2020 Next Art Tainan: Uneven Parell - KUO I-Chen x CHEN Zi-Yin Curator｜ CHANG Hwei-Lan Date｜2020.03.12 (Thu.) - 2020.04.12 (Sun.) Opening｜2020.03.14 (Sat.) 16:30 Forum｜2020.03.14 (Sat.) 17:00 Guest｜ WANG Po-Wei
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【Statement】 The theme of the 2020 Next Art Tainan Awards “Uneven Parallel” is named from a verse, “Uneven amaranths flowing on the water, and I only search for the one I want,” in Guan Ju – a poem in the famous ancient anthology, Shi Jing (Classic of Poetry). The verse implicates searching the best and most suitable thing for a person. The naming also combines themes from author Ai-Ling Chang’s aesthetic viewpoint “uneven contrast” – symbiosis, layering, and contrast. The exhibition invites winners of the Next Art Tainan Awards and artists of different generations and cultural backgrounds from Taiwan, France, and Japan, to present their artworks. The artworks, including paintings, sculptures, mixed media, new media, are displayed diversely through space installations and “In Situ”. By gathering 10 exhibition venues in Tainan to converse and interact, personal memories and their relations with time and space are explored. Fractions of memories also reorganize the new possibilities of reading, including “Différance” between tradition and modernism, memories and imagination of the future, conversations between life experiences and history, the hustle and loneliness of the modern day, and layers of all kinds of circumstances. This exhibition “Uneven Parallel,” with the participation of the audience, will influence the observation phenomena while attempting to construct the conversing relationship between two subjects. At the same time, the audience is invited to use “displacement” as their method to explore these ten exhibitions, external extensive “In Situ” displays, and an individual exhibition. By taking part in distinctive movements in Tainan, along with the exhibitors, the audience can construct a parallel universe with diverse understanding, observation, record and writing. The Next Art Tainan Awards 2020 will use the multiple interpretations of “Uneven” to present the connecting relationships between a microscopic scale to an enormous one, entirety to fragment, and soul to existing matter, instead of two complete opposites. We hope to offer an experience of being the subjects mutually, accepting differences and being inclusive. Also, through the conversion of images, paintings, and materials, the contrasted layering of space and material is depicted, offering imagination and inspiration to the surrounding reality.
【About Artist Zi-Yin Chen】
Born in Taipei in 1995, Chen is currently studying in New Media Art MFA of Taipei National University of Arts. Chen focuses on images and installations combining with space, light, and sound. She frequently uses scientific images provided by ‘ISS’ as well as her own imaginations toward the great unknown in universe. A question she has raised toward the reality is, “Can one truly understand the world with how we feel about it?”
【About Artist I-Chen Kuo】 Born in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, in 1979, Yi-chen Guo graduated from the Institute of Techno Art at Taipei National University of the Arts. Guo now lives in Taipei. In 2005, Guo’s work Invade was admitted and exhibited at Taiwan Pavilion of the Venice Biennale on the behalf of Taiwan, making him the youngest artist who ever participated in the Biennale. He was awarded the ‘Taipei Arts Award’ in 2005 and was one of the five nominees for the ‘Visual Arts Award’ of the ‘Taishin Arts Awards’ in 2008. In 2016, Guo won the ‘Golden Tripod Awards for Publications’ with his children’s book, 宇宙掉了一顆牙. In 2017, Guo founded ‘STUPIN’, an artist studio residency platform. His works have been exhibited at Taipei Biennial, Singapore Biennale, Biennale of Sydney, Seoul International Media Art Biennale, the ZKM in German and many more important art museums. Even today, countries from all over the world are still inviting Guo to display his works at different exhibitions. With different art media, Guo continuously creates a unique vocabulary, which is poetic as well as situational, in his works. The core of his creation focuses on the environment, the disappearing sense of belonging in our heart and the drifting mental state. He explores the nature of life and visualizes it at a non-existent state.