Trading Futures at Taipei Contemporary Art Center

Trading Futures at Taipei Contemporary Art Center

Taipei Contemporary Art Center

February 27, 2012


Trading Futures

4 March–31 March 2012

Opening:
4 March 2012, 14–18 

Taipei Contemporary Art Center
160-6, Yanping S. Road, Taipei, Taiwan 

www.tcac.tw

The Taipei Contemporary Art Center (TCAC) is pleased to present Trading Futures, an international group exhibition with works by Asian artists Heman Chong, Chou Yu-cheng, Minja Gu, Hu Xiangqian, Kao Jun-honn, Lee Kit, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Koki Tanaka, Charwei Tsai, and Xu Tan that investigate and reflect on questions of artmaking, production and value. Co-curated by Meiya Cheng and Pauline J. Yao, Trading Futures takes place on the eve of TCAC’s relocation and marks the conclusion of the artist-and-curator led art center’s two-year pilot phase.

Trading Futures is a gathering of conceptual interrogations, gestures and processes that look into the ways in which art and artistic experimentation intersect with hypothetical systems of labor, value, consumption, and desire. Recent global events have put economic phenomena at the forefront of our consciousness, provoking a reexamination of the production-based sphere of art and the art system’s inherent relationships to vectors of exchange and desire. As developments in contemporary art increasingly lean towards a set of social actions, gestures or participatory processes that transform the need for finished products and art objects; collectors and donors are faced with a challenge to embrace the indeterminate on-site practices, open-ended exchanges, and collaborative strategies that comprise today’s artistic field. Nowhere is this more evident than in Asia where the brute forces of capitalism emphasize art’s transactional side and favor the production of outcomes that are often materially spectacular in nature. Inviting ten artists from around Asia to spearhead new projects, Trading Futures takes a different tack, presenting a range of modest responses that speculate on alternate forms of exchange, narratives of labor and disappearance, proposals for the future, and language-based investigations. Willfully adopting multiple roles ranging from storyteller to interviewer, laborer, employer, consumer, and designer, these artists and the exhibition as a whole seeks to enact new ways that value can be created and distributed through experimental means.

While the commentaries found within Trading Futures are not intended to address the specific condition of TCAC, they do carry particular implications for the current artistic environment of Taiwan. Recent political actions in Taipei surrounding cultural policy funding have sparked heated debates that are impacting the way culture is being defined, disseminated, and produced; and by association, what role artists are to play in the ongoing process of economic redevelopment reshaping Taiwan’s urban and social fabric. Squarely situated within the economic condition of TCAC itself, Trading Futures does intend to offer commentaries on the myriad struggles facing artists and institutions today as well highlight the ongoing search for new modes of production and reception.

About The Taipei Contemporary Art Center (TCAC)
Opened in February 2010, Taipei Contemporary Art Center (TCAC) is an independent initiative founded by a group of artists, curators, scholars and cultural activists. TCAC is a platform for the art community to express itself, to interact among themselves and to exchange with international art worlds through socio-political issues, cultural policies and aesthetic positions. Major activities include the presentation of art works, films, books, music, and performances, as well as lectures, forums, symposiums, publications and exhibitions.

Participating artists: Heman CHONG (Singapore), CHOU Yu-cheng (Taiwan), Minja GU (Korea), HU Xiangqian (China), KAO Jun-honn (Taiwan), LEE Kit (Hong Kong), SUN Yuan & PENG Yu (China), Koki TANAKA (Japan), Charwei TSAI (Taiwan), XU Tan (China)

Curated by Meiya Cheng and Pauline J. Yao

Location: Taipei Contemporary Art Center, 160-6, Yanping S. Road, Taipei, Taiwan
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 13–19 and by appointment
Telephone: +886 2 2311 2626

For further information email: office [​at​] tcac.tw

Advertisement
RSVP
RSVP for Trading Futures at Taipei Contemporary Art Center
Taipei Contemporary Art Center
February 27, 2012

Thank you for your RSVP.

Taipei Contemporary Art Center will be in touch.

Subscribe

e-flux announcements are emailed press releases for art exhibitions from all over the world.

Agenda delivers news from galleries, art spaces, and publications, while Criticism publishes reviews of exhibitions and books.

Architecture announcements cover current architecture and design projects, symposia, exhibitions, and publications from all over the world.

Film announcements are newsletters about screenings, film festivals, and exhibitions of moving image.

Education announces academic employment opportunities, calls for applications, symposia, publications, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Sign up to receive information about events organized by e-flux at e-flux Screening Room, Bar Laika, or elsewhere.

I have read e-flux’s privacy policy and agree that e-flux may send me announcements to the email address entered above and that my data will be processed for this purpose in accordance with e-flux’s privacy policy*

Thank you for your interest in e-flux. Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.