Calendar

Participating artists:
June Balthazard Et Pierre Pauze , LIU Chuang , MILLIØNS Zeina Koreitem & John May , Fernando Palma Rodríguez , Huang Hai-Hsin, Femke Herregraven, James T. HON , Cui Jie , Hamedine Kane, Stéphane Verlet-Bottéro Avec Olivia Anani Et Lou Mo, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Aluaiy Kaumakan, Franck Leibovici Et Julien Seroussi, James Lovelock, Marianne Morild, Jonas STAAL, Nomeda Et Gediminas Urbonas, Antonio Vega Macotela, Cemelesai Takivalet, Chen Yin-Ju, Su Yu Hsin, Chang Yung-Ta
Curators: Bruno Latour, Martin Guinard and Eva Lin

Venue:
Centre Pompidou-Metz
1 Parv. des Droits de l'Homme, 57020 Metz, France

Partner:
Exhibition conceived and produced by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum for the Taipei Biennale 2020 and adapted by the Centre Pompidou-Metz. With the exceptional support of the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan. In partnership with the Cultural Center of Taiwan in Paris. With the participation of LUMA Foundation.


In 2020, sociologist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour was invited with curator Martin Guinard to imagine the Taipei Biennale on the island of Taiwan. The project, entitled "You and I don't live on the same planet", questioned the conflicts linked to the ecological question and brought together 57 artists, collectives and speakers. Presented between November 2020 and March 2021 at the Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, it was complemented by workshops and public programs orchestrated by Eva Lin. While it was a huge success with local audiences, the global pandemic prevented the biennial from having the international impact it should have, as Taiwan's borders remained closed for the duration of the event.

In view of this situation and the burning topicality of the subject, the Centre Pompidou-Metz has exceptionally invited the Taipei Biennale 2020 and its curators to take over its spaces between November 2021 and April 2022, for a repeat of part of the exhibition, highlighting the Taiwanese scene and the artists' proposals formulated for this biennale.

As the curators state: "If we were to ask you what planet you live on, you might find the question strange and the answer obvious: Earth! And yet, it is not the same thing to live like the Moderns who use the resources of six planets and to live within the limits of one, fragile and limited.

In a context where democracies are experiencing a rise in populism and dictatorships are presenting ever more pressing threats, our hypothesis is that climate change will not simply be one issue among others but risks framing the entire political discussion. And there is growing disagreement about how to keep the world habitable, not only because political opinions differ, but especially because we don't seem to agree on what the earth is made of. Some people now even think the world is flat!

It is as if there are several versions of the Earth, with properties and capabilities so different that they are like separate planets. Their gravitational pull has a huge influence on how you feel, how you behave and, of course, how you plan your future."

The challenge that this biennial wishes to take up, through the work of the invited artists, architects or scientists, is to make visible these different conceptions, these different realities, so that the visitor takes the measure of the transformation of what was once presented as a set of peripheral issues, into a set of political struggles more urgent and tragic than ever.

"Where do we land, what planet do we live on, who am I, these are the questions that Bruno Latour continues to explore through the Taipei Biennale 2020 and at the Centre Pompidou-Metz from now on. They are at the heart of what he calls the "new climate regime". By approaching the issue in a geopolitical way, the curators hope to set up new diplomatic encounters. What better place to do this than in an exhibition space, since it is precisely the question of space that divides us so deeply?

Created in 1992 by the Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, the Taipei Biennale has become a major artistic event in Asia, and its last editions have focused on environmental issues.