Yu Cheng-Ta – Chi-Wen

Yu Cheng-Ta at 2019 Performa Biennale

Yu Cheng-Ta at Performa 19 Biennial

Yu Cheng-Ta at Performa 19 Biennial in New York, where he will explore the cultural phenomenon of “influencers” in Western social media alongside celebrity and food trends in a series of live and filmed performances that appropriate the visual and narrative language of reality television. Developed through the character of Fameme, a Taiwanese farmer drawn to New York City to promote durian—a thorny, odorous, tropical fruit indigenous to Southeast Asia—the project depicts an outsider’s quest for fame and acceptance in American culture. Fameme’s ambition draws him to the world of social media influencers and ingluencer events as he attempts to utilize the latest marketing trend and media obsession for his own capitalist needs. (Text from Performa 19 website) Performa 19 Biennial runs from November 1 to 24 with panel discussion “The Afterlife of Live Performance” at 6:00 p.m. on November 12, 2019.

FAMEME is organized by Esa Vincenty Nickle (Producing Director, Performa) and Jo Hsiao (TFAM). Co-commissioned with Taipei Fine Arts Museum, with generous support of the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture, Taipei Culture Center in New York, and co-presented with Wallplay.

FAMEME is part of the Taiwanese Pavilion for the Performa 19 Biennial.

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Yu Cheng-Ta at Das Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Yu Cheng-Ta is invited by Das Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin for participation in Flaneur Festival on 31 Aug, 2019. The festival is organised in cooperation with Flaneur Magazine, which current issue is devoted to Kangding/Wanda Roads that lead through the oldest part of Taipei and which can be understood as both the center and periphery of the city. Yu Cheng-Ta uses his research of the Taiwanese geisha Wong Xiangchan and his studies with masters of geisha body practices to transform into “Shasha”, who plans to welcome guests of the festival into her pop-up live piano karaoke bar where she will sing and invite others to sing along with her. This special performance will be presented on 31 August, 2019

Yu Cheng-Ta at Guangdong Times Museum

Yu Cheng-Ta’s three channel video “adj. Dance” is part of the group show “The Racing Will Continue, The Dancing Will Stay” at Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou. The title of the exhibition comes from a saying popularised in Hong Kong and Mainland China since the mid-1980s. As per the museum’s information, “the phrase suggests the speaker’s expectations for a better future and the collective imagination of effective social systems”. Showcasing the work of twenty-four artists and collectives, “this exhibition considers the body and performativity as a method of responding to the absence and presence of the subject”. The exhibition runs from 22 June to 18 August, 2019.

Watermelon Sisters Go Camping in Paris

Yu Cheng-Ta at Centre National de la Danse Paris

Yu Cheng-Ta and Ming Wong are invited by Centre National de la Danse Paris for Camping Workshop from 17 to 21 June, 2019. They propose to explore the space between virtual and real performance avatars, based on footage found from the internet “Mème”. Participants will think about forming their ‘avatar’ based on found footage from the internet such as viral videos, Cat videos, YouTube Makeup Tutorials, Games footage, by casting themselves in the video reference and by re-interpreting the source as a choreographic and theatrical exercise, introducing variation, repetition and extension. The work “Watermelon Love” will be presented at “Watermelon Sisters Party” on 22 June, 2019.

Yu Cheng-Ta at Instituto Alumnos, Mexico City

Yu Cheng-Ta at Instituto Alumnos

Yu Cheng-Ta’s synchronized four-channel video Tell Me What You Want (2015-2017) will be exhibited at Instituto Alumnos, Mexico City. Focusing on how contemporariness reinvents its own language through exchange and how it illustrates the aesthetics of calculation, Exchange of Narratives depicts a broad landscape of economics in its fundamental definition. The artists’ works employ layered forms of value-in-exchange with a social-political criticality. 3 artists from Taiwan and 4 artists from Mexico are invited with performance, video installation and text. The event is on view from November 8 to December 23, 2018.

