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.