All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.
Art Observed was on site for “The Heard and the Unheard,” a project by Soundscape Taiwan. The installation, housed in the Taiwan Pavilion (in the Palazzo delle Prigioni), was curated by Amy Cheng with artists Hong-Kai Wu and Yu-Hsien Yu, in collaboration with the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. The inauguration of the installation kicked off with a party entitled “Sounds Edgy!” with performances by Fujui Wang and DJ @llen. In the background, the Sound Library/Bar provides a backdrop of Taiwan’s socio-historical context and the current impetus for change.
More text and images after the jump…
Sound acts as a protagonist of the exhibition, appearing both as a medium and as a metaphorical site for political actions. According to the exhibition’s press release, “By adopting sound as both substance and aesthetic form, the exhibition explores the non-mainstream cultural context of contemporary Taiwanese society through the work of two artists and the inclusion of the Sound Library/Bar.”
The exhibition consists of two parts: In Music While We Work by Hong-Kai Wang and Sounds of Nothing, by Yu-Hsien Su.  Wang, born 1971, is interested in the collective nature of listening and recording music and sound, and in the aspect of labor and production related to these tasks. She collaborates with a century-old sugar factory in her hometown in Huwei, Taiwan to recreate the experience of working in the place.
Su, born 1982, highlights the existence of individuals by inviting “common” participants to make their own recordings, which he compiles into albums under his newly-launched label, indi-indi.
Artist Yu Hsien Su
DJ @llen
Artist Hong Kai Wang
Artist Fujui Wang
– J. Lindblad
Related Links:
Soundscape Taiwan at the 54th Venice Biennale 2011 [E-flux]
Taiwan’s ‘nobodies’ set to star at Venice Biennale [Focus Taiwan]
