Organized by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) under the Ministry of Culture Diachronic Apparatuses of Taiwan – Architecture as on-going details within landscape curated by the Architectural Department of Tunghai University for the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will be exhibited at Palazzo delle Prigioni in Venice Italy from May 20 to November 26 2023. The project made its debut at an event recently which saw the trial assembly of full-scale mockups of the exhibits in real-time. NTMoFA Director Jen-I LIAO jury members Prof. Kwang-Tyng WU Jiahn-Min HUANG(architect) Prof. Ming-Song SHYU and Prof. Kuo-Chang LIU curator of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia Prof. C. David TSENG as well as representatives from the Architectural Department of Tunghai University including curator Wei TSENG co-curators Sheng-Chieh KO Jeong-Der HO and Meng-tsun SU were in attendance. Through an inventory of agricultural landscapes across different altitudes and latitudes in Taiwan this year’s presentation illustrates how people have used their knowledge and technology to shape diverse building forms in a bid to tame the environment. The objective is to initiate a dialogue between synthetic and real ground and also to relearn from the countryside.

The curation of Diachronic Apparatuses of Taiwan – Architecture as on-going details within landscape echoes the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia’s theme of The Laboratory of the Future. It posits that the next chapter of the 21st century may require us to take a detour along which we must pay attention to and restore the surroundings that have been forgotten in the wake of progress. The curatorial team revisited Taiwan’s geography to look for signposts pointing to a brighter future in “real life”.

In Diachronic Apparatuses of Taiwan – Architecture as on-going details within landscape the curatorial team examines Taiwan’s agricultural landscapes at varying altitudes through a “cross-sectional” perspective discovering the “modified” aspects to them. Be it the oyster farm shelters off the coast of Chiayi the greenhouses on the Chianan Plain or the tea plantations in Lishan they can all be considered humanity’s tectonic responses to the environment “modifications” resulting from the identification and understanding of as well as adaptation to the characteristics and timing of the solar terms and other natural processes. The curatorial team has proposed six key words namely “negotiator” “duality” “prosthesis” “domesticity” “intermediary” and “filter” in response to how people clash with nature and also make compromises to facilitate mutual prosperity across different landscapes in Taiwan thereby unearthing possibilities for the future development of Taiwanese

architecture.

It is worth mentioning that this year’s team has taken a school-centric curatorial approach and adopted a joint participation model for the first time in the form of a “Teaching Alliance”. In addition to having close ties with the architectural education scene the main works of the exhibition are jointly completed by the teachers and students from the Architectural Department of Tunghai University. Furthermore the renowned architecture faculties of National Cheng Kung University Tamkang University Feng Chia University and Chung Yuan Christian University have also been invited to participate enabling more dynamic experimentation and execution. All the exhibits will be showcased alongside each other in this year’s Taiwan Collateral Event.

Palazzo delle Prigioni where the Taiwan Collateral Event will be located is a unique historic structure and former prison. The curatorial team will divide the interior into four exhibition areas namely “Landscape Documents” “Threshold Corridor” “Video Projection” and “Studio Propositions” according to its architectural space. The venue’s vertical central wall and a horizontal black line will demarcate the boundaries of the four areas while a big table will expand and unify these divisions as one spatial construct. Recorded audio and video will also be played in the exhibition space with the sounds of Taiwan’s natural environment newly arranged music and curated footage becoming instruments that can measure time and space thus enabling viewers to open up their senses and experience the flow of real life in Taiwan.

Full list of the 39 participating exhibitors

Curator: Wei TSENG

Co-Curators: Sheng-Chieh KO Jeong-Der HO Meng Tsun SU

Participating Exhibitors:

(Department of Architecture Tunghai University) Wei TSENG Ming-Hao HSIEH Ding-Che MA Yung-Yu CHENG Jeong-Der HO Yong-Xuan LI Han ZHENG Huan-Lun CHEN Sheng-Chieh KO Ciao-Ming SHU Yun-Hsi WU Ci-Jhen LAI Cai-Hui LIN En-Yu JIAN Tzu-Ching CHEN Hsuan-Ting CHEN Yan-Jun LU Tsung-Yenh SIEH (Department of Architecture National Cheng Kung University) Cheng-Luen HSUEH Yen-Chih CHEN Ying-Tse WU Ting-Ta HO Wei-Lun CHEN Li- Siang HUANG Pak-Hei WONG (Department of Architecture National Cheng Kung University) Chueh-Chih GUU Tzu-Yu HUANG (School of Architecture Feng Chia University) Po-Jen CHENG Yu-Wei KUO Jr-Jiun WANG Yi-Hu CHEN (Department of Architecture Chung Yuan Christian University) Xuan-Cheng CHEN Ning CHANG Yun- An LAI Yen-Chieh CHI (Department of Architecture Tamkang University) Kerby Shuh-Sien CHOU Min CHANG Cheng-Yang HUANG (Department of Music Tunghai University) Tak-Cheung HUI

Exhibition Space Design: Tsung-Yen HSIEH Yi-Chien LEE

Structure Advisor: Ming-Chang LAI