SlowTech

“This place no longer exists; what matters is this moment.”-Paul Virillio

Our ancient bodies do not seem to be able to keep up with the fast-paced lives of today. When we are faced by the shock created by this massive amount of information, a continuous short circuiting occurs within our bodies that makes us feel uncomfortable, and causes our bodies to become duller and duller. For us, a great deal of information seems to come at us one after another, yet most of this information disappears too quickly. The entire situation echoes the words of Jean Baudrillard, “the world we live in has more and more information, but less and less meaning.” People have lost the ability to observe and sense the things around them. The modern era does not encourage patience, while people are accustomed to fast and superficial ways of reading. As a result, culture needs to be packaged or adorned. People want the arts to be fast and fashionable. While people are trying to be quick in everything, they seem to lose both the time needed for thought and the distance required for close observation. Everything people see seems to be very vague, as they are unable to focus their sight. This is similar to when a person has been too close to a certain surface; the very disappearance of a viewing distance results in our inability to grasp the truth and generate an overall view or observation.

Hence, in addition to needing adjustment in the pace of our lives, we also need to counteract current fast-paced lifestyles with a relatively slower speed or “slow aesthetics” in art. We need to escape from our fast consumer patterns and return to a more classical way of enjoying life. We need to invest a long period of time in closely observing our world. Artists need to be patient in the creation of their works, and perhaps even slow down deliberately. If we cannot reach a balance within our fast-paced world, we need to neutralize this contemporary “excessive speed” with “deceleration” or “alternative speed.”

Exhibition curator: Yuan, Guang-Ming

Participating Artists: Laurie Anderson (Usa) Chen Chih-Chien (Taiwan) Huang Bo-Gea (Taiwan) Yuki Kimura (Japan) Kim Young-Jin (Korea) Robert Lazzarini (Usa) Lee Yong-Baek(Korea) Ron Mueck(Australia) Tao Ya-Lun(Taiwan) Bill Viola(Usa) Miwa Yanagi (Japan) Mary Ziegler (Usa) Ma Junfu Tseng Yu-Chin (Taiwan) Granular Synthesis : Kurt Hentschlager + Ulf Langheinrich

SlowTech

mit Laurie Anderson, Chen Chih-Chien, Huang Bo-Gea, Yuki Kimura, Kim Young-Jin, Robert Lazzarini, Lee Yong-Baek, Ron Mueck, Tao Ya-Lun, Bill Viola, Miwa Yanagi, Mary Ziegler, Ma Junfu, Tseng Yu-Chin, Granular-Synthesis