMPORARY ART 

UBS has a long and substantial record of contemporary art patronage. At the core of this commitment is the UBS Art Collection, one of the world’s largest and most important corporate art collections, with more than 30,000 artworks. The firm actively enables clients and audiences to participate in the international conversation about art through its global lead partnership with Art Basel, its partnership with Taipei Dangdai,  and with leading museums around the world including the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. UBS provides its clients with insight into collecting and the art market and co-publishes the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. The firm shares its passion for art and collecting with a global community, and recently established the UBS Art Collectors Circle, to connect collectors and cultural philanthropists who are passionate about art, to share knowledge and best practice. For more information about UBS’s commitment to contemporary art, visit ubs.com/art.

OFFICIAL HOTEL PARTNER

Taipei Dangdai is pleased to partner with My Humble House Group, including SHERATON GRANDE TAIPEI HOTEL, LE MERIDIEN TAIPEI and HUMBLE HOUSE TAIPEI. My Humble House Group was established in 1986 with a range of contemporary art investments, businesses from hotels, to restaurants and services under its operations. From its business philosophy of providing a “blend of culture, arts and aesthetics” to its commitment in promoting and developing the careers of its professionals, the company is a trendsetter across industries, has an admirable performance of stable growth, and has laid a solid foundation for continued robust growth in the future for the group. For more information, please go to: http://www.mhh-group.com

Facebook: @taipeidangdaiartfair

Twitter:      @taipeidangdai

Instagram: @taipeidangdai

Curated by Mali Wu and Francesco Manacorda, the Taipei Biennial 2018 officially announces its title: Post-Nature—A Museum as an Ecosystem. Taking this title as their starting point, the curators will approach the ever-changing nature of an ecosystem and how this is reflected in artistic and institutional practice. This exhibition will investigate how systemic theory can inform art making and allow for reflections about our environment, underlining the reciprocal dependency which every system relies upon to survive.

Post-Nature—A Museum as an Ecosystem combines the notion of ecosystemic survival and the structure of interdependency in its very form. Here, the museum and the city that surrounds it are recognised as interlocking structures. The exhibition will explore, illustrate and investigate the different modes of connectivity and reciprocal dependency that keep a system alive. In this biennial, all artistic, theoretical, social and political elements will contribute to an overarching view of how an ecosystem is generated, and how it regenerates, through collaboration among parts and adaptation to change.

—Post-Nature—A Museum as an Ecosystem curatorial statement

In Post-Nature—A Museum as an Ecosystem, the curators will use the exhibition to reconsider the museum as a model. In their most conventional forms, exhibitions grow quickly, occupy a limited time span, and have little ability to sustain their reach, while museums instead develop slowly and organically, respond carefully to their environments and preserve their own longevity. At the same time, if too rigidly confined by an architectural and conceptual framework, a museum can become an isolated space for art contemplation, rather than remain open to constant ecosystemic transformation, osmosis and growth.

As outlined in the curatorial statement, Post-Nature—A Museum as an Ecosystem will engage with different ecosystemic models, focusing particularly on the significance of reciprocal dependency, and how this form of working tends toward a holistic common good. While the exhibition venue, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, will act as the central nervous system of the Taipei Biennial, the experimental methodology of this biennial will transform the museum into a platform for multi-disciplinary discussion, which intends to extend outward and reach multilateral resonance outside of the architectural limits of the exhibition.

Taipei Biennial 2018
Post-Nature—A Museum as an Ecosystem
Date：17 November 2018–10 March 2019
Venue：Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Luo Jr-Shin’s works include installation and photography. By observing the subtleties and minutiae of daily life, Luo is able to infer the macroscopic picture of his environment; by delving deeper into his observations, he gives higher meaning to the word “daily,” which is often only used as an artistic adjective. In Luo’s transformation of inanimate objects, we see hints and traces of humanity and of the events that shape our time. Chen Ching-Yuan’s paintings exhibit the artist’s pursuit of an ideal world, seeking truth in the real world, and chasing the celestial movements in which his faith lies. He portrays the world as what he wishes it could be and offers his contemporaries a place to belong. Artist Jian Yi-Hong’s ink and wash paintings blur the line between city and country. They depict people who have shied away from the mainstream narrative, reflecting a sentiment that is, to some extent, felt by everyone in our contemporary world. Wang Shao-Gang’s videos record life in the moment. If the viewers should see fragments of familial memories and pieces of real history woven into scenes that directly concern the artist, it could be because the artist is exploring the value of the self. Artist Kuo Yuping is always traveling — even when she is living in one place. In her travels, she creates art that is entirely her own and completely unreserved. As is the case with her paintings, her videos capture traces of her flesh and and of herself.

