2020 ART TAIPEI “Art for the Next” fearless of difficulties to reach perfection
2020 ART TAIPEI “Art for the Next” fearless of difficulties to reach perfection
2020 ART TAIPEI will be officially held between 23-26 October at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1. On 29 September, a press conference prior to the fair was held on the 36th floor at Taipei 101, where Deputy Minister of Ministry of Culture, Hsiao Tsung-huang, Deputy Mayor of Taipei, Tsai Ping-kun and Taipei City Councilor, Hsu Shu-hua were all present to reveal this year’s highlights with the Taipei city government.
Taipei flying solo! The unshakable International art expo is standing tall during the pandemic.
In 2020, art events in various cities around the world have been canceled, postponed or changed to online fair, and this includes prominent art fairs like, Art Basel in Hong Kong, Art Basel in Miami Beach, Art Basel Basel; le Beinnale di Venezia has been rescheduled to 2022; KIAF Art Seoul was moved online; Art Fair Tokyo was cancelled and Frieze Art Fair in London was canceled and later changed to an online format. Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are also facing long-term closure and the difficult situation of having the need to lay employees off. Since 1992, 2020 ART TAIPEI has been held for 27 straight years and this year, it is still taking place despite these difficult times, and is turning Taipei City into a global focus.
Taiwan Art Gallery Association Chairperson, CHUNG Ching Hsin expressed: This pre-fair press conference has strong supports from the Taipei City Government and the media, and people’s attention given to art events like this is highly appreciated. 2019 ART TAIPEI has won the gold award of Taiwan MICE Awards in the exhibition Group A category by the Ministry of Economic Affairs out of the seventy entries. This is the greatest form of affirmation for ART TAIPEI, and also whole-heartedly want to thank the executive members and boards of directors and supervisors for their efforts in the past four years. 2020 ART TAIPEI resolves itself to be just like this year’s theme, Art for the Next, to have the courage to climb to the top without fearing the obstacles and difficulties, and to strive to create perfection.
Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Hsiao Tsung-huang, stated in his remarks that the Ministry of Culture started the collaboration with ART TAIPEI in 2005. He respected the ideal of “Academic First, Market Second” held by ART TAIPEI, where in the past three years, TAGA documented Taiwan art history, while this year, Foreign Country •My Homeland-Special Exhibition by Post War Taiwan Alumni Artists reconstructs the missing piece in the puzzle of Taiwan art history. The publication of “A Chronology of the Taiwan Art Galleries•Industry” is also crucial to the reconstruction of the history as well. ART TAIPEI has implemented the art ecology chain of the industry, government, academia and collectors. After 27 years, ART TAIPEI still stands firm with its truly solid and stable foundation.
Deputy Mayor of Taipei, Tsai Ping-kun mentioned that every autumn and winter, Taipei has numerous art events that link up with each other, and despite the pandemic, these events are all taking place according to schedule. He also talked about his past experiences visiting La Biennale di Venezia, where he saw artists in the Taiwan Pavilion, wherein Taiwanese culture and creative concepts drew the audience’s attention, and shows that the works from Taiwanese artists are filled with energy, so he would like to invite everyone to pay a visit at ART TAIPEI between 23-26 October and to cheer our artists on.
Taipei City Councilor, Hsu Shu-hua expressed her gratitude to the Deputy Minister for encouraging the execution of the various policies, and Deputy Mayor Tsai’s push to start from culture to change Taipei . She also mentioned that to allow Taipei’s art and culture to be seen by the world, the greatest force for motivation relies on the joint collaboration from the historical perspective, policies and the markets, which are all quite vital. Only by working together can development move forward.
A must-see event in Asia. Marketing Taipei
ART TAIPEI has consolidate its position as one of the Asian important and integral art events, and become a must-attend event among various culture circles around the world, and travel plans in October are shaped around the event, where a visit to ART TAIPEI are coupled with visits to other cultural institutions in Taipei. In 2018, the guided VIP tour included JUT Art Museum, Hong-Gah Museum and CTBC Financial Park; in 2019, the guided VIP tour extended to MOCA Taipei, PonDing (A collaborative platform for art, books and pop-up events), Taipei Artist Village, and the National Palace Museum. In recent years, ART TAIPEI has been working on the re-branding effect. When those international important art events being cancelled in 2020, the event is looking back at Taipei, featuring special exhibitions linked with Taipei have been planned, for example, the Visualizing the City- 101 Photography Special Exhibition held in collaboration with Taipei 101. Viewing the city from 101 while also gazing at 101 from within the city, uses realistic artworks to present Taipei as a feature and an important member of Asian cities of art and culture. Also, ART TAIPEI has built a NPO Art Space Special Exhibition to link up with those NPO art venues in Taipei, such as Taiwan Art Space Alliance, Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Arts, Art Station x Residence and others, which have all gathered at ART TAIPEI to present the diverse and colorful cross section of the art ecology, and artistic creations in Taiwan through different styles of art.
