Taipei Dangdai’s second edition officially opened today with an 99 galleries in three sectors and a strengthened public program of Arts and Ideas. Supporting a platform for stimulating conversation between key players and experts in the art world and beyond, a new series of installations throughout the city will engage and entice collectors and visitors from Taipei, the region and around the world. Presented by UBS and held at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1 (TaiNEX 1), the second edition of the Fair will run from Friday 17 January until Sunday 19 January 2020.
“We are pleased to open the Fair for its second edition today, together with our exhibitors, participants and partners. Taipei Dangdai continues to present a thought out and curated program that entices collectors, galleries and the wider art community in Taipei and beyond, through art, talks, engagement and experience, all the while enhancing the city’s cultural status as a key contender on the art stage,” said Magnus Renfrew and Robin Peckham, Co-Directors of Taipei Dangdai.
“UBS Taiwan is extremely pleased to present Taipei Dangdai again this year. The Fair’s themes, especially technology and ecology, are contemporary and important to both our business and our clients. I look forward to being inspired by art on show in Taipei,” said Dennis Chen, Group Managing Director and Head, UBS Taiwan.
Chambers Fine Art_Ai Wei Wei_Law of the Journey(Prototype A)_Courtesy of Taipei Dangdai
Program Highlights
The second edition of the Fair will also present works beyond the art fair
venue for the first time with an expanded Installations section that will take
over the city. As well as major installation works from LuxuryLogico, Ju Ming and Chen Wan-Jen in the Fair itself, and large-scale moving image pieces incorporated across highly visited landmarks in Taipei.
For the inaugural Taipei 101 x Taipei Dangdai commission, Taiwanese artist Michael Lin takes over the modern glass façade of the iconic Taipei 101, to create a commission artwork drawing in the wider cityscape through a kaleidoscope of past and present moments in time.
Taipei Dangdai x Taipei 101 commission by Michael Lin. Courtesy Taipei Dangdai
Dong Gallery, a 90-meter-long digital screen in downtown Taipei, together with participants mostly from the Young Galleries sector: including Taeyoon Kim, Chen Wan-Jen, Timothy Curtis, and Lai Wei-yu, which present a number of works created especially for this monumental screen running until the end of the Fair. Against a view of the city, these screens showcase pieces from video artists represented by galleries participating at the Fair, alongside unrepresented filmmaking talent from Taiwan and the region.
The Taipei Dangdai 2020 Art & Ideas public talks program, Islands, The Straits between Them, which launched in December 2019, provides an off-site program running before and throughout the Fair. The specially curated conversations series centers around four key thematic islands -Technology, Ecology, Pop and Tradition – that provide fundamental pillars to understanding the context for contemporary art in Taipei.
Courtesy Taipei Dangdai
With programming curated by Co-Director Robin Peckham and Taiwanese public intellectual, Chang Tieh-Chi, highlight speakers range from leading gallerists, artists and art world figures including: Tina Keng, Founder and Director of Tina Keng Gallery, Brett Gorvy, Co-Founder of Lévy Gorvy, Mami Kataoka, Director of the Mori Museum, and artists Michael Lin, Bernard Frize, LuxuryLogico, and Christopher Le Brun—to key thought leaders in Taiwanese culture such as architect Huang Sheng-Yuan of Fieldoffice, Ting Hsiao-Ching, Director of Taiwan Creative Content Agency, art conservator Leo Tsai and Razor Chiang, hip-hop producer and CEO of Forbidden Paradise.
ABOUT TAIPEI DANGDAI
Taipei Dangdai is a world-class art event, providing exhibitors the opportunity to broaden their collector base and giving international exposure to a growing number of artists and galleries from across Asia. The name of the fair captures this spirit, as dangdai in Mandarin means “the present moment.” Held annually, Taipei Dangdai constitutes an accurate and immediate survey of what is occurring in the contemporary Asian art world. The subtitle, Art & Ideas, highlights the two main focuses of the event: a leading international art fair and a convening of thought leaders from various fields. Taipei Dangdai is a joint venture between four of the world’s leading art event producers, organizers, and administrators: Single Market Events (Tim Etchells), Angus Montgomery Limited (Sandy Angus), Ramsay Fairs Limited (Will Ramsay), and ARTHQ / EVENTS Limited (Magnus Renfrew). Presented by UBS, the fair is overseen by Co-Directors Magnus Renfrew and Robin Peckham, and the second edition will return to the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1 (TaiNEX 1) from Friday 17 until Sunday 19 January 2020.