16th Taishin Arts Award winners
The establishment of the prestigious Taiwanese contemporary art award, the Taishin Arts Award, is to recognize outstanding exhibitions and performances of the year that encourage humanistic thoughts, honor contemporary spirit, and embody professional, aesthetic achievement. After a year-long process of observation, nomination and selection, the Award ceremony took place at Taishin Tower on June 2, 2018. In the ceremony, the winners of the 16th Taishin Arts Award, selected from the sixteen finalist artists and art groups, were announced. They are:
Taishin Visual Arts Award
Incarnation: Yao Jui-Chung Solo Exhibition
Taishin Performing Arts Award
Stay That Way: Bulareyaung Dance and Cultural Foundation
Taishin Annual Grand Prize
Kau-Puê, Mutual Companionship in Near Future: 2017 Soulangh International Contemporary Art Festival—Chief curator Gong Jow-Jiun and the team of curators Chen Po-I, Eric Chen, Chen Yen-Ing and Huang Chiung-Ying
The chairman of the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture, Mr. Simon Cheng, gave an opening speech at the ceremony, stating that the sixteen finalists this year have demonstrated the vibrant and diversified creativity in Taiwan, and their keen critical spirit has provided direct reflections and cautions regarding issues about society, environment, religion and ethnic groups in their works. In other words, the finalist works have reflected the profound insights into the land and society of Taiwan and the re-examination of history in the art circle in recent years.
With the official website, ARTalks, as an open platform, the Taishin Arts Award initiates dialogues between different fields, and invites nine nominators to select sixteen annual finalists from more than one hundred nominated exhibitions and performances throughout last year. Then, the Foundation invites Taiwanese and international professionals to form the final selection jury committee, which includes Taiwanese jurors Chia Chi Jason Wang, Lin Yu-Pin, Huang Hai-Ming, and Liu Shou-You as well as esteemed international jurors, including the Director the Centre Pompidou’s Interdisciplinary Cultural Development Department, Kathryn Weir, the Director of TPAM (Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama), Hiromi Maruoka, and the Artistic Director of Tang Shu-Wing Theatre Studio from Hong Kong, TANG Shu-Wing. After three days of meetings and discussions, the final selection jurors have selected the winners of the three Awards, including the Taishin Annual Grand Prize, with 1.5 million NT dollars (USD 50,000) monetary prize, and the Taishin Visual Arts Award and Taishin Performing Arts Award, each with a 1 million NT dollars (USD 33,600) monetary prize.
In the ceremony, the first to be announced was the Visual Arts Award, which was presented to Incarnation, the solo exhibition of artist Yao Jui-Chung at TKG+. The exhibition featured three hundred photographs and image documentation created by the artist after visiting more than two hundred and thirty temples, graves and parks, where Yao photographed the religious statues and captured the cultural landscape and folk reality of Taiwanese society. The winner of the Performing Arts Award was announced next, which was Stay That Way created by the Paiwan choreographer Bulareyaung. This dance is the third piece by the choreographer after he returned to his tribe in Taitung and founded Bulareyaung Dance Company. The Taishin Annual Grand Prize was awarded to Kau-Puê, Mutual Companionship in Near Future: 2017 Soulangh International Contemporary Art Festival, which stood out from the sixteen finalists. This large-scale exhibition that took place at Soulangh Cultural Park in Tainan was curated by the chief curator Gong Jow-Jiun and the team of curators.
The founding members of the Formosa Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe, the Rukai singer, Muagai, and the Paiwan singer, Ivi, have been invited to perform at this year’s ceremony. Their mesmerizing voices informed with life experience and rich emotions conveyed the diverse culture and arts that have been nourished and nurtured by this island. The entire Award ceremony can be viewed online now. We welcome all to visit our website to catch up on the latest news about the Award and view the documentations of the artists’ creative process!
