WE Are Becoming

2026 C-LAB annual exhibition opens with artists from nine countries to explore a collective “we.” The Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB) 2026 annual exhibition, WE Are Becoming, kicks off on May 8 and runs through August 16. The exhibition features 29 cross-media works by artists from nine countries representing Taiwan, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Lithuania, and Peru. Audiences are invited to explore this ever-evolving cultural field and reflect on the role of art in contemporary society and the possibilities it opens up.

Interweaving contemporary dialogues at a historical site
Located in the heart of Taipei, the C-LAB campus carries layered memories of Japanese colonial-era industrial research and Cold War geopolitics. Rather than serving as a static container of history, it continues to operate as a generative site. With “Becoming” as its core concept, the curatorial team moves away from fixed cultural identities toward a state of ongoing flux and reconfiguration. History never arrives all at once; it lingers and unfolds through architectural fissures and spatial residues. Here, the “we” of the past and the “we” of the present converge in a shared gaze: What are we becoming now, and what else might we become?

The “chorus” methodology for a new arrangement of history
The exhibition adopts “chorus as methodology” to recompose historical narratives, giving voice to artworks and images that were previously silenced or overlooked. The force of imagery reflows to transform into a space where contemporary values and perspectives intertwine. Although we do not share the same historical experiences, we collectively bear the debts of war and ecological catastrophes. In today's world of intensified global exchange and entrenched geopolitics, the exhibition resists reducing “we” to a singular consensus. Instead, it constructs a polyphonic matrix in which diverse regional experiences become vital resources for reimagining our collective identity.

Art as a generative force for history
Reflecting on how the two World Wars of the twentieth century profoundly reshaped global order and human perception, art has never been merely a footnote to history, but an active force in its making. From the emancipatory claims of Abstract Expressionism to the decolonial explorations of artists across Asia and the Global South; from ecological reflections, migrant worker dialogues, and institutional critique to speculative imaginaries shaped by AI, these practices converge to form a plural cultural field. Within the exhibition, audiences are invited to move freely, traversing multiple narratives and modes of perception, and to inhabit an interstitial space that invites dwelling, reclining, and wandering.

WE Are Becoming is more than an exhibition; it is an invitation to reposition art from a supplementary cultural role to a vital infrastructure that sustains social imagination and public discourse. In doing so, it furthers C-LAB’s mission as a cultural hub to continually recalibrate and expand the meaning of “we.” For the full program, please visit the official website here.