王嘉驥
Chia Chi Jason Wang
簡歷年表 Biography
策展經歷 Exhibitions Curated
相關專文 Essays


Taipei's IT Park in Gwangju: Notes on the Occasion of IT Park's Participation in the Gwangju Biennial 2002
中文
 
text by Chia Chi Jason Wang

Taipei 1988-2002

IT Park is an important “alternative space” for the presentation of contemporary art in Taiwan.

IT Park is a venue in an old building by the I-TONG Park. It has a fixed address: 41, 2/3Fl, I-Tong. St. Taipei, Taiwan

IT Park has its own history and its own sense of time, and strives to develop a subject consciousness. Founded in November 1988, IT Park is now almost 14 years old. In the context of the development of contemporary art in Taiwan, it is a rare phenomenon indeed.

IT Park is more than just a venue and an alternative space for art exhibition. It also stands for a group of artists. IT Park represents not one artist, but many artists. Every artist who has exhibited here is an IT Park artist.

IT Park is not a school, nor does it have a manifesto for a power-conscious artistic movement. Maybe that is why IT Park has been an important witness to Taiwan’s transition from embracing “modern art” to developing a consciousness for “contemporary art”.

IT Park is characterized by a kind of looseness. Such looseness makes it immune from the factionalism in traditional and modern art. It is derived from the individualism of its artists. This kind of looseness is not unlike the character of the salon in the beginnings of modern art. Artists interested in discourse gather here casually to drink and talk. It is because of such looseness and casualness that it cannot form a serious school, or issue manifestos for a collective cause.

IT Park artists seem to be more interested in perfecting their own art and developing their aesthetics. Even though some of its artists might be more militant or have a stronger power consciousness, as an art forum and a public exhibition space, IT Park has not allowed itself to become a small group or school guided by specific doctrines.

IT Park is not a kind of co-operative with membership fees. Over the years, the space has been maintained by Liu Ching-tang, who runs a photo studio within IT Park. This photographer has kept up IT Park with his commercial photography work. Thanks to his generosity, artists have been able to enter this space freely to sit and talk, so that it has taken on the character of a meeting place and a forum.

IT Park did not start off as a nonprofit-making space. Although it is an alternative space, the works exhibited here can be sold. But despite the large number of exhibiting artists over the years, IT Park has never been able to cover its operating costs with the proceeds from sale. This sometimes leads to the misunderstanding that it is a nonprofit-making artistic space.

The contemporary art supported by IT Park has strong modernist undertones, including aspirations for taste and purity. Indeed, it is because of the supporters’ and directors’ insistence on taste and purity that it has survived thus far. In the utilitarian and increasingly commercial art world of Taiwan, the looseness of IT Park has become a unique and rare quality, even though it is accompanied by a fragility that is revealed from time to time.

IT Park is supposed to be an alternative space with its own marginal and alternative character. Indeed, this has been etched on its history and has become part of its spirit. But ironically, the majority of artists that frequent this alternative space have become the mainstream in Taiwan’s contemporary art. Many contemporary artists who have exhibited here have become familiar faces in official exhibitions in Taiwan and major international art exhibitions, and their works are sought after by museums. One can almost say that IT Park is an important springboard for contemporary artists to museums and international exhibitions.

The name IT Park also implies a gesture that suggests the reservations that contemporary Taiwanese artists may have or the mistrust and helplessness they may feel in dealing with official museums and international contemporary art exhibitions, such as different kinds of biennial. It is this insecurity that affirms the necessity of IT Park as an alternative exhibition space. While artists may have plenty of opportunities to exhibit in Taiwan’s official museums or of being invited by curators to participate in international biennials, museums and the international art scene are too unpredictable and their activities too spasmodic. That is why artists still need their own base to fall back on. In this context, the meaning of IT Park for artists is abundantly clear.