Watermelon Sisters at Pompidou Centre

"Watermelon Love" at Pompidou Centre

Come explore the multi-faceted ideas and expressions of queer identity through seven videos made by international artists. The event brings together artists from different regions and contexts, including FAFSWAG, the Pacific LGBTQ+ collective from New Zealand, the artistic duo Watermelon Sisters created by Ming Wong (Singapore) and Yu Cheng-Ta (Taiwan), and the Berlin-based American artist Wu Tsang. Together these works examine the complex ideas of cultural, political and social movements through a queer prism.

Session hosted by Yung Ma (curator, Musée National d’Art Moderne) with the artists in attendance.

The exhibition event starts from 20:00, September 27, 2018 at Pompidou Centre.

TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT at Kunsthal Charlottenborg

"Tell Me What You Want" at Kunsthal Charlottenborg

Yu Cheng-Ta’s synchronized four-channel video Tell Me What You Want (2015-2017) will be exhibited at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. The film screening will be followed by a talk between Yu Cheng-Ta and art critic Maria Bordorff.

Tell Me What You Want (2017) is a mockumentary in four chapters about desire, friendship, and negotiation between a foreign traveler and the local so-called ‘marketeers’ that he encounters on the street in Malate, Manila.

Using a fictitious name, ‘David’, Yu Cheng-Ta travels to Malate, shifting his identity between tourist, friend and artist, allowing him to get involved in ambiguous narratives and relations. In Malate, ‘tell me what you want’ is a common greeting referring to the transactional structures characteristic to the red light districts. By incorporating transaction as a concept for the production of the film, Yu Cheng-Ta delves into a blurred field of tourism, sex industry and performance.

The exhibition event starts from 17:00, September 26, 2018 at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen.

Yu Cheng Ta at Centre Pompidou

Yu Cheng-Ta at Centre Pompidou

Yu Cheng-Ta’s synchronized four-channel video Tell Me What You Want (2015-2017) will be exhibited at Centre Pompidou followed by a reading performance.

The exhibition event starts from 19:00, September 13, 2018 at Petite salle, Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Yu Cheng-Ta in “Film Screening II”

Yu Cheng-Ta in "Film Screening II"

Yu Cheng-Ta’s Tell Me What You Want (2015-17) is part of a group show of video artists “Film Screening II”, which also includes our current show artist Tao Hui, at Edouard Malingue Gallery in Hong Kong.

On view July 26 – September 6, 2018

Yu Cheng-Ta and Tsui Kuang-Yu in “BANGKOK BIENNIAL: Cinema Taipei”

Yu Cheng-Ta and Tsui Kuang-Yu in "BANGKOK BIENNIAL: Cinema Taipei"

“Cinema Taipei”, organized by Frankie Su, Jun Yang and Taipei Contemporary Art Center, is a screening project of Taiwanese contemporary art videos and films, at Cho Why (Chinatown Bangkok), as part of the Bangkok Biennial 2018.

On View July 1 – 29, 2018
Opening Event: June 30, 2018, 19:00 – 22:00

Yu Cheng-Ta in “2050. A Brief History of the Future”

Yu Cheng-Ta in "2050. A Brief History of the Future"

Yu Cheng-Ta’s video work Universes in Universe I: World Map (2010) has been selected in “2050. A Brief History of the Future” at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung.

On view March 24 – June 03, 2018

Yu Cheng-Ta in Corporation with Ming Wong for Exhibition Opening

Yu Cheng-Ta in Corporation with Ming Wong for Spectrosynthesis Opening

“Spectrosynthesis – Asian LGBTQ+ Issues and Art Now” is the first survey exhibition in Taiwan featuring LGBTQ+ issues in Asia. Yu Cheng-Ta is invited for a live performance with Singapore artist Ming Wong at the opening.

Opening Date September 8, 2017
On View September 9 – November 5, 2017