Broken Landscapes: Have Our Cities Failed?

2021-01-09 to 2021-04-18

Broken Landscapes: Have Our Cities Failed?

 

Preface / Jut Art Museum

The city can be regarded as an indicator of maturing development, or as a reflection of societal wealth disparities and class opposition. As a nexus of politics, economics, and culture, the city simultaneously projects and dominates the real-world conditions of contemporary human civilization.

The current Broken Landscapes: Have Our Cities Failed? exhibition addresses various social upheavals resulting from international conflicts, environmental changes, refugee displacement, and the pandemic panic, by inviting twelve artists from countries including Canada, Korea, Japan, Germany, and Taiwan to respond through their personal experiences and observations to global tensions that have not only transformed the appearance of the city and of human life, but have also affected trust in the social collective. The exhibition also provides an opportunity to reflect on ways in which different mainstream values and developmental strategies maintain order and maneuver various situations that confront the city; as well as to delve into ways humans can approach development with humanity, ethics, and sustainability. “Failure” may be a foregone conclusion, a process in-progress, or perhaps just a query and warning about our collective future. These recurring questions and answers all hinge on human action.

Since its inception in 2016, Jut Art Museum has curated a succession of exhibitions that offer a response from the perspective of contemporary art to the Museum’s longstanding focal issues of “city” and “future”; these include A Nonexistent Place, The Flying Land, and Paradise Lost – Gazing at Contemporary Urban Civilization and its Metaphor. Through diverse artistic genres and frames of reference, the Museum provides audiences with an arena beyond the usual viewing experience in which to ponder topics such as contemporary society, urban living, and social migration; and attempts to trigger further contemplations and imaginations about life in the future.

 

Curatorial Statement / Curator Sean C.S. Hu


It is a repeated question in an impermanent world;
it is an everlasting question that has haunted us since human civilization entered industrialization;
it is a question of deep affection about our close yet distant relationships with our cities.

Broken Landscapes: Have Our Cities Failed?  is a question that directly brings out the topic. The concept behind the exhibition attempts to dispel the optimism in modernization. The artists’ works and observations highlight the visible and invisible aspects, the various phenomena, and the life stories within cities. This exhibition seeks to redirect its attention to the sense of urgency that must be faced by human society. It then further discusses how modern state governance faces the actual state of social development. When striving to build an ideal modern city, we must think, in terms of developmental strategies from a materialistic angle, how mainstream values such as, Neoliberalism, elite governance, Developmentalism, economic alliances, and energy consumption, can resolve the issues concerning the urban carrying capacity of our cities that is on the edge of collapsing.

This exhibition consists of five sub-themes: 1. Disappearing and invisible existences; 2. Extraordinary scenes of destruction and rebirth ; 3. Places of captivity and parasitism; 4. Battlefield of others; 5. The Promised Land. These themes resonate with the core values of this exhibition. It is hoped that more possibilities of thinking can be created from the dialogues and intertextuality of the artworks.

 

  • Curator｜Sean C.S. Hu
  • Artists｜Shih Meng-Hsin (Taiwan), Wu Tsan-Cheng (Taiwan), Isa Ho (Taiwan), Andreas Gursky (Germany), Suh Do-Ho (Korea), Yuan Goang-Ming (Taiwan), Chen Chieh-Jen (Taiwan), Chang Li-Ren (Taiwan), Chia Chien-Ju (Taiwan), Liao Chien-Chung (Taiwan), Liam Morgan (Canada), Aki Inomata (Japan) (In the order of the number of strokes in Chinese surnames)

  • Venue｜Jut Art Museum (No.178, Sec. 3, Civic Blvd., Da'an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan)
  • Opening Hours｜TUE-SUN 10:00-18:00 (Closed on Mondays)
  • Admission｜General TWD 100, Concessions TWD 80 (Student, seniors aged 65 and above, and groups of 10 or more).
    Free Admission for the disabled and a companion, children aged 12 and under (Concessions or Free Admission upon presentation of valid proof).
  • Student Day on WED｜Free Admission once on Wednesdays upon presentation of valid student ID

 

  • Exhibition Team｜
    • Supervisors｜Aaron Y. L. Lee, Alex Y. H. Lee, Huang Shan-Shan 
    • Exhibition Coordinators｜Chen Ying-Peng (JAM), Tang Chin-Yen, Chen Szu-Yin (Hu’s Art)
    • Assistant Coordinator｜Wei Huang
    • Exhibition Site Coordinator｜Ou Wei-Jie
    • Assistant Exhibition Site Coordinators｜Chen Yu-Ming, Peng Yu-Kuei 
    • Communication and Marketing｜Chen Szu-An, Chen Yen-Hsiu, Li Yen-Shan, Chang Shu-Yuan
    • Public Service｜Chang Shu-Yuan, Yang Tzu-Yi
    • Administration Support｜Huang Shiang-Yu, Yang Tzu-Yi, Xiao Tian-Yu, Chiou Jun En
    • Graphic Designers｜Wei Wen-Ru, Chen Yen-Ru
    • Lighting Designer｜Ho Chung-Chang

 

Albums

2021.01.09-04.18 Broken Landscapes: Have Our Cities Failed?

Related Links