Monday 18 September 2006, 18.30–20.00

Three artists and one of the curators of this year's Liverpool Biennial are from Taiwan. Chen Chieh-jen, Lee Mingwei and Tsui Kuang-yu introduce their site-specific work for the International 06 section of the Liverpool Biennial and discuss Taiwanese Art Today with curator Manray Hsu and guests at Tate Modern.

Chen Chieh-jen Neptune Jade 2006 © The artist

Chen Chieh-jen's Neptune Jade 2006 (working title) is a film about the ship Neptune Jade and the experiences, past and present, of Liverpool dock workers seen through the eyes of a former docker who is now homeless. In September 1995, after being sacked by Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, hundreds of Liverpool dockers called on dockworkers from all over the world to join the fight against the company. In September 1997, a cargo boat named Neptune Jade arrived at the port of Oakland in San Francisco bay. The ship was tied up at the terminal, yet none of the containers could be discharged because the dockworkers in Oakland joined the solidarity campaign. Dockworkers in Vancouver, Kobe and Yokohama also resisted unloading the cargo. One month later, after failing to find a port that would accept its cargo, Neptune Jade sailed to Kaohsiung in Taiwan, where the ship was sold, renamed, and its cargo discharged. This solidarity campaign against the ship's owners, organised by labourers around the world, started in Liverpool and ended in Taiwan.

Lee Mingwei The Tourist 2003 MOMA, New York © The artist

Many of Lee Mingwei's works exist as situations in which participants explore issues of trust, intimacy and self-awareness. Fabric of Memory reveals how objects can capture personal histories. Lee invites local residents to lend handmade textiles, typically items of clothing made by and received from a family member during childhood. Both maker and receiver are asked to provide a history of the item, what memories they have of giving or wearing it and what feelings it now evokes. Placed in individual boxes, each object is accompanied by its two documented histories. The viewer is invited to open each box, share in its memories and recall their own.

Tsui Kuang-Yu Handypath 2006 © The Artist

Tsui Kuang-yu's films evaluate the function of mundane elements of the city that we use daily but would never otherwise contemplate. The sites he selects are peculiar examples of urban design and infrastructure that unwittingly become cultural signifiers. Each has a specific purpose, typically to stop us doing something 'wrong' – parking in the wrong place, driving into the wrong lane or crossing the road at a busy intersection. Liverpool Top Ten 2006 is presented as breaking news stories. The film clips show residents of Liverpool running amuck as they follow instructions given by road signs that subvert the intended function of the spaces they control. Bollards erected to stop us parking in a private area become a handy dog training facility; a central reservation constructed to stop us driving into oncoming traffic becomes a rest point for pedestrians crossing a dual carriageway; a cobbled section of street becomes a relaxing place to massage one's feet. The films question how we use, navigate and relate to our immediate urban environment. Amidst the radically changing landscape of present day Liverpool, to take stock of how urban design controls and influences behaviour seems particularly pertinent.

Manray Hsu is an independent curator, writer and critic based in Berlin and Taipei. He was co-curator (with Jerome Sans) of the 2000 Taipei Biennial: The Sky Is the Limit, was a jury member for the 49th Venice Biennale, and a jury member of the Unesco Prize for the 7th Istanbul Biennial.

Tate Modern  Members Room
Free, no booking necessary
Price includes drinks afterwards

  

This event is related to the Liverpool Biennial: International 06 exhibition