Freda Fiala
writer, researcher and curator focused on performance-based artistic practices
Staged Communities, Curated Liveness
Contemporary Performance in Taiwan’s Quest for Identity
A short introduction to my current dissertation project
Sunrise Sunset / Sleeping in between Tehching Hsieh and On Kawara
River Lin, Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) 2020
The thesis traces the discourse and practices of contemporary performance in the Taiwanese context, looking at its intersecting histories of performance art in the visual arts, live art and contemporary dance, as well as its socio-political and institutional ‘ecosystem.' The thesis explores how a networked condition of contemporary performance has been developed by institutional bodies as well as individual artists, curators, producers and critics as a vehicle for Taiwan's intercultural communication and diplomacy.
The principal questions motivating this research are, firstly, how pathways of performance practice have been formed in an institutionalised arts ecosystem from 2016 until 2023. Secondly, how recent commitments to the internationalisation of the field have contributed to shaping Taiwan’s position within the East- and South-East Asian regions and further linking them with the ‘Western’ arts and culture hemisphere.