Gwangju 2002

IT Park will be reconstructed in the Gwangju Biennial 2002 in the form of a “remake” in an attempt to carry out a dialogue with the “alternative spaces” of other countries in the world.

As opposed to the verticality of the space of Taipei’s IT Park, Gwangju’s IT Park will adopt a horizontal layout. In Taipei, IT Park has a designated, single entrance. Visitors must climb a staircase to enter the long and narrow exhibition space on the 1st floor, and another staircase to the main exhibition space on the 2nd floor. If they wish to visit the terrace on the roof, they have to climb yet another staircase. The exhibition flow-line in Taipei’s IT Park is obviously dictated by the architecture and the layout of the exhibition areas.

At the Gwangju Biennial, the architect transforms the vertical layout into a horizontal exhibition area. The three floors of Taipei’s IT Park are virtually cut up and reconstructed on the same level to form a horizontal, continuous space.

With this reconstruction, the original layout, ambience and spirit of Taipei’s IT Park are inevitably lost. The architect Chi Ti-nan divides Gwangju’s IT Park into eight interlinked and independent open exhibition areas for eight artists – Tsong Pu (b. 1947), Ku Shih-yung (b. 1960), Chu Chia-hua (b. 1960), Chen Shun-chu (b. 1963), Wang Jun-jieh (b. 1963), Chen Hui-chiao (b. 1964), Yuan Goang-ming (b. 1965) and Peng Hung-chih (b. 1969). These eight artists exhibited in turn at Taipei’s IT Park between 2001 and February 2002. Thus, the concept for this exhibition is mainly one of “sampling”. The eight artists are chosen by sampling to avoid the possible labelling of IT Park as a school or an art group.

The original idea for the Gwangju version of IT Park is a kind of compressed version (like a zipped file) of the Taipei venue. But in the process of “unzipping”, the Gwangju version becomes an idealized version of Taipei. Through reconstruction and the change of settings, Gwangju’s IT Park becomes a more ideal exhibition space than Taipei’s IT Park. It can accommodate eight artists at the same time in a multi-coloured and polyphonic postmodern display. Moreover, visitors can enter the display areas from all directions, thus realizing the ideal form of exhibition that allows interconnection as well as independence, difference and contrast. Thus, it is not just an idealized space, but also an ideal concept for a museum. As such, Gwangju’s IT Park is not a reconstruction of the original Taipei’s IT Park, but a recapitulation of its ideals and concepts.

At Gwangju’s IT Park, visitors will not find the slightly worn-out and messy look of the Taipei venue. While it can reproduce some of the original spaces, it cannot reproduce the original spirit and ambience. What Gwangju’s IT Park can express is the aesthetic or philosophical ideals of Taipei’s IT Park, but it cannot approximate the latter’s looseness, casualness and rhythm.

Gwangju’s IT Park is a discourse presented by Taipei’s IT Park – a kind of virtual reality of an idealized Taipei’s IT Park, but not a reproduction. Gwangju’s IT Park embodies the anima of Taipei’s IT Park. It also demonstrates the operational mode of Taipei’s IT Park.

While Taipei’s IT Park struggles to survive in the harsh reality, Gwangju’s IT Park presents itself as an ideal, pure and even “otherworldly” museum. The irony is that the artists of Taipei’s IT Park know very well that the Gwangju’s IT Park project is but a virtual space and an artistic holiday. It is bound to close down at the end of the Gwangju Biennial 2002. Back in Taipei, IT Park will still be facing the harsh reality of the contemporary art world in Taiwan.

As opposed to the real Taipei’s IT Park, Gwangju’s IT Park can be seen as a freeze-frame and a temporary pause. This freeze-frame and temporary pause provide an opportunity for reflection. Through the reconstruction of a collective self (which is internally pluralistic and consists of differences), the artists of IT Park can carry out self-examination and a dialogue with themselves. Then, they can reflect on how to move on after this freeze.
 
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Art Director / Chen Hui-Chiao Programer / Kej Jang, Boggy Jang