Asia possesses unique geographic features, undergoes evolutionary development, and nurtures rich and diverse forms of culture and art. In the new millennium under globalization, the center of global economy and art gradually shifts from the western world to Asia. Under the condition that the western aesthetics is still popular and holding sway, what kind of initiative should Asian artistic groups undertake in response to the drastic changes caused by globalization? How should we interact with each other? How should we deal with the world? As a member of Asia, contemporary art in Taiwan should urgently ponder over the question of how to connect the development and restore the vitality of Asian arts in order to address the challenge posed by the new world.

Therefore, this exhibition sets the title “Asia Cruise” as the foundation for the interaction and collaboration among the fourteen Taiwanese artists and the four Asian curators. In a way of bidirectional participation, this exhibition invites the Taiwanese artists and the Asian curators to demonstrate the multiplicity of their imagination. This exhibition samples contemporary art in Taiwan and release the result at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (KdMoFA), where the four sub-themes of observation constitute the main theme “Asia Cruise”. The four sub-themes include “The Ghost Island” (Chang Ching-Wen/Taiwan), “Evidence” (Wang Xiao-Song/China), “Isolation” (Kim Sun-Hee/South Korea), and “Object Matters” (Takahiro Kaneshima/Japan). The four routes of observation respectively indicate the issues and orientations of creation that Taiwanese contemporary artists concerns. These issues and orientations can be the projection of social reality, the window of personal microscopic world, the understanding and interpretation of the art of objects, or even the rethink of the proposition about the status quo of our country. The collaboration among the fourteen invited Taiwanese artists and the four cruise routes of contemporary art in the exhibition not only enable the audience to observe contemporary art in Taiwan from external perspectives, but also reflect on various complex issues such as Taiwan’s position in Asia and how Taiwan identify itself. In this way, this exhibition helps contemporary art in Taiwan burst with vitality.

The KdMoFA synchronizes the opening of the exhibition “Asia Cruise” with the “2013 Asian Contemporary Art Forum.” Through the dialogues in the forum, the art critics and curators from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and China will bring out various issues about Asia, pluralistic aspects of creation in Asian contemporary art, and their “latent” questions concerning to the environment in which they live. In addition to the exhibition, we expect to construct a contemporary, real-time, connective, and circulatory network of exchange through international participation. By doing so, we will be able to accumulate the creative energy and open up a discursive space for Asian contemporary art, and create the opportunity for the exchange and cooperation within the Asian region. When we review ourselves and look back at Asia, we expect to sort out the features and aesthetic significance of Asian contemporary art through the exhibition and the forum, and thereby provide Asian and Taiwanese contemporary art with a reference route of interdependence.

For us, living in Asia today seems like standing at the two ends of a tectonic plate of thought. We create waves of ripples by continuous exchange and communication in innumerable interstices.

Participating artists: Fang Wei-Wen、Kao Ya-Ting、Su Yu-Hsien、Liu Ho-Jang、
Lai Chih-Sheng、 Lin Guan-Ming、Huang Tzi-Chin、Cheng Bo-Tsong、Wu Chi-Tsung、
Chang Huei-Ming、 Chen Hui-Chiao、Tsong Pu、Chen Sung-Chi and Hsu Mei-Ing.

Image: © Wu Chi-Tsung