Page 66 - 50.La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

BIENNALE VENEZIA

50TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION 2003

Dreams and Conflicts - The Dictatorship of the Viewer

ARTE COMMUNICATIONS

la Biennale di Venezia LIMBO ZONE

TAIPEI FINE ARTS MUSEUM OF TAIWAN
Palazzo delle Prigioni, Castello 4209, S. Marco, Venice, Italy
5th participation of Taipei Fine Arts Museum of Taiwan
Artists: Shu-lea Cheang, Daniel Lee, Ming- wei Lee, Goang-ming Yuan
Project: Limbo Zone

Vice-Commissioner: Paolo De Grandis, Arte Communications
Chief Curator: Fang-wei Chang, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
LEE MING-WEI LEVI- Commissioner: Tsai-lang Huang, Director of Taipei Fine Arts Museum of Taiwan
SLEEPINGPROJECT Guest Curator: Shu-min Lin

Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer. There is a gap, a zone between these two entities. This year Taipei Fine Arts Museum of
Taiwan includes works from four artists who explore and reflect this area - one that can be called the Limbo Zone. It is part of the human experience
to dream, to imagine. We strive to make our aspirations reality. Realizing our dreams is, in a sense, our destiny, our art. Utopian dreamers have
attempted to generate created whole eras, whole states as well. As our humanity insures our imperfection, these dreams lead to inevitable conflict.
These conflicts comprise the greatness and the failures of human history. The phenomenon is nothing new, yet the experience of it is constantly
re-enacted. What happens when our dreams change, when our vision of the world and its possibilities and our definitions no longer apply? What
happens when the world changes - when the boundaries between nations change or become insignificant? What happens when institutions once
vested with respect and authority are exposed as corrupt and unreliable? Recent events have spurred these changes. They have introduced new
levels of economic stress, doubts about the benefits of technological advancement, fears about physical security.
Limbo is hanging suspended in a world without boundaries or limits. It is an endless nightmare, neither light nor dark, and emotionally unstable.
Events appear to be unclear, undefined. Present day life can be experienced as constant transition, constant anxiety, and constant- unclarity. Limbo.
Like the rest of the world, Taiwan is experiencing a dizzying rate of change, technological, economic, social and political.
How do we take this in? How do we perceive these and how do they affect our sensibilities, our sense of who and what we are. We may feel a
growing gap between our inner and outer world, the present and past, and a general disorientation. It is as if we are hanging suspended in time and
place, somewhere between heaven and hell, between the conscious and unconscious, and distrustful of our perceptions. (Shu-min Lin)

66 WORLD of ART