BIENNALS: 14th Taipei Biennial 2025

Between 1984 and 1991, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum hosted the exhibition projects “Contemporary Art trends in the R.O.C” and “An Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Sculpture in the Republic of China” on alternate years. In 1992, these two exhibitions were consolidated to form The Taipei Biennial of Contemporary Art, which was the precursor to today’s Taipei Biennial. In its early years the artists participating in the exhibition were selected through an open judging process.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Taipei Biennial Archive

In 1998, after more than a decade of changes, and in order to adapt to the ‘biennial’ trend, and to promote Taiwan’s contemporary art internationally, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum began to invite internationally-renowned curators to cooperate with curators from Taiwan. Since then, the Taipei Biennial has introduced new artistic ideas from around the world that act as a driver of dialogue between Taiwan and other cultures, becoming a primary symbol of Taiwan’s contemporary art development and international artistic exchange.

The 14th edition of the Taipei Biennial 2025, titled “Whispers on the Horizon”, brings together 54 artists from 35 cities worldwide.Tthe exhibition features 33 newly commissioned works and site-specific installations that engage deeply with the museum’s unique architecture and context. The Taipei Biennial 2025 amplifies the voices of young and mid-career artists, with nearly half of the participants born after 1984.

Taiwan’s layered history—marked by colonial rule, shifting identities, and political transformation —forms the backdrop of the Taipei Biennial 2025. explores the notion of yearning, expanding it beyond mere desire into something more persistent, unresolved, and deeply embedded in the human condition.

Yearning is a force that stretches across time and geography. It is the ache of lost homes and forgotten histories, the quiet pull of a future that never fully arrives. It is not simply nostalgia, nor is it hope—it exists in-between, in the suspended space where past, present, and future collide. “Whispers on the Horizon” traces this longing as it manifests in personal narratives and collective memory, resonating between reality and illusion, belonging and displacement, permanence and disappearance.

The exhibition’s inspiration is rooted in three literary and cinematic objects rooted in Taiwan that carry histories of yearning: 1: A puppet – from Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s film “The Puppetmaster” (1993), a semi-biographical reflection on the life of the Taiwanese puppet master Li Tien-lu, in times of Japanese colonial rule. 2:A diary – from Chen Yingzhen’s short story “My Kid Brother Kangxiong” (1960), chronicling the aspirations and struggles of a young man who committed suicide in a politically turbulent Taiwan 3: A bicycle – from Wu Ming-Yi’s novel “The Stolen Bicycle” (2015), where a son searches for traces of his father through a lost object, and who in the process gets entangled in Taiwan’s wartime history.

While these objects are not physically present in the exhibition, they instead act as silent markers of memory, embodying what has been lost, taken, or left behind. They remind us that yearning is as much about absence as it is about presence, about what we search for and what we already carry within us.

In “Whispers on the Horizon”, contemporary works will engage in a dialogue with early 20th-century paintings from Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s collection — including works by Chen Cheng-Po, Chen Chin, and Chen Chih-Chi. Moreover, the biennial will draw inspiration from artifacts from the National Palace Museum. This adds an extra historical dimension and cultural depth to the meaning of yearning, reminding us that yearning is not merely an emotional experience, but a reverberation across time, preserved in paint and porcelain, in delicate brushstrokes, and in objects that transcend borders and generations. They act as visual and conceptual bridges, reminding us that longing is not bound to the present; it echoes through centuries, across cultural shifts and political ruptures.

Though this exhibition begins in Taiwan, its themes extend far beyond. “Whispers on the Horizon” reminds us that yearning is universal, present in every culture and era. It is the ache of migration, the longing for home, the search for identity, the hunger for futures yet to unfold.  Yearning, in the Taipei Biennial, is neither static nor resolved. It moves, fragile yet persistent, invisible yet deeply felt.

Participating Artists: Fatma Abdulhadi, Afra Al Dhaheri, Mohammad Al Faraj, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Ivana Bašić, Rana Begum, Monia Ben Hamouda, Jacopo Benassi, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Chen Cheng-Po, Chen Chih-Chi, Chen Chin, Edgar Calel, Skyler Chen, Musquiqui Chihying, Gäelle Choisne, Isaac Chong Wai, Zih-Yan Ciou, Jacky Connolly, Rohini Devasher, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Mona Hatoum, Zike He, Yen-Yen Ho, Anna Jermolaewa, Eva Jospin, Minjung Kim, Joeun Kim Aatchim, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Lina Lapelytė, Omar Mismar, Ni Hao, Camille Norment, Henrique Oliveira, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Bunny Rogers, Hiraki Sawa, Sylvie Selig, Jeremy Shaw, P. Staff, Young-jun Tak, Fuyuhiko Takata, Sung Tieu, Kiriakos Tompolidis, Álvaro Urbano, Hsiang Lin Wang, Yao-Yi Wang, Nari Ward, Chia-Yun Wu, Yeesookyung, Shizuka Yokomizo, Yu Ji, Ruyi Zhang and Tobias Zielony

Photo: Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Destroy Your Home, Build Up A Boat, Save Life, 2015. Print on carpet, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist, Green Art Gallery Dubai and EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial. Photo: Miriam O’Connor

Info: Curators: Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, No.181, Sec. 3, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan, Duration: 1/11/2025-29/3/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri & Sun 9:30-17:30, Sat 9:30-20:30, www.taipeibiennial.org/