‘The Taipei Biennial 2016 not only fails to live up to its claimed aims, but in and of itself, does not cohere as an exhibition.’

The News Lens
Date: 2016/10/23
By: Brian Hioe

THE TAIPEI BIENNIAL 2016, running until Feb. 6, 2017, is somewhat of a hodgepodge. This year’s exhibition is the tenth one, featuring both local and international artists and curation by Corinne Diserens, director of the Ecole de Recherche Graphique. Although the Taipei Biennial began in 1998 and is one of the oldest international biennials in Asia, with Taiwan’s inability to compete with larger, more well-funded biennials in Asia or elsewhere, the scope of the 2016 Taipei Biennial is decidedly modest in nature. Notably, the Taipei Biennial is not organized by an independent body, but by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Although Diserens apparently did not know much about Taiwanese art beforehand and only travelled to Taipei three times to prepare for the Biennial, the 2016 Taipei Biennial features more Taiwanese artists than any other past biennial with more than 34 out of 76 artists being Taiwanese. This is part of the scaling down of the Biennial, which has an inability to host international artists and thus a greater focus on local artists.     [FULL  STORY]