The artists in this exhibition have created a great body of work. In the process of doing so, they have unwittingly become a reflection of Taiwan’s youth; one that is clear of mind, fresh in spirit and, at times, naive of heart. They refuse to stay in the same place and do not feign ignorance in the face of a challenge — they are searching and they are building. At this moment in time, we could very well be converging at the beginning of a new era, ready to start a vigorous new chapter full of great accomplishments.

“Even though the future may be far away, even though saying goodbye needs not be at an airport, if only you could describe a future…” These lyrics are taken from the song “Fly,” written by San Mao and performed by Pan Yue-Yun in 1985 at a time when Taiwan’s economy took flight and the nation threw itself into a rapid development. The lyrics speak of someone’s desire to fly away from the rapidly changing and increasingly secular Taiwan to find out who they truly are. Thirty-some years have passed since the song was written, and we are no longer wandering — we are seeking. As we seek to carve out an era that is uniquely ours, life in the city and in the country still floats in slow uncertainty. The distance we face is not necessarily that of geography, but of progress. This exhibition bears witness to the ongoing progress made by a new generation of Taiwanese artists. Perhaps, the best place to embark on the journey to the future is from the promise we make ourselves.

About Artists

Luo, Jr-shin (born 1984, Taiwan) graduated from Taipei National University of Arts in 2010. He often engages common objects in daily life. Through the richness of these objects, it then reproduces another kind of reality. From this alternative reality, the viewers are able to notice the trace of the daily life and the slight displacement from the origin, then to provoke with a sense of humor.

Recent exhibitions include: “The Other Face of the Moon”(Asia Cultural Complex, ACC, Korea, 2017), “Tropical Cyclone”(Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei,2017), “Times Heterotopia Trilogy III The Man Who Never Threw Anything Away” (Guangdong Times Museum,Guangdong,2017), “Slide, Don’t Slip —Luo Jr-shin solo exhibition”(VT Art Salon, Taipei, 2016), “Open Containers | Luo, Jr-shin Solo Exhibition”(Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2016),“URBAN SYNESTHESIA”(Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2015), “Self-Titled solo”(Art Basel Hong Kong, 2015), “Unseen Daily Life”(Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, Tokyo, 2014), “Sharon” (Eslite Bookstore Art Studio, Taipei, 2014), “Photographs / Sculptures” (Fotoaura Institute of Photography, Tainan, 2014), “The Distance The Other” (Hubei Museum of Art, China and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2014), “Queens International 2013”(Queens Museum, New York, 2013) and Taipei Biennial 2014 (Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei, 2014). His works have been exhibited in Taiwan, Japan, Brazil, China, and the United States.

Luo Jr-shin, in Budding, in Blooming, in Withering, 2017, Metal, mirror, pigment print, scented soap, glass vase, flower. In plastic bag: green tea, beer, whisky, soft drink, Each approx.: 80x50x15cm

Chen Ching-Yuan (born 1984, Taiwan) received his M.F.A. in 2013 from the School of Fine Arts of the Taipei National University of the Arts. In recent years, Chen Ching-Yuan attempts to capture through his painting the subtle sensibility that weaves through literature, mythology, and history in different cultural contexts. The artist’s unique compositions coalesce into a constellation of images where the absence of the temporal element and the fragmentation of meaning elicit unexpected narrative parallels between the artist’s imaginary worlds and the essence of humanity.

Cocooned in a romanticist ambience, Chen Ching-Yuan’s work is built on a sense of déjà vu that enshrouds mystifyingly surrealist narratives that appear at first glance pregnant with fixed and careful connotations. An overflow of subtle and fragmented symbols pervades his painting, where sensory experiences are reconstructed with plausible, fleeting narrative clues. His intricate palette and loose compositions collapse connections between each work, turning every piece into a fable tinged with the artist’s profound consciousness.

Chen’s recent solo exhibitions include “THE SPIDER ON SHIP Solo Exhibition by Chen Ching-Yuan”(IT Park, Taipei, 2017), “What am I ? If I can’t be yours”(TKG+, Taipei , 2016) , “Un title”, (IT Park, Taipei, 2015) ,His work has been exhibited in notable exhibitions internationally, including “8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art”(Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia,2015), “Asia Triennial Manchester” (Manchester, UK , 2014)

Chen Ching-Yuan, Hammer and Chisel, 2018, Oil on canvas, 21x18cm

Wang Shao- Gang (born 1985, Taiwan) graduated from the Graduate Institute of New Media Art in Taipei National University of the Arts. Wang specializes in exploring the interrelations between the self and the external through video installation. Constantly experimenting with the possibilities of video art, he is committed to restructuring film, video, documentary and other forms of image creation, diminishing the scope of boundaries in order to probe the state of reality and construct various images of the world. Wang is currently in an ongoing attempt to research the humanistic culture and history of the locality through his creative practice.

