From the curator

　　Kao Chienhui

　　Born in Chinese Taiwan and having lived in the West for over 20 years, my role as the 'Taiwan curator' can not be read as someone who represents the views of Taiwan, but rather an observation from my seat, of the development of contemporary art in Taiwan in the past 30 years, as well as my perception of the rising new art in Taiwan.

　　1.

　　'Reshaping History Chinart from 2000 to 2009' was originally initiated by artists from the Institutions of Chinart in Chengdu. It tried to describe the activities of artists from China during the frst decade of the new 21st between 2000 and 2009.The exhibition title of 'Reshaping History' is not a default establishment of historical viewpoint, but a platform for the young generation of artists and the world they live in to enter the global art arena by showcasing the contemporary Chinese art in its totality. The art evolution it connects to is a retrospective one, with the ongoing new look in art that began between 2000 and 2009 as its main object of integration.

　　Personally I believe the theme of 'Reshaping History' is a huge one. Although I doubt the ability of art in making history, I believe art can create a different art history. 'Can 30 years of work be counted as part of history? Can 10 years of work represent contemporary art?' Can these working artists arrive at a point in the future that the history will remember? Looking at these issues, the contemporary art writers are no prophets. The start of historical positioning for contemporary art can not be imposed upon the occurrence of movement in history, nor can it dwell on a series of styles. In fact, its context is attached to the essence of modern art: actions stirred up by denial or dissatisfaction with the reality. In the meantime, organizing an infuential art exhibition is often a romantic idea of activists in the art circle. So, looking at 30 years of diverse work within the region, writing from an angle sandwiched between the history of movement and history of styles is indeed a history of exhibition merged by artistic styles of the last 30 years.

　　The use of exhibition as an art movement or review of an era has been a century-long practice in the art circle since Impressionism. So it will not be an exaggeration if one calls art history as a contending history of exhibition. Watching the making of local art history over the past 30 years is already a large volume of various sizes of exhibitions; in short, creating a trend or movement through exhibitions has already become the evolution or means for modern art. As to the history of movement, it requires 'events' and 'event' is usually the turning point that changes the course of history. For Asia, one of the infuential events took place during the frst decade of the 21st century is the impact of 2008 fnancial crisis on the contemporary art scene. It reawakened the fervor of the last decade on contemporary art of the past 30 years, particularly the Chinese contemporary art, and re-consolidated many blind spots of world market orientation in the art world.

　　Whose art? Whose history? But a pluralistic vision of art history that questions any monism forcefully set by part of the collective will. Contemporary art is splitting into various artistic purpose because of globalization and anti-globalization wave, and the different perception of history and reality, shaping a subtle opposition and fusion between contemporary exhibition trends and contemporary market trends. Therefore, the work of art writing is particularly challenging in the review of and future evolution of contemporary Chinese art in the 21st century, because the historical time and space it must address also includes both market and anti-market defnition of art.

　　Based on the fact that over time visual arts is sure to move toward a cultural universal history that bases its thinking on the interaction between style and society, therefore visual arts are often seen as a reference document to aesthetics. In the past 30 years, the writing of contemporary art has become complex and increasing less one-directional due to pluralistic tolerance and dissent. In additional to the history of art movements and history of art styles, other methods of arrangement include art history of art galleries and collection history of the market. The former has idea of history, history, and education as its goals, and is mostly guided by the judgment and knowledge from art galleries or academic institutions; the latter uses private collections, taste, and investment as its direction, and set the market value of art work by the like of private collectors and investment judgment. In general, knowledge judgment should be regarded as objective while taste judgment should be considered as objective. But in today's globalization, the idea of history may have come from a subjective idealism, and taste may have been the result of manufactured message infuence. As art draws closer to politics and money, it often makes people forget its own value. In any case, a good piece of work from a particular age should bear the evidence of both an era and its people or heritage function; the reason that work of art is attractive is that its material carrier not only contains time, space, and people, but also the aesthetic studies of the age.