The 14th version of the Taipei Biennial, Whispers on the Horizon, opens on November 1 on the Taipei Superb Arts Museum (TFAM). Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Until Fellrath (Administrators of Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin), the exhibition brings collectively about 150 works by 72 artists from 37 cities, that includes 34 new commissions and site-specific installations spanning portray, sculpture, movie, images, and efficiency.
Whispers on the Horizon explores craving as a permanent human drive that reaches past the doable, talking of the long run by means of quiet insistence reasonably than proclamation. Its conceptual framework facilities on three modest but charged objects drawn from Taiwan’s literary and cinematic works — absent from the galleries however shaping the exhibition’s emotional and temporal arc. The puppet from Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Puppetmaster (1993) embodies perseverance by means of eras of occupation and renewal; the diary in Chen Yingzhen’s My Child Brother Kangxiong (1960) captures a era’s wrestle between conviction and disillusion; and the bicycle in Wu Ming-Yi’s The Stolen Bicycle (2015) evokes loss, inheritance, and belonging. Collectively, they type an invisible structure for the Biennial: the puppet as continuity, the diary as interiority, and the bicycle as pursuit — three intertwined expressions of craving.
The Biennial weaves up to date works with round 30 items from the Taipei Superb Arts Museum’s assortment. In dialogue with the brand new artwork, these assortment items act not as static artifacts however as dwelling brokers of craving, bridging previous and current to foster intergenerational dialog. Suspended textile partitions exchange strong partitions in an echo of the exhibitions themes, creating permeable thresholds and open sightlines that foster a rhythm of visibility and connection.
“We need to create a Biennial that would solely exist right here — one which listens to the histories, languages, and contradictions that make Taipei what it’s. Our dialogue with TFAM’s assortment was not an act of nostalgia however of grounding: an insistence that the native, when deeply engaged, turns into a lens for the world. In Whispers on the Horizon, craving is that bridge — it begins within the intimacy of reminiscence and extends right into a shared horizon the place the native turns common,” mentioned Bardaouil and Fellrath.
Exhibition Highlights
The bottom ground options works dedicated to craft, reminiscence, and care as acts of survival, together with Ciou Zih-Yan’s “Pretend Airfield” (2025), which reconstructs a decoy airstrip from the Japanese colonial period. Additionally on view are “Out within the Fields” (1934) by Chen Chin, whose work of stylish girls got here to represent a Taiwan seeking its identification, and Afra Al Dhaheri’s “Weighted PAUSE” (2025), through which meditative looped rope preparations invite viewers to ponder slowness as a type of resistance.
The basement stage facilities on the physique as each witness and vessel of transformation. By means of rhythmically crushed stone and glass vessels, Ivana Bašić shapes the act of respiration into sculpture in “Ardour of Pneumatics” (2020–24) and “Metanoia” (2025). A 1956 {photograph} by the late Syu Ching-Pwo, “Confidence,” captures two males leaning shut in dialog, separating and connecting directly, whereas Jacky Connolly’s “The Mineral Kingdom (Darkish Inexperienced)” (2025) makes use of dreamlike imagery to merge reminiscence with digital terrain, turning private grief into digital landscapes.
On the higher stage, the works hint an inventive lineage pushed by the need to understand, interpret, and join — collectively reimagining the world by means of the lens of craving. Liu Kuo-Sung breaks from conventional ink portray to develop new summary types in “Floating Mountain” (1971) as Eva Jospin constructs a mirrored forest in “Ici” (2025), impressed by the classical Huang Gongwang portray “Dwelling within the Fuchun Mountains” (1348–50). With “Skeleton” (2025), P. Workers turns the gallery into an exploration of management and resistance, layering infrared imagery and poetic narration to look at how our bodies are regulated and liberated.
Li-chen Loh, Director of the Taipei Superb Arts Museum, remarks: “Since its inception, the Taipei Biennial has embraced variety of voices. This version displays on the ties between native expertise and international context, inviting guests to rethink their place in an interconnected world.”
For extra info, go to taipeibiennial.org/2025 or comply with TFAM’s Fb and Instagram.
