Indigenous Art Detours in the Modern Biennale Assemblages: A Case Study of Taiwan International Austronesian Art Triennial

Indigenous art has received recognition in the recent art world, for instance, Canadian and Australian museums house indigenous artworks, art biennials also value indigenous art from Venice to Liverpool. This paper examines one indigenous art biennial, Taiwan International Austranesian Art Triennial (TIAAT) to explore how indigenous art negotiates when being represented in the art biennial as modern assemblages. TIAAT was held in Autumn 2023 at Taiwan Indigenous People Culture Park situated at the mountain area in Taitung, with rebuilt indigenous ancestor houses and modern museums with outdoor spaces, surrounded by indigenous residents with artist studios and craft centers nearby as tourist destinations. The exhibition’s theme was RamiS (Root), curated by two Taiwanese indigenous curators. Drawing upon Latour’s and Deleuze’s assemblage concepts to explore art biennials, this research explores government’s culture policy as ‘abstract machine’ that created the assemblage connecting Taiwanese indigenous art with Austranesian network of international indigenous art as political strategies. Second, it considers the exhibition assemblage through the curating theme RamisS (root) to connect art exhibits from different indigenous groups from Austranesian network while link indigenous art, craft, culture and tourism in Taitung area. Third, different milieus of mountain area, rebuilt ancestor houses, modern museums, artist studios and heritage centres provide different ‘affordances’ for display then evokes multiple ‘affects’ for participants. Finally, the exhibition milieus with conflicting ‘desiring machines’ from indigenous artworks’ cosmos strongly connect with ecological environment, religious ritual with ancestor genealogy, and art-craft continuous format that detour the artistic imagination into multiple directions. This research uses multiple methods from analyzing exhibitions, onsite visit, interviewing curators and artists, comparing artworks in the studios, ancient homes, modern museums in the art biennial. This research discusses how the indigenous cosmos negotiate with the topology of modern museum through story-telling, ritual calming ancestors, challenge the biennales as modern assemblages.