The 2020 Art Taipei will take place at the Taipei World Trade Center Oct. 23-26 before a live audience as scheduled, with Taiwanese classical pianist Lu Chia-hui (盧佳慧) set to perform at the opening ceremony on Oct. 22, according to event organizer, the Taiwan Art Gallery Association.
While many art events hosted by various cities around the world are being canceled, postponed or shifted to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's Art Taipei will be held as scheduled, the organizer said, adding that the annual event has been held for 27 straight years since it was launched in 1992.
As part of a preview to the event, Lu will present her piano composition "Butterfly Orchid," a music-based performance artwork combining multimedia technology, during the opening ceremony.
Composed and produced by Lu, "Butterfly Orchid" accompanies 18 paintings by artist Paul Chiang (江賢二), which are deconstructed, rearranged and recombined into a seamless 3D animated work, Lu said on her Facebook page.
This year's Art Taipei will feature a special exhibition of works created by overseas Chinese students who studied in Taiwan in the late 1950s, which will demonstrate how they took the energy from Taiwan back to their homes and allowed it to flourish and blossom, according to the association.
Meanwhile, the organizers will curate an exhibition to showcase collectors of Taiwanese artworks and highlight the compatibility among industry, government, academia and collectors in the art ecology chain.
Japanese artist Kohei Nawa's world famous artwork "Throne," previously on exhibit at the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, will also be a focus of this year's event.
A series of documentaries featuring a number of interviews with highly representative female poets in Asia, stretching across Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, will be screened during the event, according to the association.
In addition, the Taiwan Art Gallery Association said it is collaborating with an artwork e-commerce consumer platform Artsy to sell artworks from Taiwanese galleries to the rest of the world.
