SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Black Water - Taiwan Art Biennial
15 November, 2025 - 1 March, 2026
​National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan

WANG Ding-Yeh, Pailang Museum, LEE Li-Chung, LI Kin, LI TzuMei, Your Bros. Filmmaking Group, WU Chi-Yu, WU Chia-Yun, WU Tzu-An, hewen a ta:in tawtawazay, Anchi Ring, LIN Yi-Chi, James T. HONG, Musquiqui Chihying, KAO Jun Honn, CHEN Chieh-Jen, CHEN Fei-Hao, CHEN Wen-Li, CHEN Yin-Ju, YUAN Goang-Ming, KUO Pei-Chi, ljalje’elan patadalj, Mayaw Biho, CHANG Li-Ren / CHENG Yuan / RUI Lan-Xin, CHANG Chi-Chung, CHANG Wen-Hsuan, HSU Chia-Wei, TENG Chao-Ming, TSAI Yu-Ting, LAN Chung-Hsuan, SO Yo-Hen

Curators: Jay Chun-Chieh LAI​

黑水—2025臺灣美術雙年展
15 November, 2025 - 1 March, 2026
​國立臺灣美術館，台中，台灣

王鼎曄、白浪博物館、李立中、李鍵、李慈湄、你哥影視社、吳其育、吳家昀、吳梓安、豆宜臻、林安狗、林羿綺、洪子健、致穎、高俊宏、陳界仁、陳飛豪、陳雯俐、陳瀅如、袁廣鳴、郭佩奇、郭悅暘、馬躍·比吼、張立人／成媛／芮蘭馨、張致中、張紋瑄、許家維、鄧兆旻、蔡昱廷、藍仲軒、蘇育賢

策展人：賴駿杰

View on ​National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

〈偏航〉以兩座相距數公尺的看台構成場域，觀眾可在紙上書寫訊息，摺成紙飛機，從一岸投擲至對側。然而，大多數紙飛機無法順利抵達。〈偏航〉以「無法準確傳達」作為預設狀態，指涉資訊傳遞中的中斷、偏差與誤讀。在長期衝突、邊界分裂與認知斷裂的背景中，訊息往往並非未被發出，而是無法或片面得被接收、無法被理解、無權被回應。藉由一個看似遊戲式的參與機制，〈偏航〉暴露出當代緊密世界裡的一道裂溝。

Deviation is composed of two viewing stands set several meters apart. Viewers may write messages on paper, fold them into paper planes, and throw them from one side toward the other. However, most of the paper planes fail to reach the other side. Deviation takes “failure to communicate accurately” as its default condition, referencing interruption, deviation, and misreading in the transmission of information. In the context of prolonged conflict, divided borders, and fractured perception, messages are often not unsent, but rather cannot be received, are only partially received, are not understood, or are not permitted a response. Through what appears to be a game-like participatory mechanism, Deviation exposes a fissure within the tightly connected contemporary world.

As the theme of this year’s Taiwan Biennial, Black Water evokes imagery of darkness and submersion, serving as a metaphor for the terrifying experiences of migration, diaspora, and multiple colonialisms in Taiwan’s history. The title draws inspiration from decolonial theorist Walter D. Mignolo’s concept of the “darker side,” through which the exhibition seeks to explore the long-neglected or obscured issues within the narrative of Taiwan’s art history.

Facing Taiwan’s history and its people, the word “black” instinctively evokes the “Black Ditch” and the legends and stories associated with it. Temporally, it extends to the colonial history of maritime imperial expansion; spatially, it symbolizes the global framework of modern capitalist circulation. The “Black Ditch” thus becomes an imagined spiritual barrier, delineating a historical divide between Taiwan and the world—particularly with mainland China across the strait.

The color black also alludes to the long-standing discrimination and oppression of Indigenous peoples and local communities under settler colonialism. At the same time, it echoes the historical shadow of the “White Terror,” touching upon sensations and emotions of fear, pain, oblivion, and subtle unease. “Black Water,” therefore, does not merely signify darkness or horror, but rather a state of obscurity and disorientation. In darkness, one cannot see the path ahead; yet within an overwhelming whiteness, one may experience such total loss that even the self becomes imperceptible. It is for this reason that “black,” rather than “dark(er)” is used in the title of this exhibition. 

