2022 Taiwan Art Biennial: Love and Death of Sentient Beings

The 8th “Taiwan Art Biennial” (hereinafter the Biennial), directed by the Ministry of Culture and hosted by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (hence NTMoFA), will have its grand opening on November 5. The curatorial team for this Biennial includes Curator Manray Hsu, known for his numerous international and local exhibitions of contemporary art, and Co-Curator I-wen Chang, who specializes in dance, the body, and cyborg theory. The exhibition’s title, “Love and Death of Sentient Beings,” is inspired by compelling lines of poetry; the show seeks to rethink human-to-human, human-to-other-species, and human-to-world interactions in the digital age. The unpredictable and fluid nature of “sentience” will almost certainly challenge the overall social order or the progressivist historical view provided in the scope of nature or culture, through which the intertwined dynamic processes between modern technologies and the environment can be understood.

2022 Taiwan Art Biennial—Love and Death of Sentient Beings invites 32 groups of artists and collectives, to overturn Taiwan’s historiography under different contexts of subjectivity, presenting Taiwan to audiences through a multiversal perspective. The curators have proposed four sub-topics for the exhibition, respectively: “The Ecology of Modern Technology—The Lost Space as Metaphor”, “Re-Weaving the Cosmos—Presence of Contemporary Indigeneity”, Body as Battleground—The Discipline of History”, and “Love and Death of Sentient Beings—The Return of Animism”. Through explosive works, the participating artists/collectives reflect on the curatorial notion; this Biennial features over 17 all-new works, including 8 live works expressly responding to and developed for the Biennial conditions. There are 6 groups of Indigenous artists and collectives among these, as well as several whose projects center on indigeneity and postcoloniality, and 13 participating female artists or creative directors.

Over the four-month exhibition period, 29 events and performances will be offered, including various artist forums, thematic seminars, and other educational activities. Hsu Jung, who received the Golden Nica, Interactive Art + at Prix Ars Electronica 2022, and Colombian artist Natalia Rivera, who was selected to present her award-winning work Bi0film.net: Resist like bacteria, exclusively for the Biennial, are two artists to watch. Along with the Museum audience, the artist will invite participants from online movements all over the world to an online workshop where they will debate engagement and cooperation using online techniques and global social movements.

The 2022 Taiwan Art Biennial, according to NTMoFA Museum Director Liao Jen-yi, has accepted various performance pieces that violate Museum tropes. Aside from the more well-known visual arts, there are a variety of performance styles available, including lectures, conversations, workshops, sound/vocal works, performances, and performance art. Many dancers and groups have been invited in particular because of the ‘performative turn,’ which, among other difficulties, lies at the heart of the curation. During the exhibition term, many performances and limited works are planned, including the Lost Spaces Project sound art installation and a Parkour performance never previously seen in an art institution. All of this causes the still Museum to turn and dance.

The 2022 Taiwan Art Biennial—Love and Death of Sentient Beings will take place from November 5 to March 5, 2023. The numerous performing activities will take held in stages. Please visit the website for more information on the current visual artworks.

Participating artists:
Dondon Hounwn & collaborators / Siki Sufin / Yuma Taru / Chen Chien-Pei / Liang Ting-Yu / Kuo Chin-Yun / Hsu Cheng-Tang / Sun Ruey-Horng + Chen Wu-Kang / Fangas Nayaw Fangas Nayaw / Yeh Ming-Hwa / Wang Hsiu-Ju / Xu Chia-Chun / Hung Tzu-Ni / Cheng Dao-Yuan / Cheng Wan-Chien / Liu Fang-Yi / DJ Rex Chen / Chihhung Liu / Tsai Hai-Ru / TUNG I-Fen / Walis Labai (Wu Diing-Wuu） / Engineering of Volcano Detonating / Tjimur Dance Theatre / Liu Shou-Yuo+ET@T+Body Phase Studio / Ho Hsiao-Mei, Meimagedance / Melmel Chen / Chiu Chien-Jen / Chou Tai-Chun / Cai Guo-Jie / Chang Jia-Chae / Bare Feet Dance Theatre / Jung Hsu + Natalia Rivera