Temple of sublime beauty
Yang Maolin
Venice Biennial 2009
presented by MoCA Taipei
curated by Schoeber Felix
June- August 2009
S. Giovanni e Paolo, Sala S. Tomaso

temple of sublime beauty
Yang Maolin at the 2009 Venice Biennial

Yang Maolin’s double exhibition in Taipei and Venice will probe into the proliferation of semi- religious elements in modern secular culture. The starting point of this multifold exploration will be the space of the museum, which, as has been observed by Carol Duncan in her 1995 article ?museum as ritual“, in its space of heightened aesthetic attention provides a ?sublime“ and therefore ?liminal“ or semi- religious experience, albeit its designation as a space of secular science.

In Taipei, Yang Maolin will transform MoCA Taipei into a temple of manga and Hollywood superheroes, by placing them in the disguise of Nara- style buddhist bronze deities front of the building, transforming MoCA Taipei into the site of a special religious ceremony dedicated to the appearance of those new deities. This can be further illustrated with Slavoj Zizek’s observations on Hollywood cinema: on the surface a medium of innocent entertainment geared to please a postmodern market, yet a closer look reveals numerous elements of religion.
A classic example is the cartoon character ?superman“, who in his selfless quest for the salvation of humankind, and his genealogy as the son of an outer- space / heavenly father evokes Jesus for many aspects. Yang Maolin transforms him and other superheroes such as King Kong, Godzilla and Peter Pan into buddhist deities, assigning each a position in his new pantheon, by placing them like door- guardians on top of ferocious beast, or let them stand on animals and lotus flowers like bodhisatvas, or collocates them on a throne with a big halo on the back like a buddha.

In Venice, the Sala S. Tomaso, part of the chiesa S Giovanni e Paolo, will be transformed into a temple of this pantheon of superheroes. Especially in the case of film heroes such as King Kong (1933), Godzilla (1954), and Superman (1933/1938), one could argue that there is a strong link between their emergence and the growing paranoia of what has been called the contemporary ?risk society“: a society where the development of modern science has created a growing disparagy between knowledge and the potential risks included in any decision. The classic example is nuclear technology: albeit its known benefits, its use entails dangers that can potentially put an end to human life on the globe.

In fact, most superheroes are linked to science and technology in one way or another:  Godzilla is the result of genetic alteration after nuclear tests in the South Pacific, Superman is the last representative from a technologically more advanced society in outer space whose home planet has exploded.
 
MoCA Taipei

MoCA Taipei is the first museum in Taiwan dedicated exclusively to contemporary art. Built in 1921 as a typical example of historicist architecture during the period of japanese colonial rule, the two- storey and perfectly symmetrcial brick building features a main entrance hall and a bell tower, as well as many small and big rooms. In the japanese period, it was home to the Jan Cheng Elementary School. After the end of WWII, it became the office of Taipei city government. In 2001, it was transformed into a museum for contemporary art, while at the same time being designated a historical landmark.
The focus of MoCA Taipei is media and installation art, crossbreeding with design, fashion and architecture. It is host to the Taipei digital arts festival, now in its 3rd edition (http://www.dac.tw/daf08) and the ?6th city on the move“ (art and architecture) festival. This year it was also host to the Taishin Art Prize, since its inception by Shi Juijen in XXX the most prestigious art award in Taiwan. A prominent feature of MoCA’s activities are the ?curators in MoCA series“. Some of the most important shows of the last few years are: ?shopping?“ (2008), ?fashion accidentally (2007), ?second skin“ (2007) , ?Naked Life“ (2006/7), curated Manray Hsu,?Slow Tech“ (2006) curated by Yoan Goang- ming, ?Chamber of the post- urbanist 104“ (2005), ?Trading Place“ (2005), ?Pseudo Hacker’s Art in Parallel Zones“ (2005), curated by Shih Jui-jen, ?Past virtualized- future cloned, Feng Mengbo 1994- 2003“ (2004). With ?Fiction. Love “curated by Victoria Lu in 2004, MoCA Taipei staged the first large scale show of animamix art in Taiwan (and China). The show then travelled to Shanghai MoCA and Singapore.

