You may heard of curator. However, do you really understand the details and errands they are dealing with on a daily basis? The director of Taipei Artist Village, Wu Dar Kuen, reveals the reality and amusing stories before the birth of an art exhibition. As an artist and curator, he also shares the experience of planning an art fair and running artist village with us. Can't wait to see? Stay tuned.
Q: Why do you want to be a curator? What is the most alluring part of the job?
Wu: Probably because I am a nosey person. (smiling)
I think curating is a different kind of creation. Merely create artwork can not satisfy me. But curating can help people understand that art can actually play a vital role in the society. As there are more and more projects combine community development, folk art and contemporary art, curating gradually becomes a kind of anthropology or social studies.
Q: What is the most tricky situation you have encountered during curating?
Wu: I ran into a intractable problem when I was curating《Asia Anarchy Alliance》.《Open Sesame》,created by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, included two toy guns for war games. Japan's limitations of shifting are so strict that the artwork could not be shifted. Eventually, we found a person from The Japan Self-Defense Force was willing to lend us the toy guns.
Q: What are the merits of curatorial environment in different countries?
Wu: Overall, Taiwan is not bad compared to Japan in curatorial environment. But Japan's museum resources are far more abundant than Taiwan. Owing to the government's ignorance of art, museums do not have enough funds to enrich the collections. I think government should embrace different opinions, and workers in art industry should also get involved in the system in order to change the inappropriate policies. I assumes an excellent art administrators can find solutions in the system and try hard to negotiate and cooperate to solve the problem.
Q: With the experience of curating many exhibitions overseas, what are the differences between Taiwan and other countries in curatorial environment?
Wu: I curated《Roppongi Crossing》this exhibition in Mori Art Museum last year. I found that Japan provides more time for curators than Taiwan. Since the space fee costs a lot, we have to speed up the setting time. Nevertheless, the staff of Mori Art Museum did not work overtime. The museum have plenty lifts to set up exhibition, and they will arrange a group of people to help artists in order to reduce the waiting time.
