Yearning… It’s more than desire—it’s a need that burns deep, a reaching out for something you know you’ll never truly touch. And yet, it is that very impossibility that drives us. The 2025 Taipei Biennial steps into this space, where yearning propels us into a world of endless pursuit, where what we long for may remain forever unattainable.
This land, this place—Taiwan—carries its own kind of yearning. Not bound to a singular moment or era, but woven through time like a thread running through a fabric that’s always unraveling. It's not just the weight of the past that sits heavy here, but the dreams of a future that remain undefined. From a history of colonization to the shifting tides of identity, the people here know what it means to hold onto something that’s already fading, to keep pushing toward something that’s always just beyond the horizon. The tension between holding on and letting go. That’s where yearning lives.
In a world that spins ever faster, where borders blur and certainties dissolve, Taiwan’s story resonates with the global struggle against exclusion, reflecting a deep-seated yearning to be visible, to possess agency in a landscape scarred by historical injustices. Here, the people seem to have learned how to navigate the long shadows of the past while searching for roots that can anchor them in the hard, unyielding terrain of recognition.
Yearning doesn’t rest in icons or grand structures. It hides in the small, the everyday — the things we touch, the things we carry. For the 2025 Taipei Biennial, it all started with a puppet (Li Tien-Lu’s puppet from Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Puppetmaster), a diary (from Chen Yingzhen’s My Kid Brother Kangxiong), and a stolen bicycle (from Wu Ming-Yi’s The Stolen Bicycle). These are not just objects. They are the vessels, the keepers of memory and desire, where the personal reaches for the collective. These objects—mundane, yet laden with weight—hold the stories of those who have lived, struggled, and yearned for that which always seemed just out of reach. This is where our exploration begins. They are the prompts that opened up the world of Taipei’s 2025 Biennial.
Alongside a diverse selection of artworks from the vast holdings of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum collection, the works of the 72 contemporary artists that were gathered here, echo through us, through all of us, across time and place.
On the horizon, whispers. They do not resolve. They call.
And we answer — not with resolution, but with movement.
And so we move toward the horizon, not to arrive, but to keep listening, to keep reaching, to keep living in the whisper.
The whisper lingers, fragile yet insistent.
Dare we follow its voice?
The whisper lingers. We still move. We still try. We still yearn.
Curators:
Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath
Participating Artists:
Fatma Abdulhadi (born in 1988, Riyadh - lives and works in Riyadh)
Korakrit Arunanondchai (born in 1986, Bangkok - lives and works in New York and Bangkok)
Ivana Bašić (born in 1986, Belgrade - lives and works in New York)
Rana Begum (born in 1977, Sylhet - lives and works in London)
Jacopo Benassi (born in 1970, La Spezia - lives and works in La Spezia)
Hera Büyüktaşcıyan (born in 1984, Istanbul - lives and works in Istanbul)
Edgar Calel (born in 1987, Chi Xot, San Juan Comalapa - lives and works in Chi Xot, San Juan Comalapa)
CHANG Chao-Tang (born in 1943, Banqiao – died in 2024)
Fran Chang (born in 1990, Poços de Caldas - lives and works in São Paulo)
CHEN Cheng-Po (born in 1895, Chiayi - died in 1947)
CHEN Chih-Chi (born in 1906, Xizhi, Taipei - died in 1931)
CHEN Chin (born in 1907, Hsinchu - died in 1998)
Skyler Chen (born in 1982, Kaohsiung City - lives and works in Rotterdam)
CHENG Sang-Syi (born in 1937, Keelung – died in 2011)
Musquiqui Chihying (born in 1985, Taipei - lives and works in Taipei and Berlin)
