| Dates: | born 1960
| | Biography: | (artist biography as of 2006)
Born 1960, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Lives in
Taipei, Taiwan
Selected solo exhibitions
Factory, 2006. Galerie
Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
Chen Chieh-jen. 2005, La Fabrica
Galeria, Madrid, Spain
Lingchi - Echoes of a Historical
Photograph. 2004. Ciaudio Poleschi
Arte Contemporanea, Lucca, Italy
Galerie Nationale du Jeu de
Paume, 2001, Paris. France
Revolt in the Soul & Body II,
1998, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei,
Taiwan
Selected group exhibitions
Fever Variations. 2006 Gwangju
Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
Zones of Contact. 2006, Biennale
of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Biennial Cuvee, 2006. O.K Centre
for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria
Parallel Realities - Asian Art
Now, The 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art
Triennale 2005, Fukuoka, Japan
The Experience of Art, 2005, 48th
Venice Biennale, Italian Pavilion, Venice,
Italy
Interruption and Dislocation,
Lisboa Photo 2005, Lisbon, Portugal
Do You Believe in Reality?. 2004,
Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts
Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Techniques of the Visible, 2004,
Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art
Museum, Shanghai, China
New Zealand Community Trust Art &
Industry Urban Arts Biennial 04,
2004, Christchurch,New Zealand
Histories: Eyelids and Lips,
Photo Espana 2004, Antigua Fabrica de
Tabacos, Madrid, Spain
Great Theatre of the World, 2002,
Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts
Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Translated Acts, 2001, Haus der
Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany;
Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA
The 31st Rencontres Internationale
de la Photographie, 2000, Abbaye
de Montmajour, Aries, France
The Mind on the Edge (of the New
Centres), Photo Espaha
2000, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid,
Spain
Sharing Exoticisms. 2000, 5th
Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, Halle
Tony Gamier, France
Man & Space - Art & Human
Rights, Gwangju Biennale 2000,
Gwangju, South Korea
International Photography
Biennale, 1999, Centra de la
Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico
Close to Open, 1999, 48th
Venice Biennale, Taiwan Pavilion,
Venice, Italy
Routes, 1998, 24th Bienal de
Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Site of Desire, 1998 Taipei
Biennial. Taipei Fine Arts Museum,
Taipei, Taiwan
Award
The Special Prize, Gwangju Biennale
2000, Gwangju, South Korea
| | | Source: | International 06, Liverpool Biennial exhibition catalogue | | | Date of source: | 2006 |
|
| | Description: | Chen's work focuses on the idea of the
body as a social construct subject to
power relations, a theme which runs
from his early performance as resistance
against the authoritarian regime in
Taiwan, through digitally manipulated
photographs of torture and war, to recent
films about the vacuum left behind for
workers and the built environment when
capital moves elsewhere.
Using photography and film, Chen
creates a space in which standard
narratives are deconstructed and the
subjectivity of the viewed can be
reestablished. In the 1990s, Chen
adapted a series of historic photographs
of torture and war by digitally replacing
the victims, the torturers and the
onlookers in the scenes with images of
himself. Rather than using them
to comment on specific historical events,
the artist calls these images 'echoes'
that address the issues of the coloniser
and the colonised, the photographer and
the photographed, gaze and power,
discipline and body, self and other, and
reality and illusion.
Factory (2003) and Bade
Area (2005) are documentaries of
non-events in northern Taiwan, where
textile factories and workers have been
abandoned after capital shifted to China
and other low-cost regions. Like the
photographs, these slow, silent films
portray the cruelty and void imposed on
the workers and their architectural
habitats; they suggest the aftermath of a
long-drawn-out war.
Manray Hsu
| | Description Source: | International 06, Liverpool Biennial exhibition catalogue | | Description Source Date: | 2006 | | Gender: | male | | Type: | person |
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