Stable art sector with robust trade and business.
With the pandemic ravaging the world and the government precautionary measures responses, the cost of business travel in terms of money and time have greatly increased, which meant the number of oversea exhibitors in 2020 ART TAIPEI has decreased. In such a circumstance, there are still 6 new oversea exhibitors participating in ART TAIPEI, which exceeds the 5 first-time domestic exhibitors this year. It shows the brand influence of ART TAIPEI and the importance of Taipei as a hub of Asian art market, to be able to attract oversea art agents to participate in the event. At the same time, the Swiss gallery, MAI36, established a branch office in Taipei in 2019 and this year it is also participating in ART TAIPEI for the first time, illustrating its strategic business layout of setting a foot in Taipei to gaze into Asia. During the 5 days of 2019 ART TAIPEI, the volume of trade in terms of artwork and the related peripheral sectors of food, clothing, accommodation and transportation exceeded 1.3 billion NTD in total. Moreover, 2019 ART TAIPEI was honored with the gold award at Taiwan MICE Awards in the exhibition Group A category, held by the Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs. In 2020, ART TAIPEI is also collaborating with the largest global artwork e-commerce platform, Artsy, for the first time. From an art fair organizer’s perspective, the exhibitor data are introduced to the platform which will further promote ART TAIPEI exhibitors to the world.
「Art for the Next」: An art fair held for 27 straight years
The 27th Art Taipei will be officially open between 23-26 October at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1. Since 1992, ART TAIPEI has been held for 27 years straight and this year, it is still taking place despite these difficult times, revealing the perseverance and resilience of Taiwan Art Gallery Association and ART TAIPEI. On 11 September, ART TAIPEI announced ten highlights demonstrating the expectations and ambitions of this esteemed, 27 year old art fair that continues to create brand values for the Asian art market.
1. ForeignCountry·My Homeland--Special Exhibition by Post War Taiwan Alumni Artists
ART TAIPEI continue to hold to the ideal of “academia first, market second” which was established in 2017, where the first three years curated three special exhibitions on early, pioneering Taiwanese artists, the post-war artists and the post-martial law and contemporary artists. This year, “Those Countries• My Home- the Post-War Southeast Asian Artists in Taiwan Special Exhibition” is curating the works created by overseas Chinese students who studied in Taiwan in the late 1950s, demonstrating how after these overseas students came to Taiwan, they took the energy from Taiwan back to their homes and let it flourish, to blossom there.
2. “Art for the Next– Taiwan Collectors’ Collection Exhibition”
2020 ART TAIPEI has implemented the art ecology chain of the industry, government, academia and collectors by incorporating collected artworks into the exhibition. Early in 2018, Taiwan Art Gallery Association Chairperson, CHUNG Ching-Hsin, announced the founding of the Taiwan Collectors Association as a platform in ART TAIPEI to serve collectors, and to increase the actual collection efficiency in ART TAIPEI. In the same year, ART TAIPEI launched the “Window to Video Art-Taiwan Collectors’ Collection Exhibition” to focus on the collection of video art, while in 2019, “Standing Still to See Afar- Taiwan Collectors’ Collection Exhibition” was a theme that resonated with the theme of the fair, the Reproduction of Light. In 2020, the Taiwan Collectors’ Collection Exhibition echoes the English theme, Art for the Next, which further enhances the compatibility between these four major sectors in the art ecology chain by exhibiting collectors’ artworks.
3. International Public Art: Kohei Nawa’s world famous artwork, Throne, previously on exhibit at the Louvre Pyramid
Kohei Nawa’s artwork, Throne, will be exhibited at ART TAIPEI. This installation was presented at Japonismes 2018 inside the Louvre Pyramid. The golden throne floating at the center of pyramid triggers man’s contemplation of the system of authority that has been in replace since the beginning of civilization, and also the possibility of the future.
4. Swiss gallery, MAI 36, joins ART TAIPEI for the first time
MAI 36 GALERIE was established in 1987 at Zurich, Switzerland. Since 1988, it started to curate and to organize art fairs, collaborating with numerous international prominent artists. In 2019, a branch office was established in Taiwan, and the gallery is joining ART TAIPEI as an exhibitor for the first time, bringing works from Thomas Ruff and Pia Fries of the world famous Dusseldorf School and works from the German artist Magnus Plessen; the classic series from the prestigious photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe, for whom MAI 36 Galerie has served as agent since 1988 will also be exhibited. By looking at MAI 36 Galerie’s setup in Taiwan, It is clear that Taiwan’s endeavor in the art sector is starting to make its mark in the international arena. Taiwan’s art landscape is expected to head to the summit with courage, unafraid of the hardships and to create the ultimate wonder just like the theme of ART TAIPEI, Art for the Next.
