Negative Horizon – 2016 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition

The 5th Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition (2016 TIVA) — “Negative Horizon” departs from a humble inquiry: “Why does image move?” In addition, based on the epistemological exploration of image: “How did the historical trajectory of image movements come about and then intertwine with the contemporary experiences of displacement?” Since 2008, TIVA has been taking place in a neighborhood called Beitou, which is located in the north of Taipei City. As a microcosm of the sense of mobility inscribed upon the historical entity known as Taiwan, and taking the distinctive locale of Beitou and its historical experiences as an alternative reference point, the exhibition resonates with the emotive agencies from local to global.

The curatorial inquiry holds a mirror to its English title of the exhibition—“Negative Horizon”— derived from L’Horizon négatif (1984), not only standing for a book on dromology written by French philosopher Paul Virilio, but also representing the necessity of the curatorial intervention to bring the aesthetic debate to the context outside of Globe North. By replacing the philosophical articulations of negatives with the material history of photographic film, one can refer to the term “negative” as the celluloid film that is an essential vehicle to mobilize image—a materialistic process of appearing—and also beyond an adjective, indicating a sense of passiveness with an implication of antagonistic denial. The term “horizon” embodies the dynamics within the liminal space between heaven and earth, which is conditioned by the correlation between the perspective of the spectator and her/his circumstance of the surrounding. “Negative Horizon” stands for those invisible scenes that inhabit opposite to, behind, or underneath the normative visibility. A sense of mobility is embodied by the economic and political exiles, which result from contemporary geopolitics in conjunction with the disruption of citizenship caused by human trafficking beyond political borders. As these transnational/transregional voyages gradually become a part of more and more lives, “Negative Horizon” addresses the question of whether the state of movement expands our horizons or makes us increasingly blind to exploitation by legitimizing the meaning of mobility.

Joining forces with the finalists from the international open call, together with the invited artists/artist groups, the total sums to 27 artists/artist groups, both domestic and international. Apart from showcasing and screening, the exhibition highlights the development of a narrative by elaborating on the dialectical tensions between the moving images and their respective contextualization of the materiality. From the negative film, object, archive, and installation, the exhibition attempts to interrogate the subject of “mobility” from various aspects as an effort to mobilize the feelings of visuality, tactility, corporeality, and even memory. The exhibition engages with artistic visions and their corresponding trajectories in engaging the mechanical motion pictures to expose a historical reality shared by global communities.