He is fascinated by his random encounters with people and the fragmented events that occur throughout space and time yet eternally in the process of facing oblivion. For him, the objects and places seen in the immediate reality are not simply as they appear, but exist before us through unseen processes; therefore, he raises many doubts to the reality that we live in and pieces together imaginary subjects and fictional perspectives in his works to liberate the obvious appearances of reality.

Recent exhibitions include: “Invincible | Wang Shao- Gang solo exhibition”(Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2017), “The Moment that Comes is about to Go- 6 Visions about Time” (Digital Art Center, Taipei, 2017), “Chiayi City International Art Documentary Film Festival-Enjoy Art Of All”(Chiayi Municipal Museum, Chiayi, 2017), “Taiwan Biennial -The possibility of an island” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2016), “Kaohsiung Awards”(Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, 2016), “Taipei Arts Award” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2015), and “Sanchin- Wang Shao- Gang solo exhibition” (Open Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, 2015).

Wang Shao- Gang, One Stroke, Video installation, 2018, 00”07”00”

Kuo Yuping (born 1986, Taiwan) graduated from the Graduate Institute of Trans-Disciplinary Arts in Taipei National University of the Arts. Her early works focuses on Taiwan’s unique historical background and the modernity of relocation. Her works often involve the changing landscapes and people’s memories. She emphasizes on field research to get in touch with the sites and people, which form the base of her works.

Her creation currently deals with the relationship between personal life experiences and history. Using video, installation and painting, she illustrates the ways in which modernity is considered a concept of progress, but in its rise to dominance creates various remnants and legacies as it rewrites traumas. Her works penetrate tribe and nation, exploring realism in the collective consciousness, and the relationship between society, politics and the economy. On another level, she transforms art into a poetic narrative body that is a form of life in it of itself.

Recent exhibitions include: “Tobacco, Carpet, Lunch Box, Textile Machinery and Cave Men: the narratives of craftsmanship and technologies in contemporary art”(Hong-Gah Museum,Taipei,2017), “Tropical Cyclone”(Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei,2017), “My Little Black Book | Kuo Yuping solo exhibition”(Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2017), “RIVERRUN” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2017), “Shattered Sanctity”(Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2017), “Taipei Biennial 2016″ (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2016), “The Moment that Comes is about to Go- 6 Visions about Time”(Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2016), “Taipei Arts Award” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2015), “SunYat- sen Freeway” solo exhibition (Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2015).

Kuo Yuping, The Wheel, 2018, Tissue paper, acrylic paint, ink, 97x70cm

Jian, Yi-Hong (born 1988, Taiwan) graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts, he has won the Merit Awards of the Taipei Arts Awards 2014 and the 1st Chang Kuang-pin Art Award. Through recurrent simple male nudes, his works based on ink wash depict the undercurrents of desire between teens and middle-aged men with a humorous flavor filled with imagination, while representing reflections of reality and surreal imagination about existence in Taiwan’s society today. Behind all this, there is a cultural context that traverses through past and now, the domestic and abroad. Compositions of his pictures represent deliberate parallels or appropriations of traditional Chinese painting, with lines of ink depicting simple scenes of life or exaggerated and absurd scenes which involve self and desire roaming in a delicate manner. Through techniques of ink wash such as lightness, emphasis, hanging above, pressing as well as implicit depictions that express to a proper extent, Jian, Yi-Hong imbues the experience of the self into a theatre of man and environment/culture that is both real and fantastic.

Recent exhibitions include: “Tropical Cyclone”(Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, 2017), “RIVERRUN” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2017), “An Exhibition about Paintings and Transient Emotions”(Luodong Cultural Working House, Yilan, 2016), “Let us not be sad anymore”(Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2016), “It Fells Like LOVE”(Nomad Museum, Taipei, 2015), TAIPEI ARTS AWARDS”(Taipei Fine Arts Museum , Taipei, 2014).

Jian, Yi-Hong, Angels Relieve No Violence II, 2017, Ink and color on paper, 36x38cm

About Michael Ku Gallery

Michael Ku Gallery was founded in 2008 in Taipei and is one of the city’s few galleries with a solid background in art history. Along with curating the exhibitions, Mr. Ku composes all related texts. Since its inauguration, the gallery has been presenting emerging as well as established artists with a clearly structured method, forming a systematical practice of curating. By establishing a perspective with both an independent spirit and a humanistic depth, Michael Ku Gallery explores the prospects of additional levels of meaning behind the artworks’ surface.