Conversely, “water” serves as a crucial image and metaphor of movement and transformation, inviting us to view Taiwan from an archipelagic perspective and through the lens of fluidity, while also reminding us that historical memory is never indestructible; it can be washed away, misperceived, or even forgotten. This expanse of water, intertwined with the world’s collective sorrows and anxieties, is both the harbor of those who arrive and the hidden passage of those who depart; it is at once a conduit of trade and colonization, and a site of violence and memory. These images help us envision the possibility of rewriting history: not as a singular and universal history, but with the understanding that the writing of history must be maintained in a constant state of dynamic reflection, continually confronting the many unfinished stories that remain obscured or hidden. 

Dark Water is divided into three subthemes: “Arrival”, “Settlement” and “Arrival-Becoming”. There are no absolute hierarchies or chronological boundaries between “Arrival” and “Settlement;” rather, they resemble a cyclical and transformative process of subject formation. How does the “Arrival” found in history, upon encountering “Settlement,” transform into the “Arrival-Becoming” that is yet to come? How is identity shaped through migration? And how is history written, recorded, and affirmed amid the intertwining of fear and forgetting?

With these at its core, this year’s Biennial reexamines Taiwan’s historical narratives and cultural conditions from the postwar period to the present through the diverse perspectives of contemporary art. It questions the past historical view and writing framework that centered on Continentalism and regime changes, while seeking to understand contemporary Taiwan’s global positioning from the perspectives of geopolitics and local experience.

「黑水」作為本屆臺灣美術雙年展的主題，帶有陰暗且潛伏之意象，隱喻臺灣歷史中關於遷徙、離散，與多重殖民的恐怖經驗。展名靈感來自解殖理論學者瓦爾特・米尼奧羅（Walter D. Mignolo）的「晦暗面」（darker side）概念，藉此探討臺灣藝術史中長期被忽略或隱沒的議題。

面向臺灣的歷史與群眾，「黑」直覺地讓人想到「黑水溝」與其相關的傳說與故事。時間上，它可延展至海權帝國擴張的殖民歷史；空間上，則象徵現代資本主義之全球流動的世界框架，黑水溝更像一道想像的精神屏障，劃出了與世界（特別是對岸中國）的歷史鴻溝。

黑色同時指涉長久以來定居者殖民主義下對原住民族與本土群體的歧視與壓迫，也呼應「白色恐怖」的歷史陰影，觸及恐懼、傷痛、遺忘、幽微等感知與情緒。此謂黑水，並非單純的黑暗或恐怖，而是類似一種遮蔽與迷失；在黑色中看不清眼前的道路，而在極度的白色裡，則會有連自身皆無法清楚覺察的迷失感。正因如此，本展以「黑」（black）而非「暗」（dark(er)）為命名。

相對地，「水」則起到關鍵的動態與變化的意象與隱喻作用，更多從群島觀點以及流動性來看臺灣，也提醒我們歷史記憶總非堅不可摧，而是會被沖刷、錯視，甚至被遺忘。這片與全球憂戚相關的水域，既是來者的渡口，也是去者的幽徑；既是貿易與殖民的通道，也是暴力與記憶的場域。這些意象幫助我們設想重寫歷史的可能：不是單一且普遍的歷史，而應該承認歷史書寫須時刻維持在不斷動態的思考方式，面對尚被遮蔽或隱藏的各種未完成的故事。
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「黑水」分為三個子題：「抵達」(arrival）、「定居」(settlement），與「臨來」(arrival-becoming），彼此沒有絕對的階級或時序的分際，它更像是主體認同的一種輪迴與變化過程。歷史中的「抵達」，在與「定居」遭遇後，如何轉變為尚未到來的「臨來」？身分如何在遷徙中形構？歷史書寫又如何在恐懼與遺忘交錯中被記錄與肯認？
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本屆雙年展以此為核心，透過當代藝術的多元視角，重新審視臺灣戰後迄今的歷史書寫與文化境況，質疑過往以大陸中心、政權變遷為主的史觀與書寫框架，並嘗試從地緣政治與在地經驗的角度，以理解當代臺灣的全球定位。
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