CONTEXT AND INTRODUCTION
In the domain of contemporary art production, curators and art critics are facing the same problem of artists- the vanishment of authorship. Thus the goals of this database are to provide traceable trails for lost art propositions or cultural issues. This database is expected to be reconnected to the disappeared with visible format. In the long run it is to grow into an open framework instead of a close linear art history. With clauses and subclauses similar to that of encyclopedia, and with online superlinks between keywords, this database draws out a topography attributed by curators and art critics, and a cartography of contemporary Taiwanese art.
The is no such occupation as a pure curator for “curator” is an ambiguous word. This profession emerging from the needs of exhibitions requires many different tasks from administration, venue design and cultural study, among other affairs. Even a model curator has to adjust her/his tasks from time to time because of the reflective nature of curatorial work. The propositions and the styles of their jobs change. Curators who are also artists, or gallery organizers, or scholars, or any other professionals will all be included by this database so the brilliant topography of curatorship in contemporary Taiwan will be outlined.
In today’s art industry, art critics enjoy least benefits compared to all other professionals although their writing is not unlike artistic creation. They apply highly logical and narrative words, and through the norms of art criticism, to share us their insightful observation and thoughts. Some art critics bridge art and the public with report-like articles, some others clarify or defend artworks from being misunderstood. As critics, they work on the edge and advance toward new territories by employing new approaches and new thinking. The creativity of art criticism is no less than artists. Hopefully this section of database will bring attention to this overlooked profession.
With very limited resources, the construction of the database for art curators and art critics began from the most active curators and critics currently and will gradually expand the timetable toward both ends.
Although a database, at certain degree, has to categorize each individual based on the inclination of their personal art career, putting art curators and art critics into different frameworks might not be the best strategy for Taiwan’s current conditions. At this stage we take a relatively loosened exampling and set out from two directions: What Curatorial Work/Art Criticism Can Do? What Curatorial Work/Art Criticism Are Doing? These two questions shape this section of database.