9th Asian Art Biennial opens in central Taiwan

第九屆亞洲藝術雙年展在中台灣開幕

83 works from Asian artists on display at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 9th Asian Art Biennial opened on Saturday (Nov. 16), featuring 83 works from artists throughout Asia, and will run at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMOFA) until March 2025.

Held by NTMOFA every two years, the exhibition is co-curated by an international team comprised of Fang Yen Hsiang (Taiwan), Anne Davidian (Armenia), Merv Espina (the Philippines), Haeju Kim (South Korea), and Asli Seven (Turkey). The theme is “How to Hold Your Breath," inviting viewers to pause and consider their body in relation to the earth, per NTMOFA press release.

National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Director Chen Kuang-yi (陳貺怡) said, “Since its inception in 2007, the Asian Art Biennial has developed into one of the most representative art biennales in Asia. In recent years, the curatorial mechanism of convening diverse cross-disciplinary curators for collective dialogue has been put into practice to expand the horizons of Asian contemporary art.”

Chen said the scope of this year’s exhibition has expanded to include artists from Turkey, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Lebanon. Expanding the scope of artists allowed Taiwanese audiences to interact with diverse cultures.

According to a curatorial statement, artists in the 2024 Asian Art Biennial propose alternative practices of political and aesthetic world ordering. “Through a variety of media, the artworks presented in the biennial challenge progressive and universal notions of time, revealing instead how histories are tied to people, places, and positions," it said.

The curatorial statement added, “By tracing the entanglements of colonial violence within ongoing imperial politics and new social systems that govern life, they open spaces for alternative liberatory futures.”

According to the curatorial team, we are inhabiting “a pluriverse where multiple worlds coexist and continually shift.” This was demonstrated through works that engage with altered states such as meditation, sleep, or dreams.

Global capitalism is also addressed, concerning its impact on humans, plants, animals, and minerals with regard to displacement, exile, extraction, and transformation. The exhibition also explores how future stories may be told, from apocalyptic myths to tales of hope and transcendence.

To coincide with the exhibition's opening, the following activities have been planned: ”Data, record, memory: script writing and artistic practice," “It's Not Me, It's You: Is it Time to Break Up With Capitalism?," “Rewriting Time: Echoes of Other Worlds," “Landscaping the Margins, Memory, and Rehabilitation," and "Remembering Trees, Speaking of Soil." In addition, performances include Andrius Arutiunian’s “Armen," Nefeli Papadimouli’s “Dream Coat,” Sharon Chin’s “Portal,” and Natalia Papaeva’s “What Will This Circle Bring This Time?”

Furthermore, the Asian Art Biennial will host lectures, workshops, screening programs, and guided tours until March 2, 2025. For the latest event information, please visit the exhibition's website or follow the Asian Art Biennial on Facebook and Instagram.