Source: National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Introduction:

2020 was supposed to be a bustling year with the organization of the Olympics. The unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 has silenced all cities. This reality has exceeded the imagination of most people, bringing disorder and chaos to economy and politics. This is a disaster mankind has never encountered before.

Nonetheless, we have also discovered in this situation other facts. For example, due to restriction of movement, human activities are limited, and we can see some improvements in the environment, such as reduced air pollution. If restriction of human movements enables nature to regain vitality, then it is only inevitable that people have this question: does this prove that, to nature, the existence of men is a disaster?

In nearly 200 years after the Industrial Revolution, human activities have led to deforestation and climate change so severe that scientists have proposed the new epoch dating concept of “Anthropocene,” which shows that mankind has grown to a degree where we disregard nature and other beings. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this fact a question much more relevant to us. Also, this could be an opportunity for us to once again get to know the world we previously overlooked due to anthropocentrism. However, just as Claude Lévi-Strauss says in Tristes tropiques that “The world began without the human race and it will end without it” nature had already been a kind of eternal and pure existence way before men were born onto this world.

The humancentric progressivism has enabled mankind to escape the threats of nature, but on the other hand it has also enabled men to continually exploit other life forms; nurturing nature takes a very long time, and mankind is also a part of nature. This exhibition includes the two facts mentioned above, reconsiders past paradigms, and shifts the focus onto a transitional period towards the future, constructing a brand-new circle of life.

Participating Artists: (In alphabetical order by last name)

• Adel ABIDIN
• Takashi ARAI
• Jananne AL-ANI
• Chih-Wei CHUANG
• Rae Yu-Ping HSU
• AKI INOMATA
• Nile KOETTING
• Jawshing Arthur LIOU
• Jr-Shin LUO
• Aiko MIYANAGA
• Tatsuo MIYAJIMA
• Mika TAANILA
• Keiji TSUYUGUCHI
• Y2K

Biography of Curator:

Junya YAMAMINE
Curator/Co-director, Tokyo Art Acceleration

Born in 1983. Received his BFA from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Worked as a curator at Tokyo Photographic Museum, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, and Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito. Then, he became a co-director of Tokyo Art Acceleration which launch new art complex ANB Tokyo. Based on media theory, he has been involved in a wide range of exhibitions from new media to the field of contemporary art. Major exhibitions include "Hello World: For the Post-Human Age," “Resistance of Fog: Fujiko Nakaya” (Art Tower Mito, Contemporary Art Center). He has also participated in “Beyond the Naked Eye" and "Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions (4th-7th)" (Tokyo Photographic Museum). Other activities include guest curating for IFCA (Slovenia, 2011), Eco Expanded City (Poland, 2016, WRO Art Center), etc. He is also a member of the Oral History Archive of Japanese Art. He is also a vice-director of the artist collective Tokyo Photographic Research, and active in a wide range of other activities including writing, organizing symposiums, moderating, and lecturing.