Big Picture: 'I Do Not See My Works as a Description of Today’s Situation. They Are Metaphors.'
Conversation with Taiwanese Artist Ting-Jung Chen
ZURICH, JUNE 26, 2024 – The works of Taiwanese artist Ting-Jung Chen revolve around the relation between sound and control. She works both in sound and materiality, creating installations, recomposing songs that have been used in propaganda or on the contrary have been banned by governments. Her research revolves around historical artefacts and what their use can tell us about today. Her projects explore the historical usage of sonic warfare, and propaganda instruments and reflect on collective memory and identity.
Ting-Jung Chen talked about her art practice with Dr. Simona Grano, Senior Fellow on Taiwan at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis and inaugural TOY Senior Fellow at Asia Society Switzerland.
Ting-Jung Chen is currently an Award Fellow with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. She obtained the Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2018, and she is the recipient of the MAK-Schindlers-Scholarship 2019 from MAK Museum Vienna. She has been awarded various prizes, scholarships and fellowships, including the 2022 Promotion Award of Fine Arts, City of Vienna, Austria; Visual Arts Grant 2020 from Federal Chancellery of Austria; the Visual Arts Grant 2020 from Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation; the “MIT” Fellowship 2020 from the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan; the Koganecho residency fellowship 2017; the Judges Award of the Taipei Arts Awards 2015; the Deutschlandstipendium 2015; the Karl H. Ditz Scholarship 2014, and several other fellowships and project funding fellowships. Her works have been shown in numerous venues internationally, including Belvedere 21erHaus, Vienna, Kunsthalle Wien, Kunsthaus Hamburg, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Parallel Vienna, Koganecho Bazaar 2017, Yokohama, Japan, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, and 18 Street Art Center, Santa Monica, U.S. among many others.
Dr. Simona Grano is Senior Fellow on Taiwan at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis and the inaugural TOY Senior Fellow at Asia Society Switzerland, as well as an Associate Professor at the University of Zurich, with a focus on Chinese and Taiwanese studies. She has held research positions and taught China Studies and Taiwan Studies at Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Italy, at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and at National Cheng'chi University in Taiwan. She is a research fellow of the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan (ERCCT) in Tübingen, Germany, and a research associate of SOAS, London. She regularly contributes to Swiss and global media through articles, commentaries and interviews and is often consulted by various Swiss governmental bodies regarding the situation between China and Taiwan and Switzerland's strategic options. She is the author of Environmental Governance in Taiwan: a new generation of activists and stakeholders, published in 2015 by Routledge. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Civil Society, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, China Information, Asiatische Studien, Taiwan in Comparative Perspective, Orizzonte Cina and International Journal of Taiwan Studies.
About Big Picture
Big Picture is a public event series where we celebrate art in all its forms and shapes: Be it food, movies, museums, or literature. We invite artists, curators, and experts to talk about their practices and how these can help shed light on the world we live in. These talks are designed to further the dialogue and exchange across disciplines and regions and to travel beyond the events.
Partners
The Big Picture event series is made possible with the support of Bergos and hosted in cooperation with Karl der Grosse.
This Big Picture event is hosted in cooperation with sinokultur.
