Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Jury’s Comments for the Visual Arts Award Winner

TAKAMORI Nobuo and his artists team are opening the artistic horizon to interconnections between Taiwan and Africa, finding relations, common interests in most diverse cultural identities. The Oceans and the Interpreters are based on his personal interest and long-term research on different cultures in Taiwan and the Global South. The exhibition is not a final result of his research, but rather just one more step in an ongoing artistic discovery process. We believe that TAKAMORI Nobuo has a very sincere interest and respectful view on the diversity of artistic and cultural expressions, also considering the different conditions under which artists work in different societies. With this award we hope to encourage the further development of his research and artistic statements and even reach out to other continents.

Comments on the Finalists

Curated by Takamori Nobuo, The Oceans and the Interpreters is a research-based group exhibition hosted by Hong-gah Museum and Solid Art. The exhibition introduces a refreshing research direction of cultural history—it explores the interaction and interrelation between Africa and Asia in terms of national identity, politics, history and culture, while bridging the virtual and the real as well as the grand history and individual life history to enrich interdisciplinary interpretations showcased in the exhibition. To Taiwan as one of the Asian islands (and a crucial link in maritime culture), such an ambition demonstrated in the exhibition is indeed precious. Subsequently, it will be worthy to observe how the research project can explore more thoroughly this “other” that is rather unique to Taiwan so as to facilitate a more effective context of dialogue. (Commentator / WU Chia-Hsuan)

Artwork Introduction 

The Oceans and the Interpreters marks an endeavor to respond to Nigerian author Wole Soyinka’s novel, The Interpreters (1965), which talks about several friends of different professions returning to the newly established Nigeria after studying abroad, and how they become lost in the identity maze of an emerging nation. The Oceans and the Interpreters can be seen as the curator’s journey to the pan-African cultural circle since 2017 and the phasal result of his research during this period. In addition to introducing African and Caribbean arts to Asian audiences, this exhibition further aims to inquire into the artistic perspectives of Africa-Asia relations.

About the Artist 

TAKAMORI Nobuo (b. 1985) is an independent curator of Taiwanese and Japanese descent. He is the director of the curators collective, Outsiders Factory. His major curatorial works in recent years include Post-Actitud (2011), South Country, South of Country (2012), the Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition – The Return of Ghosts (2014), Is/In-Land: Mongolian Taiwanese Contemporary Art Exchange Project (2018), The Secret South: from Cold War Perspective to Global South in Museum Collection (2020), and Phantasmapolis – The 2021 Asian Art Biennial (2021).

Production Team 

Curator | Takamori Nobuo

Artists |

AU Sow Yee / Malaysia, Taiwan

CHANG En Man + Temitayo Ogunbiyi / Taiwan + Nigeria

CHE Onejoon / Korea

LIN Jin Da + YU Cheng Che  / Taiwan

Salah Elmur / Sudan

Mulugeta Gebrekidan / Ethiopia

HOO Fan Chon / Malaysia

Tirzo Martha / Curaçao

Naeem Mohaiemen / Bangladesh

Carlos Motta / Colombia, USA

Musquiqui Chihying + Elom 20ce + Gregor Kasper / Taiwan + Togo + Germany

Tuan Andrew Nguyen / Vietnam

Posak Jodian / Taiwan

Mark Salvatus / The Philippines

Ousmane Sembène / Senegal

Stefanos Tsivopoulos / Greece

WANG Hong Kai + Lou MO / Taiwan + Canada

YAO Jui Chung + Hank CHENG / Taiwan

Organizers

Chew’s Culture Foundation

Hong Gah Museum

Solid Art

Britto Arts Trust

Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos