The Ouroboros

Artist | Chieh-Jen Chen, Yin-Ju Chen, Tzu-Nyen Ho, Hassan Khan, Ayoung Kim, Tzu-Ling Lee, Chi-Yu Wu, Tao Zhou
Curator | Amy Cheng

TheCube Project Space (Taipei)
Date | 17.08 – 20.10.2019
Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art Contemporain (Luxembourg)
Date | 28.08 – 28.10.2019

Curated by Amy Cheng of TheCube Project Space in Taipei, The Ouroboros is an international joint exhibition that marks the second phase in the 2018-2019 Taiwan-Luxembourg Exchange Program. This exhibition will be synchronously on view at TheCube Project Space in Taipei and the Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art Contemporain in Luxembourg.

Treating the imagery of ouroboros as the main theme running through all the exhibits, The Ouroboros is intended to envisage and investigate people’s responses to the general question of survival in the contemporary world via the artists’ astute observations on realities and phenomena. This exhibition features 11 video works by 8 artists, engaging in multilayered dialogues on key issues ranging from reflections upon the survival system of human society in the Anthropocene and human imagination of the future to the development and change in the relational trinity of humanity-technology-nature and discussions of cosmopolitics.

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent swallowing its own tail. The serpent devouring itself thus turns into a circulatory image (sometimes illustrated as an emblem of wholeness or infinity, namely “∞”), referring to a self-devourer. There’re a riotous profusion of human imaginations and interpretations of this image, which implies a pluralistic view of non-linear development. Of all its meanings, “loop,” “infinity,” “the cycle of birth and death,” and “repetition” are the most well-known. Frequently arising in different religious beliefs and myths, this symbol is also a vital imprint in alchemy, the earliest occultism and scientific experimentation in human history. In modern times, psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) argued that the ouroboros is actually a manifestation of the archetype of human psyche. Harnessing the power of this symbol, the exhibition not only cogitates on the phenomena in our civilizations and explores human desires for domination and progress, but also analyzes how the changes in our living environment influence us in the contemporary society.

∎ Screening list

Special Thanks｜Vitamin Creative Space, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Chantal Crousel Gallery, Paris.

∎ Events

The 1st Talking Drums Radio Festival
Date | 14.09.2019 (Sat.)
Venue | TheCube Project Space
Artist | Au Sow-Yee, Ayoung Kim, Cevo Yang

Black Thursday Artist Talk
Date | 24.10.2019 (Thurs.)
Venue | Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art Contemporain
Speaker | Artist: Wu Chi-Yu, Lee Tzu-Ling; Curator: Amy Cheng