Medi(t)ation – 2011 Asian Art Biennial
1 October 2011–1 January 2012
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
No.2, Sec. 1, Wu Chuan W. RD.
Taichung 403 Taiwan, R.O.C.
Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Friday: 09:00–17:00
Weekends: 09:00–18:00,
Closed on Monday.
Admission free.
T 886-4-2372-3552 #132
www.asianartbiennial.org
www.ntmofa.gov.tw
The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) will present the third Asian Art Biennial from October 1, 2011. Under the direction of staff curator Iris Shu-Ping Huang, this exhibition proposes the theme Medi(t)ation, a concept that reflects the trend across Asia towards an M-shaped societal structure and the related threats it poses, while presenting a strongly communicative Asian cultural stance and stressing methods for mediating conflicts and tensions.
Building upon the models established and developed by the previous two editions of the Biennial since its inception in 2007, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts encourages and supports in-house curators to conduct research and planning to actively establish a platform for Asian arts and culture exchange through proactive planning and participation, and to further firmly establish Asian aesthetics through international forums and academic presentations.
Medi(t)ation is a neologism coined especially for this exhibition. This term combines the two core concepts of mediation and meditation, stressing mediation of conflict while also standing for the longing for reconciliation inherent in the human spirit. Medi(t)ation refers to exploring changing Asian culture, and how artists search for a middle ground between traditional values and modern cultural development amidst widely varying extreme influences; and how they look for the room for “cultural mediation” over the course of reflection and shifting power structures, to establish their position in the anxious area of global cultural competition.
This exhibition enlists the participation of artists from 20 countries across Asia. Through various creative forms and types of works, they will reflect the cultural essence of Medi(t)ation, stressing subjective self-awareness, communication approaches in response to shifting realities, and means of adjusting to structural transformation. Teams of artists from such countries as Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and Taiwan will also be invited to undertake new on-site commissions, conducting social research surveys, lyrical transfer of everyday language and things, and the inspiration and responses of physical conduct as paths for analyzing Asian reality.
This biennial features 40 artists and collaboration groups, including Shi Jin-Hua, Lin Chuan-Chu, Hamra Abbas, Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan, Leslie de chavez, E Chen, Parastou Forouhar, Shaun Gladwell, Nigel Heyler, Penny Hes Yassour, Ho Tzu Nyen, Dinh Q Le, Ahmet Ögüt, Sopheap Pich , Sara Rahbar, Raqs Media Collective, Shinoda Taro, Tromarama , Tsang Kin-Wah , Xu Tan, Yin Xiuzhen, Yuan Goang-Ming, Andrey Blazhnov, Park Chang Kyong, Bae Young-whan, Min Jung Yeon, Ohmaki Shinji, Aida Makoto, Tiffany Singh, L.N. Tallur, Guy Ben-Ner, Huang Ming-Zheng, Wen Chi-yi, Wawi Nabarroza, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Yee I Lann, Bani Abidi, Samsuddin Wahab, Alexander Ugay, and Michael Rakowitz.
The 2011 Asian Art Biennial will have its opening ceremony at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts on the night of September 30. The exhibition officially opens to the public on October 1. The biennial’s opening will be accompanied by an international Forum and Artist Talks dedicated to discussing Asian contemporary art.
“2011 Asian Art and Curator’s Forum” will be held on October 2 and the participating artists at this year’s Biennial will be invited to the Artist Talks on Oct. 1 for in-depth analyses on the links between their personal creations and the realities of present day Asia.
Media Contact:
Chen Chen-Zhi [cherry@art.ntmofa.gov.tw]
