Conferencia de prensa, de izq. a der.: Curadores Bruno Latour (video) y Martin Guinard; Ping LIN, Directora del Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Eva Lin, curadora programas públicos.
© Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Co-curada por el filósofo francés Bruno Latour y el curador independiente francés Martin Guinard, junto con la curadora independiente taiwanesa Eva Lin, a cargo de los programas públicos, la Bienal de Taipei 2020 reúne un conjunto de obras de 57 participantes/grupos de 27 países y regiones.

Bajo el título Tú y yo no vivimos en el mismo planeta, la bienal cuestiona nuestras actuales tensiones geopolíticas y el empeoramiento de la crisis ecológica examinando nuestras diferencias e influencias desde una perspectiva planetaria. Como Latour y Guinard comentan: "Hay un creciente desacuerdo sobre cómo mantener el mundo habitable, no sólo porque las opiniones políticas divergen, sino más crucialmente porque no parece que estemos de acuerdo sobre de qué está hecha la Tierra. Algunos aparentan incluso creer que el mundo es plano. Es como si hubiera varias versiones de la Tierra, con propiedades y características tan diferentes como que fueran planetas distintos, lo que resulta en una desviación en la forma en que uno siente, se comporta y predice su futuro".

La bienal propone un "planetario" ficticio dentro del museo, donde los artistas, activistas y científicos invitados exploran las tensiones entre la atracción gravitatoria de diferentes "planetas". Cada planeta encarna una versión divergente del mundo, no sólo en términos de representación, sino también en términos de materialidad. El planetario incluya: un planeta para aquellos que implacablemente modernizan a pesar de las fronteras planetarias (planeta GLOBALIZACIÓN); un planeta para aquellos que se sienten traicionados por la globalización y quieren, en consecuencia, construir muros de aislamiento (planeta SEGURIDAD); un planeta para los pocos privilegiados que quieren establecerse en Marte para evitar el día del juicio final (planeta ESCAPE); un planeta para aquellos que no pueden permitirse un viaje tan costoso, sino que buscan refugio en un entorno imbuido de creencias metafísicas (planeta con GRAVITACIÓN ALTERNATIVA); y finalmente uno para aquellos que se preocupan por la situación climática y tratan de conciliar el equilibrio entre el mantenimiento de la prosperidad y el mantenimiento de los límites planetarios (planeta TERRESTRE).

Indigenous Mexican artist Fernando PALMA’s robotic chimera creatures will serve as the prelude and move in several directions in the entrance hall, which prompts us to confront these ambiguous Nahua figures that are composed of electrical and construction materials, with electricity as the vital force that allows the work to flow. The work embodies a traditional Nahua perspective that believes humans can establish a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with the surrounding environment when we realize that everything has a “persona.”

Planet GLOBALIZATION is shaped by the dreams of modernization, which has kept attracting people regardless of climate change and increasing inequalities. French artist Franck LEIBOVICI and legal analyst Julien SEROUSSI tackle issues around international justice with muzungu. Basing their research on a case arbitrated by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, they have developed experimental methodologies for court practitioners in an installation of archival display. Docents are especially recruited for the project to be on-site mediators, helping visitors to rearrange the evidentiary materials, making new narratives emerge from the images, and thus generating new discourses on the case from their viewpoints.

Planet GLOBALIZATION seems to have little traction for those who feel betrayed by the current economic system and who need to hide behind the walls of their nation state to protect themselves in planet SECURITY. This planet emerged because of figures like Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who manipulated some people’s fears in numerous documentary films and imposed a deep division on those who want to build a common world. Jonas STAAL presents a retrospective of Bannon’s work by methodically dissecting the mechanisms of the ultra-right propaganda in the US. In Taiwan, the notion of “security” is also a hot topic under constant review and discussion, which the artist CHIN Cheng-Te and his collaborators’ work explore. Inspired by the military and historical background of Shilin and Beitou in Taiwan, they present Making Friends/ Fire. The work is composed of various installations and artifacts, based on the bunkers and defense apparatus built in Taiwan during the cold war period, implying how the regime carried out surveillance to maintain the integrity of its governance.

Planet ESCAPE explores the urge of a small number of privileged people who want to leave Earth and colonize Mars or build a bunker deep in the ground that will not be affected by climate change. With her work Corrupted Air–Act VI, Dutch artist Femke HERREGRAVEN invites us into a survivalist bunker, an imaginary “panic room” in case of catastrophe. Tracing statistics regarding catastrophe bonds, human death rates, and ecological extinction, the artist has produced data visualizations, landscape reliefs, sound, and visual images, offering a prophecy of the future of the “Last Man.”

Sitio web Bienal de Taipei 2020

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Programas en línea para seguir en vivo, incluyendo el Simposio del 21 nov. 2020

TB 2020 Guidebook