News Release (2013.04.29)
Discovering‘
Pioneering Values’ in WRO Media Art Biennale 2013
Taiwanese
Curator Reinterprets the Value of the Progress with ‘The Apocalyptic Sensibility’
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of
the birth of electronic art, the 15th WRO Media Art Biennale takes ‘Pioneering
Values’ as the focal theme. From May 8 till May 11 of 2013, the opening
programs will launch in the eighteen exhibition venues all over Wroclaw. WRO
2013 will have the debut of the New Media Art from Taiwan. Among 1500 works in
the open call, the Taiwanese artists Lin Pey-Chwen’s ‘ Eve Clone’ and Wu
Chi-Tsung’s ‘Crystal City’ are selected with the curatorial concept ‘ The
Apocalyptic Sensibility’ of the Taiwanese curator Yunnia Yang.
The
Apocalyptic Sensibility: The New Media Art
from Taiwan
The project ‘The
Apocalyptic Sensibility: The New Media Art
from Taiwan’ in WRO
2013, curated by Yunnia Yang, will be held in the Ballestrem Palace in Wroclaw
from May 9 till June 16, 2013. Without highlighting the progress of technology,
the Taiwanese curator thinks that the advanced
development of technologies in
21st century is unprecedentedly avant-garde and innovative. In this evolution,
the life of human beings has been improved on a large scale, from solving
problems to stimulating imagination, to breaking the boundaries, to challenging
the unknown. In the human civilization, the pioneers express their foresighted
visions and courage to make their dreams come true. As the Greek mythology of
Prometheus, the cultural hero dares to offend the Gods to steal fire for human
beings and to turn the darkness into the brightness. The role of a pioneer has been always regarded
as a pilot who leads ahead, but he might be a critical thinker. Under the excess
obsession and the advanced development of technologies, could the human beings
employ technologies rationally, as well as create the harmonious relations
between technology, nature and humanity?
The
2012 Apocalypse of Mayans has gained attentions from the global audience. The
theme on the Apocalypse has existed in our popular culture, such as films,
novels and comics. It seems that the apocalyptic imagination doesn’t give so
much impact to the normal life of human beings and doesn’t cause any overall panic.
In the end of the 19th century, the apocalyptic imagination fused love, sex and
death together, giving birth to the decadent aesthetics of ‘ Art Nouveau’. It
is the point of no return for the contemporaries to enjoy the best love in the
life and to indulge in the fin-de-siecle romanticism even if they were
confronting the death. Owing to the globalization, mediation world, and
technologization, the apocalyptic imagination in the 21st century is influenced
by the simultaneous real-time transmission of the disasters; the reality
replaces the imagination. The apocalyptic condition is namely the current
situation of the human beings. The apocalyptic imagination might be regarded as
an alternative for the survival issue: imagining the human beings to retreat to
the utopia land we desire or escape into the virtual world. Walter Benjamin
presumed that the postmodern culture is the most apocalyptic representation in
the human civilization, regarding the progress as a storm. He predicted that
the secret worries behind the advanced development of technologies might be the
negligence and even negation of the human sensibility. The Apocalyptic complex
is probably a turning point for the destiny of human beings. The attitude to
the future is neither absolutely certain, nor positively on the bright side.
The ambiguous and enigmatic uncertainty is exactly the perception the
contemporaries are experiencing right now. The crisis might be a chance! As the
progress is not the only option for human beings to take in the human
civilization, ‘Pioneering Values’ doesn't mean to play the leading role in the
age. The sensibility and the critical thinking that the Apocalyptic complex has
caused will change the new generations’ values to the progress.
In the human
civilization, the pioneers express their foresighted visions and courage to
make their dreams come true. As the Greek mythology of Prometheus, the cultural
hero dares to offend the Gods to steal fire for human beings and to turn the
darkness into the brightness. In 21st century, the advanced development of
technologies is unprecedentedly avant-garde and innovative. In this evolution,
the life of human beings has been improved on a large scale, from solving
problems to stimulating imagination, to breaking the boundaries, to challenging
the unknown. The role of a pioneer has been always regarded as a pilot who
leads ahead, but he might be a critical thinker. Under the excess obsession and
the advanced development of technologies, could the human beings employ
technologies rationally, as well as create the harmonious relations between
technology, nature and humanity?
