ART TAIPEI 2022: Opening Ceremony

ART TAIPEI 2022 is opening at Hall 1 of Taipei World Trade Center on 20 October this year. This year’s fair coincides with Taiwan Art Gallery Association’s (TAGA) 30th anniversary, and is also being held at a critical juncture when the world is coming out the pandemic. This year’s event brings together 138 exhibitors, including 89 Taiwanese galleries, 38 overseas galleries, spanning 8 countries and regions (Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong/China, Singapore, France, the U.S.A., and the U.K.), to this 5-day art fest. ART TAIPEI 2022 combines the current social media trends, with respect for ecology and the environment, and is moving towards the sustainability goal of a green fair. It is also an important art fair in the Asia-Pacific region that has been held for 29 consecutive years, not only shouldering the responsibility of giving voice to Taiwanese art and culture subjectivity on the global stage, but is also a representation of the dynamics of collector structure in the region.

2022 coincides with TAGA's 30th year. On the occasion of the organization’s 30th anniversary, the Minister of Culture was specially invited to present the "Award for highest contribution" at the ART TAIPEI’s opening ceremony. ART TAIPEI was started by TAGA in 1992 and has been held for 29 consecutive years. This year, all previous chairpersons gathered at the ceremony, and Ms. Betty Pai was invited to be its promotional ambassador once more; all are present to witness ART TAIPEI from its creation, its trials and tribulations, and developing into the prosperity seen today.

In his speech, TAGA Chairperson Oliver Chang, as the organizer of the event, said that there was no rain at the VIP preview today, which was ideal weather for visiting the fair. From the setting up to the opening, the galleries and collectors have been quite satisfied. This year's exhibition was also received a lot of assistance from the Ministry of Culture, and the event is sure to produce results that is to the satisfaction of the Ministry. He hopes that when people visit the fair, they can really feel the efforts of Taiwan's art industry. This year, with the country opening back up, more overseas collectors will come to Taiwan, and he hopes that Taiwan's art can be seen by those abroad!

Minister of Culture Yung-Te Lee first commended the efforts of Taiwan's art industry. TAGA, the galleries, and artists joined hand to create the largest art fair in scale in Taiwan's history. The number of art lectures, salons, forums, and the first live streaming of ART TAIPEI Live Talk, he hopes the amount of the transactions can also make history! The Minister then reported on the latest amendments to the regulations on cultural and artistic awards and subsidies, where all public works with a future budget of more than 500 million NTD should allocated 1% of the budget as public art funds. It is estimated that the amendment will allow the scale of the art industry to increase by 1 billion NTD in the future. The Cultural Development Fund, which has been fought over for 20 years, has also been finalized with the efforts of Premier Su, legislators Kuo-Shu Huang and others. The initial expectation is that the budget for collection archiving of the art bank and public art museums will be increased by 300 million NTD. He has seen the artworks created by artists during the pandemic isolation at ART TAIPEI’s opening ceremony and felt the effort of Taiwan’s art and culture. He hopes that the artists’ works this year can produce stellar results.

In his address, legislator Kuo-Shu Huang humorously said that he was the representative of TAGA in the Legislative Yuan. He indicated that he saw international to Taiwanese styles at ART TAIPEI, with a dazzling array of cross-discipline creations from the younger generations, and also showed the hard work that Taiwan has put in to get ready to face the world. Important industries in Taiwan have always been supported by the government, and after Minister Lee took office, the art industry has ushered in the taxation reforms for the industry and the amendments of the regulations on art and cultural awards. He hopes that everyone can enjoy the edification of art at the event this year, which not only welcomes the international community, but also allow visitors to see all kinds of beautiful creations as the world comes to Taiwan.

New generations of collector stirring up social media trends

Since the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world in 2020, it has drastically changed the world's economic structure and art market trends. A large number of new buyers have entered, and continue to enter, the art market; the new generation of collectors pay particular attention to the application of information and the interaction on social media, which create a different market segment separate to experienced collectors. Generation Y, who was born in the early years of the IT boom, and Generation Z, the first digital natives of the population, are the active protagonists in the contemporary art market. In terms of information applications, young people of this generation are accustomed to looking for answers to everything on the Internet, the online exhibition halls that emerged when the epidemic was raging, have, in particular, allowed emerging collectors to come into contact and consume art through various online approaches. This year, ART TAIPEI is still holding a bilingual online exhibition hall. The English online exhibition hall continues the collaboration with Artsy, the largest art e-commerce company in the world. The Chinese version of the online exhibition hall is set up by Art Emperor, the largest art and culture portal in Taiwan, and was launched before the physical preview, becoming an essential part of the arsenal for the new generations of collectors when they lock on the piece of their choice and plan the path for procuring the item. The young people of the digital generation, their opinions, styles and views on art are reflected on social media, and they have become a group that cannot be ignored in the art market. Galleries and exhibitors have also launched art creations that suit the tastes of young collectors. This has become an important art trend in Taiwan and is worth keeping a close eye on.

The green exhibition with sustainable development

The consumption habits of the younger generation are clearly characterized by the sustainable economy of "green consumption". This is also coincidental with ART TAIPEI’s effort of working towards becoming a green exhibition. Aside from developing low carbon emission, and low energy consumption exhibition boards and lighting fixtures, ART TAIPEI had also joined the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) in 2018 to work together with others to reduce carbon emissions in the visual arts, and to practice the goal of zero waste. ART TAIPEI 2022 also revolves around the theme "Art X Sustainability" and present the special exhibition "Artificial, Evolution and Sustainable Future", exploring through the works of artists the impact of human civilization on the natural environment and how technologies and techniques can be used to alert and wake mankind to the problems, as well as to highlight the current state of environmental problems, and even going further to propose how artists imagine technology and civilization can assist, protect, and even offer the possibility of repairing nature.