SINGAPORE BIENNALE 2008

This fall will see several art biennials in Asia coinciding. Organizers call it Art Compass 2008, and art lovers can visit Sydney, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei and Fukuoka.

Some of these cities are releasing their artist lists. The following is from the press release for the Singapore Biennale 2008. For more info http://www.singaporebiennale.org/
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SINGAPORE BIENNALE 2008
11 September – 16 November 2008
(Vernissage: 9 – 10 September 2008)
Wonder

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The Singapore Biennale 2008 (SB2008), Singapore’s premier international contemporary visual arts event, will open to the public from 11 September to 16 November 2008. Organised by the National Arts Council, the Biennale will feature a total of more than 50 artists and art collectives from over 36 countries and regions including Singapore. Following the critical success of SB2006, this second edition will continue to be the significant cultural event that brings visual arts into the daily lives of Singaporeans.
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THEME
SB2008, through its theme WONDER, proposes to investigate the articulation and creation of marvels, riddles and illusions in our world today. Its conceptual scope issues a challenge to the contemporary world, a world that no longer questions choices, nor allows for things and events to awe us. Through contemporary art, Wonder calls on us to question and be curious; to reach beyond the surface, surpassing the apparent and to allow ourselves be surprised, awed, tantalised and challenged. All of which is an aperture to the World.
"The artworks selected or to be newly developed with the artists, will attempt to cut through the fabric of the politically and socially constructed and perceptual limits, of our world," Artistic Director Fumio Nanjo remarks. "These call upon us to question and be curious, to punch through surfaces of what is apparent so that we can be surprised, tantalised and challenged at what is revealed or presented. Consequently, some of these works also engage our minds and our senses upon terrain that is unexplained, unfamiliar and, at times, seemingly consistent with trickery, or present things of unutterable beauty, that we are held at awe in their presence."
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ARTISTS, ARTIST COLLECTIVES AND ARTWORKS
This exhibition will showcase an illustrious list of established and emerging artists whose works engender wonder about the world we live in. The present artist list includes artists from Asia, Middle East, Europe and the Americas, such as Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Deborah Kelly, Isak Berbic, Hans op de Beeck, Anthony McCall, Isaac Montoya, Faisal Samra, Fujiko Nakaya, Ki-bong Rhee, and Felice Varini, to Southeast Asia and Singapore, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan,
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Heman Chong, Shubigi Rao, Tang Ling Nah and Willy Koh and Sherman Ong. All produce sharp, wonderful work that provide apertures and prisms of possibilities and hope, through which we can gaze at the world.

2008 Taipei Biennial Press Release

Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Concept for 2008 Taipei Biennial

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The 6th Taipei Biennial, like our lives, is uncertain, fragmented and fragile. The project does not have a single theme, but a constellation of correlated themes, most of which address the chaotic states of things in this time of globalization.

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The exhibition engages with the city of Taipei in various ways. It does not only take place in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, but also within the urban spaces. There will be performative works and interventions in the city, some will be documented and reconfigured in the exhibition venues. The exhibition venues will include the Beer Brewery that has been on an extended process of transformation from Taiwan's first beer factory as a production and distribution site built during the Japanese occupation, to a state monopoly, privatization, rebranding and finally relocation of it out of the city center. While the factory's history may represent a classical example of a post-industrialized city anywhere in the world, the exhibition is interested in seeking the nuances and specificities within the general. The brewery's daily operation will go on during the exhibition run, and its space will be utilized as a real place rather than an insular exhibition zone. In addition, the curators plan to utilize a number of advertising boards in the city, spreading around, and coming into view when you least expect it.

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The city does not only refer to a physical site, the museum, where the art of the day turns to and reflects on, but also to other spaces, mental sites where discussions pertaining to globalization and its discontents, the states of things and the opportunities of change are at the core of the daily life. These are the places that artists learn from and feed-back to. For example, the impacts and import of globalization in Taipei or the transformations effecting the mobility of people and the conditions of labor are questions that art is interested in. While art does not have answers to these questions, it has the capacity to reflect on them from different angles, ask different questions and sometimes focus on individual moments. As with the approach of the biennial, no story is infinitely singular. One's story in Taipei links to other places in Asia and the globe. Hence, the exhibition focuses on issues such as globalization and its resistances, the neoliberal habitat, mobility, borders, divided states and micro-nations/states, urban transformations, informal economies, politics, and the war condition. Each focus comes with many other questions, for example, the mobility of a tourist, a temporary worker or a foreign bride are certainly not the same, not even similar. Towards this end, the Biennial has been commissioning as many new works as possible and/or asking the artists to rethink and adapt previous projects in the light of Taipei. There will also be existing works juxtaposed against the new ones. The exhibition will also have thematic compilations and farcical and biting videos. By means of these projects the curators and artists will show the diverse opportunities that this Biennial is capable of creating and responding to.

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List of the Participating Artists in progress (as of March 28, 2008)
Lara Almarcegui Netherlands) Yochai Avrahami (Israel)Matei Bejenaru (Romania) Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkacova omania) Democracia (Spain) Didier Fuiza Faustino (Portugal) Mieke Gerritzen (Netherlands)Shaun Gladwell (Australia)Nicoline van Harskamp (Netherlands) Oliver Ressler (Austria) & Zanny Beggs (Australia) Mario Rizzi (Italy) Katya Sander (Denmark) Saso Sedlacek (Slovenia) Superflex (Denmark) Bert Theis (Italy) Nasan Tur (Germany)Wong Hoy-cheong (Malaysia)

The Value of Art

Money seems to be a good standard to use when comparing hotels, property, vehicles, careers, etc., but it seems to be an inadequate standard to use for valuating art.
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Does a high price tag for an art work automatically imply that the value of that work is intrinsically higher?
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Since art and relating to art is so subjective it seems frivolous and absurd to equate it with money.