Eve Clone - the Incarnation of Desire
Crystal City, Where Our Spirit Accommodates
The Apocalyptic Sensibility: The New Media Art from
Taiwan
Curator
: Yunnia Yang
Artists
& Works : Lin Pey Chwen 【The
Revelation of Eve Clone】、【The Portraits of Eve
Clone】; Wu Chi-Tsung 【Crystal
City 002】
Opening
Ceremony: 10 pm , May 9, 2013 (Thursday)
Exhibition
Period: May 9 – June 16, 2013
Exhibition:
Ballestem Palace, Wroclaw, Poland
Organizer:
WRO Art Center(Poland), VS performer’s body(Taiwan), Lin Peychwen Digital
ArtLab. (Taiwan)
Sponsor:
Ministry of Culture, R.O.C.(Taiwan)/Ministry of Foreign Affairs, R.O.C.
(Taiwan)/Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government(Taiwan)/
Department of Cultural Affairs, New Taipei City Government(Taiwan)
Curator: Yunnia Yang(楊衍畇)
Expert
in Surrealism. Fascinating with Salvador Dali’s ‘Paranoiac Criticism’, Yunnia
Yang has an insight into the experimental spirit and unlimited creativity of
interdisciplinary arts. She has received the S-An Aesthetics Award with the
thesis “Irrational Narration. Myth Making: On the ‘ Angelus myth’ created by
Salvador Dalí with the concept ‘ Paranoiac-Criticism’” in 2010. In the same
year, she has delivered the academic paper ‘Uncovering Alice’s Cabin of
Curiosities: on the Sadomasochism of Infantile Imagination in the film ‘Něco z
Alenky’ of Jan Švankmajer, in the 6th International Symposium of Surrealism in
United Kingdom.
For
the concern of the impact of media obsession in our lives, Yunnia has curated
the experimental performance ‘Manic Depression: The Shadow-Image-Sound Complex’
in the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Taipei in 2011.
Yunnia
Yang has received the Master degree in Art History from St. Petersburg State
University in Russia in 1997, and Doctor degree in Arts from National Taiwan
Normal University in 2009. During this period, she managed all kinds of
exhibitions, performances, and art events for the institutions of arts,
literature and culture in Taiwan. Since 2011, she has launched the long-term
curatorial research on ‘ The Postmodern Condition in the contemporary art of
Russia and Eastern Europe’ in cooperation with the following art institutions:
National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow(Russia), the Executive
Committee of ‘ Night of Museum in St. Petersburg’(Russia), Agency for
Contemporary Art (ACAX) of Ludwig Museum in Budapest(Hungary), Opekta Ateliers
Köln(Germany), Contemporary Art Foundation(Taiwan), and National Culture and
Arts Foundation(Taiwan). This project will be realized in form of thematic
exhibitions and monographs.
Artist
: Lin, Pey Chwen(林珮淳)
Lin, Pey Chwen received her doctorate degree of Creative Arts
from University of Wollongong in Australia. She is the founded member and
chairman of Taiwan Woman’s Art Association and Space II. She was invited to
exhibit her works in many national and international art galleries and museums
such as National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, MOCA
Taipei, Kaohsiung Museum of Arts, Queens Museum of Art in USA, and several
important Biennials and festivals such as Media Art Biennale in Poland, Taipei
Art Biennial, Taiwan Biennial, Exit and VIA Art Festival in France, 404
Festival of Art and Technology in Argentina, Many of her works were recorded in art books
including History of Contemporary Taiwan Woman Artists, Installation Art in
Taiwan, Taiwan Contemporary Art, Taiwan Modern Art Series, The History and
Development of Digital Art, Art of Taiwan, Digital Aesthetics, Art Island - An
Archive of Taiwan Contemporary Artists, High School Art Textbook, Yearbook of
Chinese Contemporary Art and Asian Who’s Who in Singapore, and “n.paradoxa”
which is one of the most important international feminist art Journals in the
world. She is the art professor and the director of Digital Art Lab in National
Taiwan University of Arts.
Artist:
Wu Chi-Tsung(吳季璁)
Wu
Chi-Tsung was born in Taipei, Taiwan (1981), and currently lives and works in
Taipei, Taiwan. Wu received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Taipei National
University of the Arts in 2004. His work, in which he devotes great attention
to the methods used in producing and interpreting images, spans across
different media, including photography, video, and installation art. In 2003, he
received the top prize of the Taipei Arts Award, and in 2006 was short-listed
for the “Artes Mundi” prize. He has had several solo exhibitions, including at
IT Park (Taipei, 2004 and 2009) and Chi-Wen Gallery (Taipei, 2009), and his
work has been included in group exhibitions, such as THE ELEGANCE OF SILENCE
(Mori Museum, Tokyo, 2005), Artes Mundi (National Museum of Cardiff, United
Kingdom, 2006), OUR FUTURE, THE GUY AND MYRIAM ULLENS FOUNDATION COLLECTION
(Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, 2008), and TAIWAN CALLING
- THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY / ELUSIVE ISLAND (Műcsarnok - Kunsthalle, Budapest, 2010).
