The Keyword Dictionary of Contemporary Art

2020-
Host｜Association of the Visual Arts in Taiwan,
Sponsor｜National Culture and Arts Foundation, Department of Cultural, Affairs, Taipei City Government

The Keyword Dictionary of Asian Contemporary Art was launched in 2021. It is inspired by border closures, transportation difficulties, economic stress-aggravated conflicts, as well as the extensive use of hashtags such as "#Stayindex," "#Stayhealth," and "#Quarantine" on a global scale due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, physical exchange and interaction between art professionals became incredibly challenged. At the same time, however, it also granted more time for re-examining and re-teasing out the results of past works, allowing us to contemplate on potential directions for the future. This project starts with the Asian regions, which share cultural knowledge and historical experience, and uses Taiwan as a node to connect with art professionals in the Southeastern and South Asian regions, who then start from their common experience to either respond to or continue inquiring into issues they are faced with. In the first phase of the project, three hosts have been invited to decide on the themes, which are respectively responded by Indonesian, Amis, South Asian, and Filipino artists, art educators, and art collaborators with videos, sounds, writings, and publications. During this process, the role of the hosts is more like an index editor, who try to pinpoint the proposed keywords by designing the way of reading. Consequently, the design of the dictionary's online display follows the compilation method of modern dictionaries to be arranged in the alphabetical order, and preserves as much as possible the vocabularies inspired by native languages and how they have emerged during the process.

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