Dates: 2018.11.17 – 2019.03.10

Venue: Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Mali Wu and Francesco Manacorda will serve as co-curators of the 11th Taipei Biennial in 2018, Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) has announced. For many years Mali Wu has practiced participatory and community-based art, while Francesco Manacorda has developed a track record curating co-creative and process-based art projects. The Biennial will focus on the interconnectivity of ecosystemic structures formed between humans and nature, and aims to serve as a platform of social experimentation to generate new interdisciplinary possibilities for long-lasting, community- driven, bottom-up synergies. The Taipei Biennial will take place from November 17, 2018 to March 10, 2019.

Held by TFAM every two years since 1996, the Taipei Biennial opens a new chapter in 2018. After three successive Biennials pursuing a single-curator strategy, TFAM is reinstituting a two-curator structure, in pursuit of a new model of collaboration between a Taiwan-based curator and a guest curator. Examining trends in biennials throughout Taipei, Asia and the world, TFAM joined with the Taipei Biennial Committee to determine the exhibition’s theme: “life-support, living, survival system.” As a curatorial strategy, TFAM chose a “1+1” team model, aiming to initiate collaborative creativity across different disciplines to transform the art museum into a matchmaking platform, a knowledge framework, and a base of creative production. With the consensus of the committee, Ms. Mali Wu, Taiwanese artist curator and lecturer at Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Art at National Kaohsiung Normal University, was first nominated by the museum to respond to the curatorial issue. Mr. Francesco Manacorda, the current Artistic Director of V-A-C Foundation, was further invited with the recommendation by Wu to work together on the curatorial theme of living and survival.

2018 Taipei Biennial Co-Curators, Mali Wu (L) and Francesco Manacorda (R) © Taipei Fine Arts Museum
2018台北雙年展策展人吳瑪悧(左)、范切斯科．馬納克達(右)合影
© 臺北市立美術館

“The long-time community engagement efforts Ms. Mali Wu cultivated for years makes this biennial different from others,” says Francesco Manacorda. For past decades, Wu has used art as a medium to build engagement with environmental concerns, producing several representative works with a high level of environmental consciousness rooted in the land of Taiwan. Manacorda’s experience in organizing biennials and conceiving process-based projects will serve as invaluable assets for the Taipei Biennial 2018. The large-scale exhibition he curated in 2009 addressing the interrelationship between humans and nature, Radical Nature – Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969- 2009, will serve as a uniquely vital foundation for the upcoming Taipei Biennial. A profound conversation between art and nature will place the subject of “eco-systemic interdependency” in a broader, deeper context. “We should focus on life itself and respond collectively to living,” says Wu. “I hope this exhibition can be an experimental laboratory that incubates collaborations among talents from different fields.” As a bottom-up knowledge platform, the Taipei Biennial 2018 will employ cross-disciplinary creations and a forward-leaning vision to initiate a new conversation in local socio-cultural context.

About the Taipei Biennial
The Taipei Biennial is one of Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s most important exhibitions, held once every two years since 1996. Aiming to help elevate the level of Taiwan’s contemporary art and increase its international visibility, the Taipei Biennial employs diverse cultural perspectives to place Taipei within the network of Asian and global contemporary art, serving as a driving force for international dialogue. Responding to international art trends with both depth and breadth, it attempts to build direct connections between the local and international art communities. Over the past two decades, it has rapidly grown and amassed energy to become a major mechanism of dialogue between Taiwan and the world. https://www.taipeibiennial.org/

Mali Wu
A graduate of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (the Arts Academy of the City of Düsseldorf) in Germany, Mali Wu currently teaches in the Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Art at National Kaohsiung Normal University. Following the avant-garde tradition, Wu’s artistic practice and research focus on what art can do in the public sphere. In the 1990s, she started to criticize the state of social and political affairs from a feminist perspective in her works. She has launched a series of community- based projects of new public art, including the participatory art workshop “Playing with Clothes” organized by Awakening Foundation as part of Awake in Your Skin (2000-2004), which reversed the tradition of women’s needlework and discussed women’s lives through clothes and weaving; Art as Environment: A Cultural Action on the Tropic of Cancer (2005-2007) in Jiayi County which promoted equality of cultural participation rights in rural areas; By the River, on the River, of the River – A Community Based Eco-Art Project (2006); Restore Our Rivers and Mountains – Along the Keelung River, a collaboration with a community college attempting to stimulate discussion about rivers and current environmental issues; and Art as Environment: A Cultural Action at the Plum Tree Creek, a collaborative project with Bamboo Curtain Studio which re-examined urban ecology and development through an ignored creek. She won the 11th Taishin Visual Art Award in 2013 with Art as Environment: A Cultural Action at the Plum Tree Creek and the 19th National Award of Art, Taiwan in 2016. Wu has consistently dealt with ecological issues by adopting art as an approach to bridge culture and nature, demonstrating the potential for contemporary art and the vital personal energy of an artist.

