Towards Mysterious Realities

Sponsored by the 2015 Production Grants to Independent Curators in Visual Arts of National Culture and Arts Foundation of Taiwan, co-organized by TheCube Project Space and TKG Foundation for Arts & Culture, and curated by Amy Cheng, the exhibition Towards Mysterious Realities will open on December 10, 2016 at TKG⁺ in Taipei.

The curatorial context of this exhibition aims to encourage profound reflection on Asia’s relationship to the world. Focused on the postwar experiences, this exhibition provides a point of departure where viewers are invited to see the world through the lens of Asia, which allows for a closer investigation of quotidian experiences and social spaces, thereby constructing different angles to approach the realities of today’s global landscape.

The thirteen invited artists/collectives include AU Sow-Yee (Malaysia), Francisco CAMACHO (Colombia), CHIN Cheng-Te (Taiwan), BANI Haykal (Singapore), James T. HONG (Taiwan/US), HOU Chun-Ming (Taiwan), HSU Chia-Wei (Taiwan), HUANG Da-Wang (Taiwan), IM Heung-Soon (Korea), Haejun JO & KyeongSoo LEE (Korea), LI Liao (China), Shih-Chieh Ilya LI (Taiwan) and Prajakta POTNIS (India). They not only add multiple intersected or parallel dimensions to this exhibition through their concerns over specific pieces of history and life experiences, but also attempt to construct or discover the relationships between historical contexts and our day-to-day survival from different perspectives. Both personal experiences and collective consciousness are linked with different historical trajectories charted by the vicissitudinary political and social forces. They may appear as grand as the rise of modern national consciousness or the re-demarcation of Lebensraum, and also as subtle as personal life stories or family history. The clashes of these unique historical trajectories demonstrate a pluralistic, multi-level and intertwined configuration.

Simultaneously, Towards Mysterious Realities is concerned with the unsettling Cold War experiences throughout the second half of the 20th century, seeking to examine how the previous head-on confrontations over ideologies and values, which have been ignored or consigned to oblivion, lurk in our quotidian existence in a transcendent manner. Furthermore, this exhibition expects such a historical experience stretching back generations to serve as one of major pivotal points for reflections, with the aim of mapping out alternative routes to grasp and re-narrate realities.

The re-narration of realities in Towards Mysterious Realities revolves around Asia. The Asia here, as a medium of self-reflection, is not so much a geographical term as a problematique regarding psychic experiences on history. In recent years, Asia has not only arisen as an urgent geopolitical issue from the wrestling among these historical driving forces once more, but also become the gasoline and electricity by which the engine of capitalist market is powered throughout the process of neo-liberal globalization. It has also served as a wrestling ring for different forces in international politics in this state of affairs, which is by no means a result of historical contingency but a product in response to the times of crisis. The exhibition Towards Mysterious Realities seeks to re-explore the hidden networks of consciousness in addition to the images outlined and reinforced by states’ power, politico-economic interests and ideological wars; and the ultimate quest of this exhibition is to address the question as to how individuals can garner insights about their future options from these subtle yet discernible messages.

Public Programme

Artist Workshop / BANI Haykal: Artificial (sonic) Sweeteners – by Bani Haykal
Date | 2016.12.3 (Sat.) 19:00-21:30
Venue | TheCube Project Space

Preview & Exhibition Opening
Date | 2016.12.10 (Sat.) 15:00-19:00
Venue | TKG+

Artist Talk (Amy CHENG+HSU Chia-Wei + HUANG Da-Wang)
Date | 2016.12.17 (Sat.) 15:00-17:30
Venue | TKG+

Guided Tour / LU Pei-Yi
Date | 2016.12.24 (Sat.) 15:00-16:30
Venue | TKG+

Artist Talk / Shih-Chieh Ilya LI
Date | 2017.01.06 (Fri.) 19:30-21:30
Venue | TheCube Project Space

Meeting No Man’s Land: AU Sow-Yee + CHOU Yu-Ling
Date | 2017.1.8 (Sun.) 14:00-17:00
Venue | Et@t

Special Screening / James T. HONG
Date | 2017.1.13 (Fri.) 19:30-21:30
Venue | TheCube Project Space

Artist Workshop / HOU Chun-Ming
Date | 2017.1.14 (Sat.) 13:00-18:30
Venue | TKG+

Artist workshop / CHIN Cheng-Te（3-hour walking tour）
Date | 2016.1.21 (Sat.) 13:30-17:00
Meeting place @ the front door of Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Curator’s Guided Tour / Amy CHENG
Date | 2017.1.22 (Sun.) 15:30-17:00
Venue | TKG+

Performance / HUANG Da-Wang
Date | 2017.1.22 (Sun.)17:00-18:30
Venue | TKG+