The Making of Taiwan’s International Contemporary Art Scene: Taiwan Participation at Biennale di Venezia and Taipei Biennial (2010-2020).

Abstract

The biennale exhibition has become a worldwide art phenomenon. The Taipei Biennale was created during the period of the "biennale boom" in the 1990s, hoping to play a role in the interconnected art world. On the other hand, Taiwan at the Venice Biennale still struggles from the mechanism of national representation. Both of them are organized by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and are the most important venues for contemporary artists to gain international exposure and interact with the international community. The thesis attempts to discover the relations between these two art venues, by discussing the developments and the debates of biennale exhibitions of Taiwan from 2010 to 2020, which includes discourses on national representation, cultural policy, exhibition structures, and curatorial mechanisms. The thesis suggests that change in the social and political context in the recent decade had a crucial impact on the biennial exhibitions in Taiwan, in terms of state representation, curatorial practice, and definition of contemporary art. More, an investigation on Taipei Biennial 2020 You and I Don't Live on the Same Planet and on the collateral event 3x3x6 at the 58th Venice Biennale is made. I found out that for both exhibitions there is a trend to address universal issues in the exhibitions. Especially, the Taipei Biennial, since 2016, has displayed a clear direction and continuation, on the discussion and development of a topic relative to the environment and territory. The participation of biennials reflects the desire to enter the art world in the West and to claim its cultural competence on the international stage, which offers a space for re-understanding and dialogue on our history and identity.