ASIA DESIGNER COMMUNICATION PLATFORM

The 13th edition of the Taiwanese biennial, running until March 24, 2024, is anchored in individual experiences and the micro-world to showcase the contemporary art scene.

【 A Shrinking World 】
Hosted at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), this edition was developed as a reflection of post-pandemic shifts and transformations concerning our understanding of ourselves and our community. It brings together approximately 60 artists from around 20 countries and territories, exploring ideas of connection and division, scale and proximity, and interconnectedness. The curatorial team includes Freya Chou, an independent curator who recently relocated from Hong Kong to Taipei; Reem Shadid, director and curator of Beirut Art Centre with 14 years of experience at the Sharjah Art Foundation; and New York-based Brian Kuan Wood, a writer and a founding editor of the e-flux journal publishing discourse across art, architecture, film, technology and history. During his foundational residency in Cairo (Egypt) from 2000 to 2005, he produced sound projects in collaboration with artists based in Cairo and Alexandria.

The curators highlight that the pandemic experience played a pivotal role in shaping the biennial's direction, including its title, as the global lockdown offered a new perspective on the commonplace expression "small world", conventionally used when encountering familiar faces in unexpected locations. In this context, the curators unveil a "shrinking world" where "the nearest thing can appear unfamiliar."

This play with scale, transitioning from the small to the large and vice versa, noticeably materialises in various artworks featured in the biennial. In the first gallery, the photograph Untitled (Octavia with Meteor 1) (2020) by Taiwanese artist Arthur Ou, part of his series Viewfinder (2020-ongoing), establishes a reference point for the entire exhibition. The image captures a macroscopic view of a minute fragment of a meteorite placed on the tip of Octavia’s finger, the artist’s young daughter. The concentric pattern of her fingerprint takes on a cosmic dimension upon contact with the tiny stone, possibly echoing the enduring tradition of scholar’s rocks (also known as gongshi 供石), mountain-like rocks admired by Chinese literati as microcosms, symbols of the whole universe.

In the subsequent gallery, Lebanese-born artist and pathologist Lara Tabet seamlessly blends her scientific and artistic expertise in Eleven Fragmented Seas (2020), a series of photographs displaying the microbiological elements found in seawater from the shores of Lebanon. These elements are altered through the direct inoculation of bacteria onto the colour film. Consequently, her work transcends formal experimentation, delving into the geopolitical struggles associated with uneven access to water resources in the region.

【 The Geopolitics of Miniatures 】
In one of the adjoining galleries of TFAM, The Wall: Asian (Un)Real Estate Project (2023), an architectural model of a multistorey building by Aditya Novali, offers a tangible and titular representation of the “small world”. The artist's initial training in dalang, Indonesian shadow puppetry, imparts a theatrical dimension accentuated by the lighting and meticulous craftsmanship of the model's interiors. Conceived before the pandemic, the installation, now hanging on the wall, is regarded as a symbol of the lockdown when domestic spaces and workplaces converged. Although unrelated to the biennial, the piece may also reflect a local interest, considering Taipei's Miniatures Museum of Taiwan, a private museum founded in 1997 devoted to miniature art.

Pilgrim in the Microworld (2023), an installation commissioned by the biennial and created by Hong Kong artist Nadim Abbas, follows the inverse trajectory from the microscopic to the macroscopic. Resembling a monumental integrated circuit, it metaphorically addresses the geopolitical tensions surrounding Taiwan's global leadership in semiconductor production. Along one of the walls bordering the installation, a selection of black and white photographs by French urbanist and philosopher Paul Virilio (1932–2018) is displayed, featuring his series Bunker Archeology (1958-1965) on military fortifications built by the Nazis. This juxtaposition introduces a dark historical reference to the dystopian nature of the piece. Similar to war maps or battle models, smaller-scale images can wield significant political power and influence the course of history. Here again, small can be powerful.

