Re-Base: When Experiments Become Attitude

The Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab is located in a site that was formerly known as the Industrial Research Institute for the Taiwan Governor General’s Office during the Japanese Ruling Era. After WWII, the site was taken over by the Air Force Commander Headquarters; now, it is a site for cultural experimentation that is open to all. Since its inauguration on August 18th of 2018, the modus operandi of C-Lab has been to innovate and create a new experimental platform; Re-Base: When Experiments Become Attitude will open on November 10.

Curator Wang Jun-Jieh curated this exhibition to investigate the meaning and possibility of experimentation under the restrictions of contemporary global standardization. When the Air Force Commander Headquarters withdrew from the site, the function of the site also shifted. After bearing witness to history and change, the site has returned to its roots and been given new life as a base for cultural experimentation. The project will marry the opened-up old space to the reconstructed new space; the newly resurrected base will then serve as a platform for dialogue as well as a place for convergence. The pre-established functions of the space will be broken through and a new network of inter-connectivity will be regenerated.

This exhibition references certain concepts from the legendary 1969 exhibition Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form, curated by esteemed Swiss curator Harald Szeemann. Szeemann inserted burgeoning art trends that were new to the 1960s—such as Post-Minimalism, Arte Povera, Land Art, and Conceptualism—into the stark white space of the traditional art museum. The juxtaposition created a chaotic aesthetic collision that catalyzed an important turning point for the concept of openness in the Western contemporary art scene. Re-Base: When Experiments Become Attitude aims to return the essence and meaning of the project to the site itself, which has evolved from a heavily-guarded military base to an open space for cultural experimentation. The project also examines the fundamental essence of art and thought as constructs of contemporary civilization and identity. The future is always tinted with a hue of uncertainty, but it is with confidence and resilience that art forges forward.

The exhibition will feature Shu Lea Cheang and Mathew Fuller, Chen Chih-Chien, Chen Hui-Chiao, Chou Man-Nung, Co-coism, Deng Yau-Horng, Hsia Yu, Ken Rinaldo, Wu Chi-Yu, and YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES. 11 individuals/groups of interdisciplinary artists whose expertise span visual, conceptual, performance, literary, and new media arts will participate in this exhibition. These artists come from a wide range of disciplines and create new contemporary possibilities through their shared qualities and anachronistic convictions. All the works featured in the exhibition are site-specific and are inspired by the space. Diversity will be achieved by incorporating installations, collaborations, performances and forums into the project; these elements will both interfere with and inform the exhibition. As we examine the issues of art, civilization, and historical construct, we must also take into consideration the peripheral issues of environment, space, behavior, and life and ask ourselves: are we consciously changing or re-creating civilization? The moment in which experiments become attitude is the moment that we declare our openness and freedom and return to the fundamental examination of our surroundings, a quest that requires a limitless source of critical thinking and creative energy.