2018 Taiwan Biennial: Wild Rhizome

Treating “wild rhizome” as its main theme, the 2018 Taiwan Biennial seeks to address a threefold subject: the organizational structure of artistic communities, the generation of artistic events, and the constellation of art history. Taking an innovative approach, the 2018 Taiwan Biennial revolves around the artists’ respective projects in general and large-scale site-specific works in particular. This exhibition is accomplished in collaboration with a total of 32 artists/ groups, including:

Uitsiann Ong, The Other Cinema Collective, Wu Chi-Zeng, Wu Tzu-An, Wu Yao-Chung, Li Jiun-Yang, Lee Jiun-Shyan, Body Phase Studio, Rahic Talif, Blessing East Coast, Lin Yu-Ting, Lin Bo-Liang, Lin Chun-Yung, Kao Jun-Honn, Chang Li-Ren, Chang En-Man + Yang Wen-Shan (Kuljelje Balasasau), Chang Wen-Hsuan, Chang Chao-Tang, Chuang Ling, Kuo Yu-Ping, Chen Yun, Eric Chen + Lin Yann-Lyn. Chen Yin-Ju, Richard Yao-chi Chen, George Clark, Tree Tree Tree Person - Taroko Arts Residency Project, Yannick Dauby + Tsai Wan-Shuen, Cheng Ting, Su Yu-Xin, Su Yu-Hsien, Su Hsin-Tien, and Su Hui-Yu.

Curated by Gong Jow-Jiun (guest curator) and Chou Yu-Ling (our in-house curator), Wild Rhizome, the 2018 Taiwan Biennial, will be on view from September 22, 2018 to February 10, 2019 at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Five sub-themes—“Wild Mountains and Seas,” “Wild History and Image,” “Wild Body,” “Wild Constellation,” and “Wild Dwelling”—are developed from the underlying concept of “wild rhizome” and presented in multifarious forms such as visual arts, cinema, theater, settlement, seminar, and workshop. The ethos of this specific venue overgrown with organic “wild rhizome” thus manifests itself in these event-driven cross-disciplinary experiments.

On a more specific basis, “Wild Mountains and Seas” outlines the natural history and the trauma-evoking sites for indigenous peoples, depicting contemporary art scenes based on the history of natural environment through the Jewel Beetle project, the early 20th-century survey into the Dabao tribe, Open Circle Tribe founded in the early 21st century, the field survey of East Coast, and the marine awareness. Focusing on the avant-garde magazine The Theater Quarterly (1965–66) of the 1960s and the spirit intrinsic to the vibrant community formed around it, “Wild History and Image” is a network interlaced by the relational mappings of image, ethos, and field survey. Starting from “October,” a concatenation of spontaneous actions concerning body, montage and political metaphors taken by a group of theater professionals immediately after the lifting of martial law in 1987, “Wild Body” connects diverse practices such as folk art, experimental theater, and underground music in the 1990s.

Using a material-woven philosophy as its method, “Wild Constellation” highlights the remote connections between individuals and the universe reflected in the constellation-like heterogeneous elements of the exhibits. Home is the unit of analysis of “Wild Dwelling,” which not only takes an inbound look at the stormy journey of personal spirit, but also carries out an outbound exploration of the tottering subjective identity and the hysteric imagination of the future.