The geopolitical subtext of the biennial also emerges through the notable presence of walls in various works, such as Not Exactly (Whatever the New Key Is) (2023), a six-channel sound and inflatable installation by American artist Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork. The black PVC tarpaulin walls continually inflate and deflate in sync with a customised soundtrack, alternately creating tall maze-like partitions and low-rise loose fences at the human scale.

Micro and macro discrepancies also extend to the infra-cultural realm with the late Japanese avant-garde artist Genpei Akasegawa (1937-2014) and his Untitled series of photographs, exhibited for the first time in a public museum. Connected to his concept “Hyperart Thomasson”, a reference to the American former baseball player, a new type of conceptual art originated from the margin of our urban and modern environment, the small-format images focus on the pathologies of our modern world, from dysfunctional urban infrastructures to disposable industrial objects, all photographed like Duchampian ready-mades.

A comparable interplay between the ordinary and the extraordinary is evident in The More We Get Together (1988-1998), the documentary series by Taiwanese photojournalist Hsu Tsun-Hsu. Spanning over the decade following the lifting of martial law in 1987, which had been in place since 1949, the series seamlessly integrates major historical events and trivial scenes of daily life in Taiwan.

【 Vision and Sound: From the Small to the Invisible? 】
Additionally, the biennial provides a platform for an extensive array of sound installations and music performances scheduled throughout the exhibition. Japanese artist DJ Sniff plays a pivotal role in this intersection of sound and vision. The artist has co-organised and hosted a programme of music performances with guest turntablists, such as Mariam Rezaei from Newcastle (UK), SlowPitchSound from Toronto, and Rex Chen from Taipei. Additionally, he presents Transformer (2023), a mixed media installation addressing the history of turntablism as a distinct practice from DJing. This piece integrates turntables, vinyl discs, and speakers into a closed network, exploring the impact of technological advancements on sonic aesthetics. DJ Sniff acknowledges a profound interest in the work of Christian Marclay, which serves as a significant source of inspiration and an unavoidable influence. Marclay’s legacy also echoes in the two installations by Nikita Gale: PRIVATE DANCER (2020), an uncanny installation with stage performance structures and moving lighting referencing Tina Turner’s hit but surprisingly silent, and GRAVITY SOLO I: HYPERPERFORMANCE (2022), a smaller installation featuring two calcite rocks pressing the keys of an electric keyboard, endlessly playing the same sound.

All these technological and sound-related installations also connect with the annexed exhibition of the Taipei Art Award 2023, located on the last floor of the TFAM. Showcasing a vast range of promising talents from Taiwan, most of the works are well-versed in automation and multi-sensory experience.

These synesthetic encounters also underscore Taipei’s strong commitment to performing arts, thanks to several dynamic institutions. The CubeProject Space and the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB), where dj sniff has successively exhibited his work over the past years, stand as landmark institutions. The Taipei Performing Arts Centre (TPAC), inaugurated in 2022 in a state-of-the-art building conceived by starchitects Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten (OMA), tends to reinforce the intersection of music and visual arts as well. Thus, sound may also be seen as an idiosyncratic move of the biennial to create synergies within the entire Taipei’s artistic ecosystem. Interestingly, an unexpected convergence between music and contemporary art is also witnessed in the art market with the ‘Post-Millennium Evening Sale’ at Christie’s Hong Kong in December 2023, in collaboration with Taiwanese singer and musician Jay Chou.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of ADP or STIR's Editors.)

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▪ Source: STIR World｜https://www.stirworld.com/think-opinions-taipei-biennial-small-world-thinking-big

▪ Words: Rémy Jarry

▪ Photography Credit: © Natascha Sadr Haghighian, © Taipei Fine Arts Museum, © Arthur Ou, © Lara Tabet, © Aditya Novali, ROH, Jakarta, © Nadim Abbas, © Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, © Genpei Akasegawa and SCAI THE BATH HOUSE, © dj sniff, © Taipei Biennial 2023

Taipei Biennial: "Small World" Thinking Big