Starting Point
Eight artists from Germany will travel to Taiwan in April 2025. All of them have gained a wide range of experience in the Asia-Pacific region, in some cases over several years. This has influenced their own work and has now given rise to the idea of a research and exchange trip to Taiwan: NAWIAT.
All participating artists are members of the Pazifik AG in the Deutscher Künstlerbund e.V. and have created an independent, internationally recognized oeuvre.
Why Taiwan
Taiwan has undergone enormous social and economic upheaval over the last 40 years. From a military dictatorship in the 80s of the 20th century, the country has changed into a liberal democracy, a development that has set an example worldwide. Culture and science flourished. Despite increasingly tense relations with the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan became one of the hubs for contemporary art in Southeast Asia. An intensive cultural exchange with countries from Japan to Indonesia has produced a discourse in the region that is still little known in Germany.
As (Western) European artists, we are interested in active networking between the visual arts in Taiwan and Germany/Europe. It is a process-oriented exchange that we understand as an artistic work.
Approach
The artists’ working methods are heterogeneous, which is the approach for our art project. Questions and interests of the individual artists become partial questions of the others. They lead to unexpected interactions on a cognitive and sensory level during the residency in Taiwan.
In the context of artist talks, workshops, or lectures, which we understand as a form of extended exhibition, we enter into a dialog with artists and art mediators in Taiwan.
We set up an – initially – private blog that encourages a continuous artistic and intellectual exchange within the group during the trip: drawing, photo, video, logbook, text post, audio … come together and create visible communication in the form of a digital collaborative workspace. This collection will later serve as the basis for public presentations.
Questions
A selection of open questions forms the basic framework for the exchange process, e.g.:
How do the consequences of the political changes in Taiwan’s history, the various cultural influences and transcultural interdependencies become visible in art?
What role do historical issues such as the preoccupation with one’s own identity and history play in the artistic work? How are these expressed?
What influence do globalization and intercultural exchange have on locally organized social spaces in Taiwan?
How do artists in Taiwan use urban space, e.g. in the metropolis of Taipei? Are there specific forms of expression? What do the forms of communication or participatory actions look like here?
How do digital technologies influence human interactions and relationships in a country that is a world leader in technological innovation? How are the original mythologies preserved in such an environment?
How do artists react to the political situation and how does it influence their art?
Contact
Please contact us for further information. /
Nehmen Sie gerne Kontakt mit uns auf für ausführlichere Informationen in Deutsch.
web24 @ nawiat.org