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Let’s compare this to a car. Cars can be objectively judged according to its construction, its speed, mileage, safety, style and brand. A suitable price can be accorded to it. A Jaguar will always cost more than a Mazda, for example. It can generally be agreed that these prices in relation to each other are logical and reasonable.

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But in art, however, the logic of the market is really not suitable, nor does it match Art. Then by what standards do we set the value for art? Personally, I think it should be by spit. The more you salivate over an artwork, the higher the value.
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One gallerist was upset to find that a Jeff Koons work cost more than an El Greco and he sought to change the art market. Read about Larry Salander's story here: http://nymag.com/news/features/45324/

What do you think?

Taiwan's current art situation

On Saturday, Taiwan had its presidential election and the clear winner was Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT party with 58 percent of the vote.

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Today's news says that it is expected that foreign investors will pour 300 billion NT$ into the local stock market.

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So how will this affect the arts in Taiwan? When I look back at old copies of the Taipei Times newspaper circa 2000, there were usually a couple art reviews every week reflecting the then-vibrant art scene. In the past few years, as I'm one of their arts contributing reporters, it's been difficult to come up with noteworthy shows to review on a regular basis. Coming up with one a month was often stretching it.

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Even though artists were still creating, the exhibition scene was rather dormant. Funding seemed to focus on traditional expression such as puppet shows and wood carving, with barely any support (financially or space-wise) for the more experimental and the more contemporary. My guess is that people were not feeling so secure to spend money for art exhibitions and were waiting for the presidential elections while holding on to their money.

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Now with the new President, whose daughter, Lesley Ma Wei-ching, works in Cai Guo-qiang's studio in NY, perhaps there will be a sudden flourishing of arts in Taiwan.

We and Me

Our societies and education systems put more emphasis on the left brain rather than the right brain. We line up in rows, memorize info by rote.
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Painting, singing, playing music and teaching those things to children are often downplayed.
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Please check this site and watch the 18 minute video of passionate speaker neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor. After you've wiped away your tears, you will probably change your life.
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http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/main/081589.php

Art = Smart

If you've had training in the arts: visual, music, dance, performing, etc. then you are well aware of how you're utilizing all your faculties.

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Learning to draw helps you with spatial ability while learning to play a musical instrument aids you in long term memory that you can apply to other areas of study.
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Well, a new science study came out that asks: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does art make people smarter?
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Read here for the details:
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080304150459.htm

Shanghai Surprise

photo courtesy of: http://www.china.org.cn/entertainment/2008-03/08/content_11961803.htm


Bjork's shouting of "Tibet" at the end of her song in Shanghai didn't go over so well in China. As the Ministry of Culture says Tibet is an inalienable part of China.

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Can artists create change in China? Please stay tuned.

Mutterings by R.D. Laing

My neck is on the guillotine the blade comes down
my head goes this way the rest goes that
which side will I be on?

Live in the Moment: Tino Sehgal's staged art

Here's an environmentally-friendly artist who makes work that is exhibited and collected but the work is immaterial: Tino Sehgal.
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He creates situations in which a group of people carry out his verbal instructions by using their voices, movements and interaction with the audience. When his works are sold there are no written receipts, catalogues, photos or any documentation whatsoever. The works exist in the moment only.
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Tino Sehgal is based in Berlin and is currently exhibiting older works at Magasin 3 in Stockholm
such as This Is New in which a museum attendant reads out the daily news headlines to visitors.
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One of his previous works, This Success/This Failure was where a group of children tried to get the visitors to join them in their games. It's interesting to see that cultural meaning can still be produced in such an ethereal way.
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http://www.magasin3.com/

freelance writing vs. independent curating

To sell stories to magazines, a freelance writer needs to find a new spin, a new angle, or new research to create something fresh that hasn't been published before. Since magazines usually publish similar topics such as dieting for a woman's mag, the pressure is on to put the topic in a different light in this highly competitive field.
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Let's compare this to the independent curating of biennials, which are those mega-exhibitions that take place in various cities around the world as a way to boost international recognition for the host country and to merge global ideas with the local. A biennial is usually designed by one, two or a team of recognized independent curators who first come up with a theme and then invite internationally-renowned artists along with the city's own artists who are perhaps not as well-known. This is what's called in art circles as "dialogue."
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Lately, take a look at any city's biennial, and it seems like a similar list of artists (Yawn) appear along with a similar scheme of themes such as 'war is bad', 'colonialism brings problems' and 'personal identity defines one's politics.'
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The excuse in the art world was that not many people get to travel to all the world's biennials, so this was the chance for these non-travelers to see and learn about these new ideas in contemporary art.
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Isn't this getting incredibly tiresome though? Can independent curators try to come up with new spins and fresh angles such as freelance writers?

There will be a whole slew of biennials in Asia during September of this year: Singapore, Taipei, Gwangju, Shanghai, Sydney, plus the Yokohama Triennial. Let's see if any of these exhibitions will be a pleasant surprise or the same-old.