5. Art Screening Room-Deepest Uprising explorative documentaries as an aesthetic format, a group of highly representative female poets in Asia, stretching across Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, were interviewed. Using their shared contexts, personal perspective and poetry, they respond to their nations’ and governments’ policies, and also successively reveal the sadness, traditional oppression of women in history, and the hostility toward women brought by wars. At the same time, female poets in the changing society are shown to break free from various restraints and the formation of a new literature movement in Asia and a world rich in thoughts.
6. Visualizing the City
Taipei 101 is ubiquitous in the cit. Standing in the Taipei 101 observatory, at top of the city, layers of the urban landscape, crooked and straight, just unfolds in front of your eyes,. The people’s urban memory at that moment shapes the imagined community viewing the city from 101 while gazing at 101 from within the city. The parallax, panorama, coordinates and mirror images manifestations reveal the complexity of internal and external architectures.
7. “Focus• Taiwan” MIT Young Artists’ Connection with the World special exhibition area X Emerging Indigenous Artist special recommendation exhibition X Senior Indigenous Artist Special Exhibition
The Ministry of Culture has been promoting the MIT Young Artists’ Special Exhibition since 2008, and from 2013, has collaborated with ART TAIPEI, via Taiwan Art Gallery Association who matches galleries with artists and serves as an agent to help with marketing and sales at the fair, and also offers further assistance to artists with practical affairs at the fair and to connect with on-site promotion and sales. This year, the MIT Young Artists’ Connection presents 8 artists, seven of whom have studied abroad, received awards and exhibited their works, revealing the trend that overseas young artists are returning to Taiwan with their international experiences, and are feeding into the Taiwan art ecology. At the same time, since 2020, the Ministry of Culture has been jointly promoting indigenous cultural development policies with Council of Indigenous Peoples from cultural and economic perspectives. In ART TAIPEI, the Senior Indigenous Artist Special Exhibition and Emerging Indigenous Artist Special Recommendation Exhibition will be held to cover the beautiful parts of Taiwanese cultures and life, without touching on serious and controversial issues such as rights of indigenous peoples, land, politics and so forth.
8. The second volume of “A Chronology of the Taiwan Art Galleries• Industry” is published.
The second volume of “A Chronology of the Taiwan Art Galleries• Industry” was written by Mr. Zheng Zheng-cheng, covering the history of gallery industry between 1981 and 1990 in a chronological order. At this point in time, there is certain value and significance to comb through the development history of Taiwanese art gallery. Care for the development and continuance of Taiwanese art history are not privileges limited to academic scholars and experts. Instead, it is hoped that each gallery possesses the ideal of helping to write artists into art history and to optimize the performance of industry from an academic perspective. This project was initiated by TAGA Chairperson, CHUNG Ching Hsin, and, the first volume was published in July this year after four years of work, while the second volume has come to fruition in October at ART TAIPEI. 1980s was the era of booming growth for various industries in Taiwan. The social ambience boosted the rapid development of gallery industry, and art and culture grew from strength to strength when propelled by the media and newspapers. Because of this trend back then, it had also facilitated the birth and unbroken twenty-seven year streak that ART TAIPEI has been on.
9. ART TAIPEI X Artsy Collaboration with the largest global artwork e-commerce platform
2020 ART TAIPEI is collaborating with the world largest artwork e-commerce consumer platform. From an art fair organizer’s perspective, the exhibitor data are introduced to further promote Taiwanese galleries to the world. In addition, this collaboration also opened up an a channel of exchange with Artsy and a mechanism beneficial to both sides, which can help to provide strategies and experiences to Taiwan galleries for working with international e-commerce platform in the future. Due to the current trend, online exhibitions and artwork purchases have become a necessary channel of art appreciation in the international art market. In practice, many Taiwan galleries are already working with Artsy. The organizer of ART TAIPEI, Taiwan Art Gallery Association, holding to the ideal of “prospering and being better off together”, expects to build up the network between gallery members and Artsy through this collaboration and looks forward to further collaborations.
10. NPO art space special exhibition shows the diverse cross-section in the structure of the Taiwanese art ecology
Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Fine Arts; Grand View Emerging Artists Award; Lih Pao Cultural Arts Foundation; TAxT at Taoyuan Arts Center and Open Contemporary Art Center; Taiwan Art Space Alliance, Taiwan’s first comic artist, National treasure Liu Hsing-chin’s 65th anniversary work and special exhibition; the Society Photographic Aesthetic Chinese; Art Station x Residence, and other NPO art space have all gathered at ART TAIPEI to present the diverse and colorful art and cultural creations in Taiwan through different styles of art.
2020 ART TAIPEI will be held a grand opening on 22 October and open to the public between 23-26 October at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1. This five-day art feast will certainly be a highlight in the global art calendar. The fair will present Taiwan’s vision and display its ambition to shine on the world stage, and by carefully watching the trend, it will lead the next wave in the art world.
