Yuan Goang-Ming's 'Everyday War' at Venice Biennale 2024

At the Venice Biennale Arte 2024, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum presents 'Everyday War,' a collateral event featuring video works by Taiwanese artist Yuan Goang-Ming (born 1965, Taipei). Curated by Abby Chen, Head of Contemporary Art and Senior Associate Curator at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the exhibition occupies the first floor of Palazzo delle Prigioni. It includes both new and older works, with two pieces created specifically for the show: 'Everyday War,' depicting a tranquil apartment disrupted by an anonymous armed attack, and 'Flat World,' a loop of Google Street View landscapes stitched together using AI. Other notable works include 'The 561st Hour of Occupation,' documenting the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement's parliamentary occupation, and 'Wanan Air Defense Drill,' a reconstruction of Taiwan's annual invasion drill showing deserted capital streets. The exhibition explores themes of fear, displacement, and the fragility of peace, reflecting Taiwan's precarious geopolitical situation under constant threat from China. Chen emphasizes that for Yuan, who was born, raised, and lives in Taiwan, this dystopian scenario is reality.