Yang Maolin at the Venice Biennale 2009

Collateral Event of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Superheroes of popular manga culture transformed in tantric Buddhas will temporarily occupy the Sala S. Tommaso in Venice, Campo SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Taiwanese artist Yang Maolin will use their world of justice and beauty for an exploration of the proliferation of semi- religious elements in contemporary culture. These heroes represent an archeology of modernity, which has also been defined a “risk society”: King Kong and Superman have been created during the Great Depression in the Thirties; Astroboy, Gigantor and Mazinga Z have been created in post- WW II Japan, still traumatized by the atomic bomb. Artist Yang Maolin represents these comci strip and anime heroes in a moment of union with the woman of their dreams, thus transforming the very limitation of these heroes, their inability to relate to the other sex, in a sublime moment of illumination. The confrontation of these wood and bronze sculptures with the exhibtion area, a collateral building of Venice’s SS. Giovanni e Paolo basilica, is an invitation to reflect on the true nature of these icons: are they really just childrens toys? These sculptures, marked as “Made in Taiwan” by the artist, are they really just a product of a far- away exotically hybrid culture, or do they represent a global phenomenom, a proliferation of religious elements within the secular culture of global risk society?

Exhibition details:

address: Sala S. Tommaso, Campo SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venezia, Castello.

Organized by: MoCA Taipei, Taiwan

web: www.mocataipei.org.tw

sponsored by: Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei, Beijing.

artist: Yang Maolin, Taipei, Taiwan

curated by: Felix Schoeber

exhibition period: 7 June- 23 August 2009. Tuesdays closed.

Opening hours during preview: 10 AM- 8 PM.

Opening hours: 10 AM- 7 PM.

Inauguration: 6.6.2009, 7PM.