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Informationen zum Autor By Wei Hsiu Tung - Edited by Gerald Cipriani Klappentext Artistic residency has become widely adopted in Western countries while only recently having become popular and well-supported within Taiwan. This book explores the challenges that this form of art practice faced in contemporary Taiwan from the revocation of Martial Law in 1987 to the 2000s-arguably one of the most exciting periods in the sociocultural history of the island. Case studies show what is at stake politically, historically, and socially in artists' endeavours to give shape to a sense of Taiwanese identity.Despite the prevalence of artists engaged in social issues in today's world and the undeniable contributions of artistic residency to contemporary art practice, little literature or scholarly research has been conducted on the practical, conceptual, and ideological aspects of artist residency. Very often, it is perceived in very narrow terms, overlooking explicit or hidden issues of localism, nationalism and globalization. If artistic residence did indeed emerge from the radical movements of the 1960s and 70s in the Western world-and especially Britain-then this book argues that the contemporary sociocultural context of Taiwan calls for redefined, culturally-specific models of residency. The precarious geo-political situation of Taiwan has made issues of cultural identity-tackled by artists and successive governments alike-very sensitive. A new genre of artistic residence in Taiwan would mean that artists involved from whatever cultural background operate as engaging interpreters; their roles would not be confined to mirroring culture and society. These artists-in-residence would contribute to cultural awakening by offering ways of negotiating creatively with otherness, and this for the sake of a better social life and shared identity. This is an atypical study in art. Less an analysis of aesthetics per se than of art as a mode of cultural creativity and vehicle for social progress, it focuses on artists in residence as a community of societally engaged activists abstractly engaged in the shaping of currents and values reflective of changing times. The author emphasizes in particular the ongoing importance of cultural identity in these deeper introspections and debates. By invoking an anthropological approach, the emphasis is really on the experiential aspects of artistic production. The practice of residential communities is perhaps not unlike the seminal role that Jurgen Habermas attributed to salons in the structural transformation of the public sphere. For all these reasons, this monograph should be of interest to scholars not only in art but also cultural studies in general and critically minded students of all kinds working on contemporary Asia and elsewhere. -- Allen Chun, Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan This book examines the practice of artists-in-residence in Taiwan, via an engaging treatment of art and artists as seen from the perspective of the embodied eye of anthropology and through juxtaposition with Britain. The volume sheds new light on Taiwan since the lifting of martial law, exploring not only governmental support for art and artists but also processes of democracy and identity as they have unfolded in a cultural and aesthetic history that is both Asian and European, indigenous and Chinese, modern and post-modern. The book is accessible and original, and should be essential reading for all those interested in Taiwanese culture and society since the transition to democracy. Particularly striking is the way the author weaves together identity and art as the unfinished, mutable, and invented productions of relational rather than egoistic complexes. -- Fang-long Shih, Co-Director, LSE Taiwan Research Programme Wei Hsiu Tung's innovative new tome deftly explores how the "artistic residence" or "artist-in-residence" in Taiwan is no longer confined in large ...
