Taipei Biennial 2016: Gestures and Archives of the Present, Genealogies of the Future

Organized by Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM)
Curated by Corinne Diserens
Full program here.

With Dareen Abbas, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Saâdane Afif, John Akomfrah, Francis Alÿs, anarchive, Sven Augustijnen & Hannah Ryggen, Chang Teng-Yuan, Chen Chieh-jen, Eric Chen & Rain Wu, Fei-hao Chen, I-Hsuen Chen, Chiang Kai-chun, Tiffany Chung, Tacita Dean, Manon de Boer, Ângela FFerreira, Peter Friedl, Valeska Gert, Kyungah Ham, James T. Hong, Chia-Wei Hsu, Li-Hui Huang, Huang Mingchuan, Po-Chih Huang, Yi-Chen Hung, Im Heung-soon, siren eun young jung, Bahman Kiarostami, Kao Jun-Honn, Kuo Yu-Ping, Latifa Laâbissi & I-Fang Lin & Christophe Wavelet, I-Chern Lai, Yi-Chih Lai, Lê Thị Kim Bạch, Xavier Le Roy, Hsu-Pin Lee, James Ming-Hsueh Lee, Pierre Leguillon, Minouk Lim, River Lin, Lin Yi-Wei, Chih-Hung Liu, Vincent Meessen, Christine Meisner, Santu Mofokeng, Jean-Luc Moulène, Reinhard Mucha, Pages Magazine, Park Chan-Kyong, Pen Sereypagna & The Vann Molyvann Project, Pen Varlen, Jo Ractliffe, Ella Raidel, Yvonne Rainer, Shubigi Rao, Ad Reinhardt, Walid Sadek, Anri Sala, Alexander Schellow, Shake, Nida Sinnokrot, Penny Siopis, Su Yu Hsien, Nasrin Tabatabai & Babak Afrassibi, Ting Chaong-Wen & Yannick Dauby, Trần Lương, Trương Công Tùng, Po-Hao Tseng & Lecture of Ghost, Hong-Kai Wang, Wang Mo-Lin & Blacklist Studio & Au Sow-Yee, Christophe Wavelet, Witkacy, Wu Chi-Yu & Shen Sum-Sum & Musquiqui Chihying, Paola Yacoub, Yeh Wei-Li & Yeh Shih-Chiang
 

November and December updates:
The Taipei Biennial 2016 was inaugurated on September 9, 2016 with the opening of its exhibition Gestures and Archives of the Present, Genealogies of the Future that will run until February 5, 2017 at TFAM. Engaging “performing the archives, performing the architecture, performing the retrospective” with the invention of narratives, and embracing artistic trans-disciplinary experimentations and historical resonances, the biennial’s five-month long program interweaves exhibitions, performances, screenings, symposiums, readings, conferences, and workshops.

Following the presentations early November of the theatrical performance Hermeneutics of Hamlet Machine by Wang Mo-Lin & Blacklist Studio & Au Sow-Yee, and River Lin’s choreography 20 Minutes for the 20th Century, but Asian, the performance program continues on November 19 and 20 at TFAM with James T. Hong premiering a new multimedia piece commissioned by the Taipei Biennial and entitled Nietzsche Reincarnated as a Chinese Woman and their Shared Lives. Performed by Lin Yu, it takes the form of a live monologue questioning morality’s value.

The series of monthly conferences Kau-Puê × Photography Forum organized with art historian Jow-Jiun Gong continues on November 19 and December 17, with an exploration from alternative perspectives of images of Taoist-Buddhist religious folk festivals in the history of Taiwanese photography. With photographers, researchers, and editors Lin Bo-Liang, Chen Chia-Chi, Li-Hsin Kuo, Chang Shih-Lun, Huang Yongsong, and Chien Yun-Ping.

Taking the Tapani Incident (1915)—the last large-scale armed insurgency of the Japanese colonial period—as its backbone and enriching the content with folklore of regional temples dedicated to roaming spirits and ghosts, the tales in Lecture of Ghost written by Po-Hao Tseng work to fabricate a narrative body of resistance with stories told through live performances by Tseng, Chung-En Wu, and Kai Cheng Dai. At Kishu An Forest of Literature on November 25 and 26, Lecture of Ghost II comprises three of the tales: The Enchanted Flag, The Magical Foreseen, and The Fake Wang Yeh (Royal Lords), combining song, and monodrama in an experimental theatrical format.

The second of the three parts Taipei Biennial Symposium will be held November 26–27, 2016 at TFAM. History and theory not regarded as entities separate from art practices, it draws from heterogeneous resources, exploring pedagogical formats with interventions by fiction writers Maxi Obexer and Amandeep S. Sandhu, artists Gediminas Urbonas, Sven Augustijnen, Saâdane Afif, and Latifa Laâbissi—Lin I-Fang—Christophe Wavelet, researcher Fabrizio Gallanti, collective Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai, Chen Po-I, Chiu Chun-Ta, Su Yu Hsieh, and architects Eric Chen and Wu Rain.

“Now that established values are breaking down, and what seemed to feed common sentiment and intelligence has become problematical; now that no converging cultural will can keep the need for invention within stable forms—I declare that grotesque dance crystallizes, in a single gesture and for our time, the extremes that are about to explode.” These lines, written in 1920 in Berlin by dancer, cabaret artist, choreographer, actor, and singer Valeska Gert, resonate today for the trio Latifa Laâbissi, I-Fang Lin, and Christophe Wavelet in ways that motivate the work OF GRIMACES AND BOMBS – Valeska G., a Travelogue, or: Who’s Afraid of the Grotesque? which they will premiere at TFAM on December 1, 2 and 3.

Starting on December 9, the biennial will host “Retrospective” conceived by Xavier Le Roy as a choreography of actions by 15 Taiwanese performers in situations that investigate various experiences of the present as a composition of several times coexisting in the same time and space. It engages with excerpts from Le Roy's solo works and biographical elements from each performer as well as intersecting apparatuses of the theater and the museum. Artistic collaboration: Scarlet Yu. With: I-Hsiang Wang, Sophia Wang, Chiu-Yi Chiang, Ogawa Lyu, Lu Lee, River Lin, I-Fang Lin, Yu-Ju Lin, Sean Hsu, Jia-Ling Hsu, Fangas Nayaw, Fu-Rong Chen, Sherwood Chen, Hao Cheng, Pin-Wen Su.

In December, an installation by Tiffany Chung including cartographic drawings, videos, found audio recordings, archival photographic fragments, and journal entries from the artist’s journey will join the exhibition. remapping history: an autopsy of a battle, an excavation of a man’s past unpacks two of the most important battles of Vietnam—the 1971 Operation Lam Sơn 719 and the 1972 Easter Offensive—and provides insights into the effects of warfare and trauma.

On December 10 and 11, The Editorial, a critical editorial platform organized in collaboration with Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong and Vernacular Institute, will take place at TFAM. The program of talks, workshops, book launches, and performances, considers the role and expanding network of independent art publishers in Asia, their local and international impact, and how hybrid publishing practices and ways of articulating and diffusing content have been reshaped as sites of production, exhibition, reception, and transmission. With Badlands Unlimited, C&G Artpartment, Heman Chong, Hagai, Frances Horn, Kao Jun-Honn, Liu Peiyi, Lovely Daze, Jo Ying Peng, Sharmini Pereira, Ran Dian, ruangrupa & Friends, David Senior, Slavs and Tatars, Small Tune Press, Spring Workshop, Heidi Voet, Waterfall, Jason Wee, White Fungus, Brian Kuan Wood, Jun Yang, and more.