EVERYDAY LIFE: 2013 Asian Art Biennial
October 5, 2013–January 5, 2014
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
Outdoor plaza and 1st floor exhibition space
2, Sec. 1, Wu Chuan W. Rd., Taichung City 403, Taiwan
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 9–17h; Saturday–Sunday 9–18h
www.asianartbiennial.org
www.ntmofa.gov.tw
EVERYDAY LIFE: 2013 Asian Art Biennial will officially open to the public on October 5. Curated by Iris Shu-Ping Huang, the in-house curator of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, the theme of EVERYDAY LIFE presents creative trends observed in Asian arts’ return to “everyday-ness,” and the aesthetic development with the return to everyday life, including directions involved with social interventions and everyday concerns. Focus is placed on the onsite experiences and sentiments prompted by life’s creative vigor, and be inspired by life and to propose questions and critiques on the routine everyday conventions through micro-revolutions, ordinary knowledge, visual style, and social relationship found in life. 35 artists from 20 different regions and countries will be included in this biennial program.
Looking back at the many important incidents and critical discussions that took place in Asia recently, it is observed that life’s basic necessities and fundamental values have undoubtedly been the most pressing subjects, with different cultural-based issues also investigated during this development. More and more artists are taking an assertive stance in life, and by stepping out of their studios, they have chosen to enter into the site of everyday life and to allow for more self-actualization opportunities. Furthermore, through community links, attempts are made by artists to respond to issues happening in everyday life and also to impart some impacts through creative endeavors. The contributing artists for this exhibition include Taiwanese graffiti artist Candy Bird, who is actively involved in intervening with urban renovation issues; another Taiwanese artist, Kao Jun-Honn, and his team are involved in the extensive survey of sites of ruins in Taiwan, as they recreate the collective social memories that these sites embody. Also included are Australian progressive artist Richard Bell; Israeli artistic collective Public Movement, which specializes in organizing ritualistic performances and actions in public spaces to prompt for discussions of civil rights and public politics. Their creative endeavors utilize physical actions as social language for declarations and critiques, and the physical body is treated as an expressive space open for everyday interventions. These creative contents reflect how contemporary Asian cultures are intermixing in the region’s complex and ironic social-political structures, and also people’s struggles in facing with social reforms and structural shifts.
Everyday issues convey people’s cultural ideals and social values, which are routine contents constructed via layers of social norms, traditional systems, political powers, and habitual customs. At the same time, the ordinary every day is also full of changing possibilities, and its flexibility offers artists ways to create and intervene. In facing with issues and incidents happening currently, artists are able to treat the “everyday life” as a site for the production of values, and using the physical body to conduct actions of actualization and life as the creative text, focus is placed on how to develop everyday aesthetical discourses derived from life’s experiences and actions. Some of the contributing artists for this biennial have created new projects to echo with this year’s theme from observations they’ve made locally, and from which they have uncovered aesthetical forms and creative contents from everyday life or local knowledge, and these artists include Japanese artist Shitamichi Motoyuki, Malaysian artist Roslisham Ismail (a.k.a. ISE), HONF Foundation from Indonesia, Dylan Martorell from Australia, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu from China, Takahiro Iwasaki from Japan.
Life is a constant process of creative production. This year’s biennial includes a diversity of artworks to present the constantly evolving and progressing everyday life in Asia. Also included in the exhibition is the project created by the Riverbed Theater and visual artists, with them bringing an ordinary theater into the exhibition for the presentation of the “JUST FOR YOU” on designated weekends. Furthermore, Korean artist Meekyoung Shin’s sculptural work is extended from the exhibition space into the museum’s restrooms and also the restrooms in the restaurants and coffee shops around the museum. The audience is invited to wash their hands with this sculptural piece and use their everyday warmth to observe the changes as the artwork interacts with life. This year’s biennial includes 35 artists/collectives from 20 countries to present a diverse array of artworks, including performance, installation, graffiti, painting, sculpture, video, sound, and cross-disciplinary theatrical performance. The anticipation is for these diverse perspectives to uncover the different spectacles in the everyday life and to reevaluate the everyday realities that we are experiencing.
Artists: Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme (Palestine) / Richard Bell (Australia) / Candy Bird (Taiwan) / Chiu Chien-Jen (Taiwan) / Gohar Dashti (Iran) / Chto Delat? (Russia) / Inci Eviner (Turkey) / Osang Gwon (Korea) / Honf Foundation (Indonesia) / Huang Hua-Chen (Taiwan) / Takahiro Iwasaki (Japan) / Jitish Kallat (India) / Kao Jun-Honn (Taiwan) / Lee Kit (Hong Kong) / Luxurylogico (Taiwan) / Dylan Martorell (Australia) / Public Movement (Israel) / Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (Thailand) / Riverbed Theatre + Craig Quintero, Hsu Yin-Ling, Carl Johnson (Taiwan/USA) / Riverbed Theatre + Joyce Ho (Taiwan) / Wedhar Riyadi (Indonesia) / Roslisham Ismail (a.k.a. Ise) (Malaysia) / Arin Rungjang (Thailand) / Khvay Samnang (Cambodia) / Chiharu Shiota (Japan) / Meekyoung Shin (Korea) / Shitamichi Motoyuki (Japan) / Slavs & Tatars (Euraisa) / Do Ho Suh (Korea) / Adeela Suleman (Pakistan) / Sun Yuan & Peng Yu (China) / Wei Leng Tay (Singapore) / Tusi Kuang-Yu (Taiwan) / Natee Utarit (Thailand) / Wu Chi-Tsung (Taiwan) / Yu Cheng-Ta (Taiwan)
Media liaison: Tsai Ya-Chun, T +04 2372 3552 #132
