Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

TheCube uses project space to link the different layers in artistic practice projects. Project space was not created by Amy CHENG, the founder of TheCube, but in this time when alternative space is being marginalized, TheCube has participated in various long-term joint art projects with both local and international progressive groups to create works that break the framework of the calculated and fragmented perspective fostered by neo-liberalism and capitalism in Taiwan where art projects have focused on creating spectacles. Previous art exhibitions organized by TheCube were eventful and reflected the times, providing a possible alternative route in between government subsidy mechanism and curatorial machines and also outline an ideal way to rebuild and get reacquainted with society.   Committee member:CHIANG Po-Shin

Re-envisioning Society is a fourteen-month thematic exhibition project designed by Amy CHENG, and has won the Curatorial Practice in Exhibitions Project grant subsidized by the National Culture and Arts Foundation. Through re-examining the contemporary lifestyle, individual and collective life experiences, and the changes in such experiences, Re-envisioning Society reconstructs our “vision” in contemporary society, and demonstrates the artistic and narrative capacity of small spaces.

Artwork Introduction

Re-envisioning Society gives consideration to the social consciousness we identify with, revolt against or tacitly agree to, as well as the unceasing formation, framing, or manipulation of human relationships. The path we adopt with art lies in our queries: If we impart a dynamic role to society, then how should we imagine the future? Is there is still the possibility of producing different forms of social connection?

"Re-envisioning" implies uncovering the authentic relationships that have been concealed, imagining (or creating a vision) based on them, and putting into practice a potential future that is taking shape. Heterogeneous local life experience serves as the point of departure for the exhibition.

Participating artists: JAO Chia-En; CHANG Chien-Chi; Oliver Ressler (Austria) & Dario Azzellini (Germany); Superflex (Denmark); Yael Bartana (Israel); Yannick Dauby (France), TSAI Wan-Shuen and HSU Yen-Ting; WANG Mo-Lin, YAO Li-Chun; WANG Hong-Kai; CHEN Chieh-Jen; and Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev (Kyrgyzstan)

Reflection upon the Contemporary Lifestyle

Ten teams of artists were invited to present their works in this exhibition: JAO Chia-En; CHANG Chien-Chi; Dario Azzellini (Germany) and Oliver Ressler (Austria); Superflex (Denmark); Yael Bartana (Israel); Yannick Dauby (France), TSAI Wan-Shuen, and HSU Yen-Ting; WANG Hong-Kai; WANG Mo-Lin and YAO Li-Chun; CHEN Chieh-Jen; and Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev (Kyrgyzstan).

The series was devised to reconstruct our “vision” in contemporary society through questioning and reflecting upon the contemporary lifestyle, individual and collective life experiences, and the changes in such experiences. We live in a society of spectacle, where power distribution is dominated by global capitalism, where social space is synchronic, constituted of interwoven, liquid, and singular modernities. How do we see beneath the layers of spectacle, of complex and contradictory modernities, to discover and examine the true relationships between individuals, between individuals and places, and between different places?

Re-constructing the Contemporary Social “Vision”

In the developmental process of local cultures, traditions and modern civilizations, people are constantly facing the mutual alienation between the life values (or “identification” with certain lifestyles) of each individual and the community, perpetually wavering between construction and loss. How should we understand the various covert “driving forces” in historical development, or the challenges to survival within these forces? How do individuals come to terms with the established systems, while striving to survive in contemporary society? How do human needs and desires result in displacement or conflict in this process? In capitalist-structured societies, what kinds of life values can we still pursue? All these are profound questions that we should reflect upon.

The Re-envisioning Society exhibition series is a reflection of the social consciousness we identify with, resist, or tacitly permit. It is also a re-examining of the incessant shaping (or limitation and manipulation) of human relationships. Through their artistic creations, the artists put forward the question of how we may envision a future we seek, if there could be more subjective agency in the society we live in. Furthermore, is it possible to create the agency that forms different social connections?

The title Re-envisioning Society refers to viewing with new perspective the real relationships that have been obscured, and to the “envisioning” and realization of an emerging future. Taking inspiration from heterogeneous “local life experiences,” this exhibition series is unlike the most eminent of the various existing cultural narratives; the artists start out from their actual “body and life experiences,” to seek within the simplified descriptions and arguments for a corresponding relationship, a possible identification, and a way of establishing views and cognition. Reflected back to the widely familiar habits of writing, speaking, and historical narrative, such discoveries can generate a sense of decisiveness belonging to the individual and from the will of the community.

About the Artist

Art critic Amy CHENG served as a lecturer on the history of Western art at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei from 1997 to 1999. She is currently a feature writer for ARTCO Monthly magazine. Her recent exhibitions include the Taiwan Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale and the 3rd Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition in 2012. With music and cultural critic Jeph Lo, she founded Taipei’s TheCube Project Space in 2010.

Production Team

Participating artists: JAO Chia-En; CHANG Chien-Chi; Oliver Ressler (Austria) & Dario Azzellini (Germany); Superflex (Denmark); Yael Bartana (Israel); Yannick Dauby (France), TSAI Wan-Shuen and HSU Yen-Ting; WANG Mo-Lin, YAO Li-Chun; WANG Hong-Kai; CHEN Chieh-Jen; and Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev (Kyrgyzstan)