Francesco Manacorda
Born in 1974 in Turin, Italy, Francesco Manacorda earned a degree in education from the University of Turin (2000) and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London (2001-2003). An experienced art writer, he has published articles and reviews in such publications as Artforum, Domus, Flash Art, Frieze, Metropolis M, Mousse, Piktogram, Kaleidoscope and ArtReview. He has edited numerous publications and written critical monographs on several artists’ works. Between 2007 and 2009 he served as curator at the Barbican Art Gallery, where he realized the large-scale exhibitions Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art and Radical Nature – Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009 (2009). In 2007 he curated the Slovenian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale and in 2009 the New Zealand Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, while in 2013 he was a member of the International Jury for the 55th Venice Biennale. His curatorial practice has also included freelance projects such as Subcontinent – The Indian Subcontinent in Contemporary Art, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy (2006). From February 2010 to March 2012, he was director of Artissima, the international fair of contemporary art in Turin, and from 2012 to 2017 he was artistic director of Tate Liverpool where he curated exhibitions such as Mondrian and His Studios; Glenn Ligon: Encounter and Collisions; An Imagined Museum; Leonora Carrington: Transgressing Discipline; and Cathy Wilkes. In 2016 he co-curated the Liverpool Biennial. He was visiting lecturer in exhibition history and critical theory at the curating contemporary art department of the Royal College of Art, London from 2006 to 2011. He is currently artistic director of the V-A-C Foundation and visiting professor at LJMU School of Art and Design in Liverpool.

Doomsday prophecies have emerged since ancient times, from the Book of Revelation of the Bible, to the Millennium Crisis, to the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse. The end of days seems imminent, yet it never comes. What is the purpose of the doomsday prophecy — to serve as a warning to the world or as a means of manipulation? And what awaits us in the future — another cycle or an infinite wasteland?

TKG⁺ Projects is pleased to present Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800 — Yin-Ju Chen Solo Exhibition. As a continuation and the final chapter of the “Extrastellar Evaluations” series that first began in 2016, this exhibition contemplates human civilization and humanity’s future through an investigation of space physics, extraterrestrial myths, and cosmography.

Yin-Ju Chen is known for her occultist approach to the imagination of the future using hypotheses and prophecies founded upon a choreography of fragments of history, as well as mass media imagery and information. Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800 is another attempt by the artist to reveal when exactly Doomsday takes place, through an investigation of the Great Year, or the period of one complete cycle of the spring equinox around the ecliptic. A cycle of the Great Year is 25,800 years, a number that has been derived not only from NASA’s calculations, but also from several ancient mythologies and legends. The artist further adapts the notion of “entropy”[1] from the second law of thermodynamics, and connects it to the avarice and belligerence of human nature. Interspersed in the video are the narrations of a non-human intelligence named “Ra” concerning The Law of One[2] — everything is the distortion of the one infinite Creator.[3] Intercut with historical images of wars and disasters, the video shows chaos propelling the universe into a state of disorder, leading to the ultimate cosmic destiny that many scientists and astronomers have predicted: the universe will inevitably burn out and be transformed.

The doomsday narrative unfolds in this exhibition through a seemingly logical scientific perspective, urging the viewer to see the reality that confronts humankind. Just as the non-human intelligence Ra elucidates the philosophy of Taiyi: the origin of all beings is the universe; human behavior and civilization as an unseen hand shapes the universe. This notion resonates with the Tao Te Ching, “Man models the Way of earth; earth models the Way of heaven; heaven models the Way of Tao; Tao models the Way of nature.”

As doomsday draws near, will humanity realize the catastrophic consequences of its actions and attain the final awakening before it is too late?

陈滢如《超星鉴定 III : 熵 : 25800》，2018，单频道录像，16’47” (影片截图)，图片提供：艺术家与其玟画廊
Yin-Ju Chen, Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800, 2018. Single-channel video, 16’47”. (Video still) Courtesy of the artist and Chi-Wen Gallery.