Gaëlle Choisne (born in 1985, Cherbourg - lives and works in Fougères and Paris)
Isaac Chong Wai (born in 1990, Guangdong - lives and works in Berlin and Hong Kong)
CIOU Zih-Yan (born in 1985, Sanyi, Miaoli - lives and works in Miaoli and Yunlin)
Jacky Connolly (born in 1990, Lower Hudson Valley, New York - lives and works in Athens and New York)
Rohini Devasher (born in 1978, New Delhi - lives and works in New Delhi)
Afra Al Dhaheri (born in 1988, Abu Dhabi - lives and works in Abu Dhabi)
Simon Dybbroe Møller (born in 1976, Aarhus - lives and works in Copenhagen)
Mohammad Al Faraj (born in 1993, Al Hassa - lives and works in Al Hassa)
Monia Ben Hamouda (born in 1991, Milan - lives and works in al-Qayrawan and Milan)
Mona Hatoum (born in 1952, Beirut - lives and works in London)
HE Zike (born in 1990, Guiyang - lives and works in Beijing and Guiyang)
HO Huai-Shuo (born in 1941, Guangdong - lives and works in New Taipei City)
HO Yen Yen (born in 1993, Taipei - lives and works in Taipei)
HSIAO Yung-Sheng (born in 1959, Zhunan, Miaoli – lives and works in Taipei)
HUANG Tse-Hsiu (born in 1930, Taipei – died in 2014)
Anna Jermolaewa (born in 1970, Leningrad - lives and works in Vienna and Linz)
Eva Jospin (born in 1975, Paris - lives and works in Paris)
Joeun Kim Aatchim (born in 1989, South Korea - lives and works in New York)
Minjung Kim (born in 1962, Gwangju - lives and works in New York and South France)
Christopher Kulendran Thomas (born in 1979, London - lives and works in Berlin and London)
Lina Lapelytė (born in 1984, Kaunas - lives and works in London and Vilnius)
LEE Chun-Shan (born in 1912, Shaoguan, Guangdong - died in 1984)
LEE Hui-Fang (born in 1948, Taichung – lives and works in Taipei)
LI Dyao-Lwun (born in 1909, Shilin, Taipei - died in 1992)
LIN Shou-Yi (born in 1916, Taoyuan - died in 2011)
LIU An-Ming (born in 1929, Heifeng, Pingtung – died in 2022)
LIU Kuo-Sung (born in 1932, Bengbu, Anhui - lives and works in Taipei)
LONG Chinsan (born in 1892, Huaiyin, Jiangsu - died in 1995)
Omar Mismar (born in 1986, Taanayel - lives and works in Beirut)
NI Hao (born in 1989, Hsinchu - lives and works in Hsinchu)
Henrique Oliveira (born in 1973, São Paulo - lives and works in London)
OU YANG Wen-Yuan (born in 1928, Guangxi – died in 2008)
Bunny Rogers (born in 1990, Houston - lives and works in Queens, New York)
Hiraki Sawa (born in 1977, Ishikawa - lives and works in London and Kanazawa)
Sylvie Selig (born in 1941, Nice - lives and works in Paris)
Jeremy Shaw (born in 1977, North Vancouver - lives and works in Berlin)
SHIY De-Jinn (born in 1923, Sichuan - died in 1981)
P. Staff (born in 1987, Bognor Regis - lives and works in Los Angeles and London)
SYU Ching-Pwo (born in 1930, Banqiao - died in 2021)
Young-jun Tak (born in 1989, Seoul - lives and works in Berlin)
Fuyuhiko Takata (born in 1987, Hiroshima - lives and works in Chiba)
TENG Nan-Guang (born in 1907, Beipu, Hsinchu – died in 1971)
Sung Tieu (born in 1987, Hai Duong - lives and works in Berlin)
Kiriakos Tompolidis (born in 1997, Essen - lives and works in Berlin)
Álvaro Urbano (born in 1983, Madrid - lives and works in Berlin and Paris)
WANG Hsiang Lin (born in 1984, Taipei - lives and works in Taipei)
WANG Yao-Yi (born in 1987, Tainan - lives and works in Taipei)
Nari Ward (born in 1963, St. Andrew - lives and works in New York)
WU Chia Yun (born in 1988, Yilan - lives and works in New York)
YANG Chih-Hsin (born in 1923, Qingshui, Taichung – died in 2005)
YAU Meng-Jia (born in 1946, Wanhua, Taipei - died in 1996)
Yeesookyung (born in 1963, Seoul - lives and works in Seoul)
Shizuka Yokomizo (born in 1966, Tokyo - lives and works in London)
YU Ji (born in 1985, Shanghai - lives and works in New York and Shanghai)
YUAN Chin-Ta (born in 1949, Yuanlin, Changhua – lives and works in Taipei)
ZHANG Ruyi (born in 1985, Shanghai - lives and works in Shanghai)
Tobias Zielony (born in 1973, Wuppertal - lives and works in Berlin)