Take from Society / Give back to Society – A solo exhibition of Yu-Cheng Chou
Opening Times: 19 April – 18 June 2010
Venue: Lobby, 1st F, Taishin Tower (No. 118, Sec 4, Ren-ai Rd. , Taipei, Taiwan)
Take from society / Give back to society
An ideational artwork is happening
What would happen if an art foundation which aims to be non-profit unexpectedly begins to recommend artists’ works to collectors? What message does the artwork convey if the gesture of collecting becomes to be the “performance” that participated in an artwork?
The present exhibition at the 1st Floor of Taishin Tower, Take from society / Give back to society (exhibition continues until 18 June 2010) is an immediate experimental contemporary art program which focuses on the above mentioned questions.
Take from society / Give back to society is a collaboration program between Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture, and the 7th Taishin Arts Award nominee, Yu-Cheng Chou; it was presented after numerous discussions, and was also organized specially for the Taishin Tower. The original concept was to extend Chou’s introspection on his identity as an artist. Through his work he attempts to study and explore the “objects” which artists produce, and see if art could have a more close connection with “society”, besides being an “artwork”?
Chou employs the objective which corporations sponsor the foundation for – the spirit of “Take from society, give back to society”, as his starting point. He uses the letters, “TS” and “GS” from the English translation: “Take from society / Give back to society (the translation is different for the conventional usage, it is only used for this program, based on the design of its form) to respond to the Taishin Holding’s iconic image of the limited TS signature poster work, Take from society / Give back to society. The limited edition of 200 pieces of work, which cost 282 NT dollars each, are based on the work’s production cost. The works will be offered to the employees of the Taishin Holdings to purchase and collect during the exhibition. Meanwhile, the foundation becomes the selling platform for the program. First of all, the foundation sends out a letter with the art director’s signature via the internal domain, and then invites the colleagues to participate the program by recommending peers to collect Chou’s work.
Via the foundation’s selling platform and the “performance” of donating all the income back to the foundation, the artist highlights the non-profit nature of Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture, yet also inspects the existing relationship of dependence between artists and foundation. Moreover, it provides a new vision on the social position and function for both. The entire program is a conceptual and ideational artwork.
From now on,
Art does not only implies visual experiences,
or merely the production of aesthetic objects.
This time, the foundation will examine the possibilities and meaning that art could actively contribute to the society along with Yu-Cheng Chou.
An artist’s social role and an artwork’s social function are issues that are being persistently discussed. Whether the two need to have a necessary relation is hard to determine. This time, the foundation will study this issue along with Yu-Cheng Chou, and opens this discussion to the public for any proposed questions.
The Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture is sponsored by Taishin Holdings, and it reflects the corporations' aims to contribute to the society on its own. Employing this idea as the inspiration for this exhibition program, Chou sees the Taishin Tower as a miniature society, and re-examines the relationship between Taishin Bank Foundation and the employees within the Taishin Tower. There were 10 letters written and sent to the Taishin employees. As these letters awaken the existence of the foundation for the employees, they also trigger the foundation to consider and question the social responsibilities to which the foundation needs to commit.
Could the intervention by the artists create a new co-existential relationship between the foundation and the employees in the Taishin Towers? The exhibition program, Take from society / Give back to society which Yu-Cheng Chou is about to explore will be an immediate progressive experiment on this issue.