Yang Maolin

Yang Maolin is one of the founding fathers of transavantagarde
painting in Taiwan. He started his career in the early 80’s, in the  years which saw the lifting of martial law and the advent of democracy in Taiwan. His paintings are nothing else but a canvas for the struggle against the nationalist KMT regime, and the means to search for a new identity once the old China ideology had been abolished. In the early 80’s this struggle led him to use imagery from traditional religion and mythology to allude to the power struggles between the underground democracy movement and the KMT regime. After the lfiting of martial law, with his ?Made in Taiwan“ series he dedicated a decade to the
search for a new identity, whose ultimate essence came to be a fluid hybridity
which reflects Taiwan’s geopolitical and historical position on the crossroads (or rather, between the grinding stones) of global trade and power politics. In his latest sculptures, the symbols of this hybridity have become gods of a new kind of religion- the sublime experience of global entertainment.

CV Yang Maolin (excerpt):

2008 “Shanghai MoCA Envisage II - Butterfly Dream”, MoCA Shanghai
2007 “Animamix Hyper-Link”, Moon River MOCA, Beijing
2006 ?JAALA Biennial”, Tokyo City Museum of Art, Tokyo
“Fiction@Love /Ultra New Vision of Contemporary Art ”, Singapore Art Museum
“Fiction@Love / Forever Young Land ”, MoCA Shanghai
2005 “Contemporary Art from Taiwan at the Venice Biennale, 1995-2003” , TFAM, Taipei
2004 “The Multiform Nineties – Taiwan’s Art Branches Out” , TFAM, Taipei
“Fiction.Love – Ultra New Vision in Contemporary Art” , MoCA Taipei
“The Transitional Eighties – Taiwan’s Art Breaks New Ground” , TFAM, Taipei
“Contemporary Taiwanese Art in Era of Contention” , Herbert E. Johnson Museum
of Art, Cornell University, New York
2003 “Discourses on Love: 64 Conversations in SARS’ Era” , IT Park, Taipei
“Contemporary Asian Artists from the Logan Collection”, DENVER ART MUSEUM,
Colorado, U.S.A.
2002 “ Taiwan Fine Art Band Exhibition ” ,Fukuoka Asian Museum, Fukuoka
“Yang Mao-Lin solo exhibition”,Melbourne Art Fair 2002, Melbourne Australia
2000 “The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection” , San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
1999 “The International of Taiwan's Contemporary Art Vol. 6”, MOMA Contemporary,
Fukuoka, Japan
1999 “VOC: Handle With Care” , 48. Biennale di Venezia
1996 Taipei Biennial, “The Quest for Identity – Identity and Memories”, TFAM, Taipei
1993 “Taiwan Art:1945–1993”, Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), Taiwan
1991 ?101“ Yang Mao-Lin One Man Show, Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Museum
1991 The Winner of First Hsiung-Shih Art Creation Award
1990 “Made in Taiwan-I”, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
1987 ?Behavior in Game“, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
1985 Founder and 1.st president of ?Taipei Modern Painting Group“
1982 Founder of ?101 Modern Art Group“
1979 Graduated from Fine Arts Dept. of Chinese Culture University, Taiwan
1953 Born in Changhua, Taiwan

exhibition and contact details
exhibition period: Taipei MoCA: April 2009- June 2009
Venice: June- August 2009
Venice exhibtion site:
Sala S. Tomaso, campo S. Giovanni e PaoloCastello, Venezia
presented by: MoCa Taipei
director: Shi Jui- jen
Changan W Road Taipei, Taiwan
www.mocataipei.org.tw
curator and contact: Dott. Felix Schober
Cannaregio 6383
30121 Venezia, Italy
cell: 0039- 320-3737646
special thanks to:
Tian Keng and Lin Tianmin
Lin & Keng gallery
1F, No. 11, Lane 252, Tunhua South Road,Section 1,
Taipei, Taiwan