2003 Taiwan Pavilion at Venice

Alumni artist from the 2001 Venice exhibition, Lin Shu-min curated the Limbo Zone with four artists. Only one of the artists lives and works in Taiwan, and which made Lin’s position interesting: who best can represent Taiwan? Artists living abroad or locally?

Daniel Lee exhibited 108 Windows based on Han Shan’s Temple tolling of the bells to communicate with the Buddhist underworld. His digital composites of humans and animal faces were projected at the toll of a bell to refer to reincarnation.

Yuan Goang-ming showed digitally manipulated images of Taipei’s busy urban streets erased of humans and vehicles in his City Disqualified series.

Cheang Shu-lea imagined a futuristic world where the currency was garlic and everything could be tracked on the Internet; thus her installation included on-line computers and piles of garlic.

Lee Ming-wei presented his sleeping project in which one invited guest could spend the night with him in the space of the prigione. Two beds on rollers could be moved to enhance the closeness or distance of the intimacy that took place.

2001 Taiwan Pavilion at Venice

For 2001, curator Kao Chien-hui’s premise of a living cell brought together 5 diverse artists. The theme was “Living Cell: Soul of Mankind.” Chicago-based curator Kao Chien-hui writes that the Taiwanese artists share the idea of “man – his life, his image, his spirit and his conceptions of himself.”


Lin Ming-hong (Michael Lin) A Taiwanese floral print mural blends as decorative image with architectural setup making the work border the space between painting (2-dimensional space) and architecture (3-dimensional space). And the pink peonies softened the rustic chambers of the prigione. Enhancing the architectural structure, the painting creates a rosy glow thus softening the gloomy nature of the space.


Wang Wen-chih
Wang’s fragrant cypress sculptural installation allowed viewers to take a rest; a work that was simple, yet elegiac , “Beyond the Site” is a cylindrical shelter composed of sweet-smelling wooden planks of Taiwan cypress, sandalwood, camphor and padauk, connected by intertwined vines rather than nails. Viewers are invited to take off their shoes and climb into the work to relax and meditate. The artwork helps one reflect on the healing aspects of nature and would have been more effective in its own room.


Liu Shih-fen
Her installation of an autopsy table with surgical images of herself and the sound of breaking glass created a theater about the body. “Deciphering the Genetic Map of Love: Eyeballs of a Lover” speculated on love and desire and shows a cyborg body. One enters a doorway that is flanked by a transparent spiky inflatable border. Inside the darkened space, surgical tables are set in a cross formation. Upon the tables, small domed cylinder lightboxes linked with a multitude of plastic tubing contain digital images of MRIs of the artist’s heart and juxtaposed with nude photos of herself. In addition, a video loop of animated bodies and the sound of breaking glass is projected onto the ceiling.

Lin Shu-min
Lin Shu-min installed holograms of people’s heads into the floor for his popular piece titled “Glass Ceiling.” The viewer steps on and looks down upon the various portraits of people from around the world. Lin said his work implies that we are all in a certain place trying to achieve a higher plateau.


Chang Chien-chi
Magnum photographer Chang Chien-Chi exhibits his photo-documentary series titled “The Chain.” The large black and white silver gelatin prints show pairs of mental patients from the infamous Lung Fa Tang asylum linked together by large metal chains attached to the waist. These moving photos intelligently installed in a claustrophobic dungeon-like chamber emit a potent emotional charge. The numb and sterile gaze of these people reflects the vast emptiness of our society.