TB10 Curators:
Hongjohn Lin、Tirdad Zolghadr

Organized by
Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Official support
Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan
Taipei City Government
Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government 

International support
 Ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V.)
American Institute in Taiwan
Danish Arts Council

Special projects sponsor
Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation
B&W Bowers & Wilkins

Special projects support
North Taiwan Brewing
Taipei Chinese Medical Association
The Arbitration Association of the Republic of China
Marres - centre for contemporary culture
Taipei National University of the Arts

Assisted by
Taipei Artist Village
Contemporary Art Foundation

Visit Information
2010.09.07—2010.11.14
Free Admission
Address: 181, ZhongShan N. Road, Sec. 3, Taipei 104, Taiwan
Museum Website: www.tfam.museum
TB10 Website: www.taipeibiennial.org∕Facebook: Taipei Biennial 2010
TAIPEI BIENNIAL 2010

Taipei Biennial 2010 reconsiders the biennial format through a number of structural proposals. Although we have no curatorial masterplan to scream from the rooftops, one leitmotif is the question of what makes biennials distinctive today. What are the conditions of production a biennial creates, what can you do with a biennial that you cannot do with anything else, is there a way to use the biennial more precisely, more effectively? After all, the aspirations of a typical biennial are more easily achieved through other devices. One tends to consider biennials ideal for promoting urban marketing, a professional career or an activist demand, when actually the track record is quite disappointing. It may be surprising, but the instrumentalization of the biennial is rarely successful—never mind the instrumentalization of the art.

For us, the distinctive potential of a biennial lies in the possibility to create a situation that is more tentative and unresolved than others. Perhaps it is naive to engineer ambivalence from above. But we have tried to follow experimental precedents by exploring new interfaces where curatorial control is difficult to maintain. Whether re-inviting 2008 Taipei Biennial artists, using untested discursive formats, inviting collaborators from Sputniks to artist-run spaces, or, most importantly, restructuring the Taipei Biennial into a two year process: in all these cases, criteria were invented as we went along, creating a situation that was often unpredictable and sometimes mildly terrifying.

To conclude with two unexpected features that distinguish much of the artwork in TB10—features which were not planned, if not entirely surprising in light of the project’s reflexive spirit, either. The first recognizable priority is the heritage of institutional critique; an uneven, complicated tradition that rears its head in miscellaneous ways throughout the exhibition. Another is the concerted altercation between artists and artworks. A surprising number of artworks overtly engage in dialogue with other pieces, from icons of the conceptual canon to other artworks in this very show.

ARTISTS
Lara Almarcegui∣Can Altay∣Chang Yun-Han∣Burak Delier∣Chris Evans∣
Shahab Fotouhi∣Christian Jankowski∣Irwin, Jao Chia-En∣Silvia Kolbowski∣Pak Sheung Chuen∣Olivia Plender∣Michael Portnoy∣Allan Sekula∣Larry Shao∣Shi Jin-Hua∣Hito Steyerl∣Superflex, Mario Garcia Torres∣Claude Wampler∣Wang Ya-Hui∣Wong Wai-Yin∣Yeh Wei-Li∣Carey Young

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Lu, Li-Wei∣Head of International & Public Program∣juillet@tfam.gov.tw
Yang, Shun-Wen∣Press Contact  International&Public Program∣yangsw@tfam.gov.tw