Kau-Puê x Photography Forum: 2016 Taipei Biennale Project is a project of dialogue and reflections based on research into images of folk religion festivals as represented in Taiwanese photography. We invited 12 photographers, researchers, critics, editors to attend the forum and discuss alternative perspectives on the archiving of folk religion related images beyond the stereotypical focus on individual photographers or the paradigm of western modern photography. Are such images indicative of some form of symbolic “last stand” to preserve our own identity in the face of western modern culture? Given the context of “modern nationhood” and the inherent logic of capitalist society do these images and their archiving provide sufficient material to develop a new historical perspective on the development of photography?
A mixture of Theravada Buddhism, Christianity and Humanistic Buddhism, the folk Taoist-Buddhist religion common in Taiwan is an intriguing product of cultural hybridity. In terms of archiving we have access to images of European naturalists in the early modern period, images provided by folk anthropologists during the Japanese colonial period and images of folk religion festivals from the first generation of Taiwanese photographers that were shared with the modern world. These images demonstrate the way society, economics and self-organization interacted. After WWII, this tradition of folk anthropology-oriented photography was interrupted and the archiving of images of folk religion continued to reflect the activities depicted rather than the cultural infrastructure that underpinned them. This forum will focus on new “Kau-Puê” images over time, as we explore the production and economic structure that lie behind these and reflect on the problematic issue of “Icons” and iconoclasm.
September 24, 2016 17:30−19:30
CHANG Chao-Tang, Albert HUANG, Jow-Jiun GONG
October 22, 2016 14:00−17:00
CHEN Po-I, SHEN Chao-Liang, YAO Jui-Chung
November 19, 2016 14:00−17:00
LIN Bo-Liang, CHEN Chia-Chi, Li-Hsin KUO
December 17, 2016 14:00−17:00
CHANG Shih-Lun, HUANG Yongsong, CHIEN Yun-Ping
Brief Introduction to the Discussants
CHANG Chao-Tang is a photographer, documentary film director, photography researcher, and critic. He is also an honorary professor at National Tainan University of the Arts.
CHANG Shih-Lun is an art critic and chief editor of photographic publications. He’s currently working on a research project on the history of photography in Taiwan.
CHEN Chia-Chi is an art critic and a postdoctoral fellow at National Cheng Kung University. She’s currently working on a research project on the history of photography in Taiwan.
CHEN Po-I is a photographer who has devoted himself to interweaving the image narratives of Taiwanese ethnography, the natural environment, and the histories of settlements and their relocation caused by urban renewal.
CHIEN Yun-Ping is a photographer and curator who has dedicated himself to researching, collecting, exhibiting, and publishing the photographic culture in Taiwan.
Jow-Jiun GONG is an art critic and curator. He is also associate professor in the Doctoral Program in Art Creation and Theory, National Tainan University of the Arts.
Albert HUANG is a photographer, documentary and fiction film director who has paid close attention to Taiwan’s development and orientation in a globalized world.
HUANG Yongsong is a photographer and the founder and artistic editor of the magazine Echo. He has long been engaged in the conservation and perpetuation of Taiwanese folk art.
Li-Hsin KUO is a scholar of images, communication media, and cultural criticism. He is also an associate professor in the Department of Radio and Television, National Chengchi University.
LIN Bo-Liang is a photographer who has carried out many projects of photographing writers, historic sites, cities, and humanistic landscapes.
SHEN Chao-Liang is a photographer, photography critic, and curator who has focused on social phenomena and the spirit of folk cultures, specifically in Taiwan.
YAO Jui-Chung is a photographer, artist, and writer who, in recent years, has led several in-depth field research studies on disused public property in Taiwan.