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Performance Art
37 ARTISTS / 386 ARTWORKS
37 ARTISTS / 386 ARTWORKS
CONTEXT AND INTRODUCTION
Performance art is a very important category in the development of art. With every possible form, it challenges the boundary between artistic expression and social life. Therefore, it is not easy to understand it through media or form. Meanwhile, performance art is particularly significant in Taiwan’s historical context. Having been manipulated and oppressed – both physically and ideologically – by authority for a long period of time, the Taiwanese society is seriously in lack of original and contextual language. Under the state of “being ruled by others,” to describe it more precisely, bodies thus become the first issue for Taiwanese artists to deal with. As a result, various demonstrate of bodies should depend on video as a medium to document and to carry the meaning.

Consequently, performance art – as a context to connect bodies and images – offer a crucial clue to clarify the development of Taiwan’s contemporary art. In Taiwan, however, there is never a specific definition of it. Today, the development of performance art is presented with rich variety and multiplicity. Taiwan’s art in the 1980s, when the Martial Law was lifted, showed the liberation in the cultural, political, and social aspects as well as marked the starting point of today’s contemporary art in Taiwan. Therefore, the 1980s was a significant period of time in history as the point of departure: the end of the authoritarian regime, the globalized economic structure replacing the Cold War structure, and the cultural trend of post-modernism.

Additionally, when we face some historical problems while constructing the database, various considerations will appear within the database itself: to establish the authority of values (credibility), to improve the practicability and re-use rates, to strength the interactive update, to provide cross-index, and to invite participation in the platform of writing. Such a complexity might complicate the process of definition, but it will definitely present a community-based consciousness which is more closely connected.
OUTLINE
The first stage mainly focuses on the exploration of aesthetics and art research, which means the definition of the specific field – to define which information should be included. There is no fixed form for most of the performance art works – except that they are directly related to the presence of bodies. Each form depends on the space-time or the context of its presentation. As a result, it will be quite impossible to categorize it on the basis of a linear narrative. Furthermore, contemporary art creates a more a complex linguistic space to criticize itself. No matter whether it is about social issues, community interaction, or instruction in reality, they all create “contemporary art event” in the precarious situation. Therefore, we attempt to divide it into four categories to cover the development of performance art in Taiwan: the first one is the direct artistic presentation of individual artists; the second is the activities organized and initiated by communities; the third is the projects which create a narrative hidden within the reality; the fourth is art festivals which play a major role to support performance art (to bridge it with the public and to create conversation). In other words, performance art in the development of contemporary art is not about its form and media but the concept of behaviors, such as the necessity of the self-behavior, the social quality of the behavior, the communication of the behavior, the ecological style of the behavioral network, and the characteristics of the art community.
ARTIST LISTS
HSU Yi-Ting  
LEE Ming-Wei  
LIN Chun-chi  
TSUI Tsai-Shan  
CHEN Jun-Yu  
CHEN Kuan-Ying  
LIANG Ting-Yu  
FERNG Sheng-Shiuan  
Wonder Boyz  
River LIN  
YEH Tzu-Chi  
CHUANG Rung-Je  
LIU Chien-Wei  
HSIEH Mu-Chi  
Watan Uma  
KAO Jun-Honn  
CHOU Meng-Yeh  
TING Li-Ping  
CHAO Jui-Kuang  
YE Yu-Jun  
SUN Yi-Jou  
YU Chung- I  
CHEN Yi-Ling  
LIU Yin-Sheng  
LIN Chi-I  
YEH Yi-Li  
TSOU I-Chen  
Leo LIU  
CHEN Kuan-Chang  
DING Yu-Chung  
CHENG Shih-Chun  
TSUI Kuang-Yu  
YAO Jui-Chung  
TANG Huang-Chen  
WU Mali  
SHI Jin-Hua  
LEE Ming-Sheng  
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