International Center for Cultural Studies

2021/05/18｜Decolonising Taiwanese Indigenous Contemporary Art｜Biung Ismahasan

2021-05-18

Dr Biung Ismahasan 彼勇．依斯瑪哈單博士
❊ Independent curator;
❊ PhD in Curating, Centre for Curatorial Studies, University of Essex

Dr Biung Ismahasan (b.1984) is a curator, artist and researcher from the Bunun, Atayal and Kanakanavu Nations, three of Taiwan’s sixteen Indigenous Nations. He received a PhD in Curating from Centre for Curatorial Studies at the University of Essex in the UK, with a thesis ‘Indigenous Relational Space and Performance: Curating Together towards Sovereignty in Taiwan and Beyond.' His research relates to contemporary Indigenous curatorial practice and aesthetics, focusing on Taiwanese Indigenous contemporary art. Ismahasan emphasises issues of participation, performativity and the historiography of Indigenous curation and exhibition design. He has received a MA in Cultural Policy, Relations & Diplomacy from the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2014. His most notable curatorial projects include Dispossessions: An Indigenous Performative Encounter 2014–2019, an international performance art exchange of Indigenous artists from Taiwan. He was a curatorial assistant of Let The River Flow: The Sovereign Will And The Making of A New Worldliness in April 2018 at Office for Contemporary Art Norway in Oslo; he has curated Dispossessions: Performative Encounter(s) of Taiwanese Indigenous Contemporary Art in May 2018 at Goldsmiths; he had curated yearly theme-based exhibition Ngahi’s Routes: When Depth Become Experiment which have collaborated with seven Taiwanese Indigenous artists at the Taoyuan City Indigenous Cultural Centre in 2019; he recently curated the Rukai Nation installation artist Eleng Luluan’s Between Dream in Àbadakone | Continuous Fire | Feu continuel at the second exhibition in the National Gallery of Canada’s series of presentations of contemporary international Indigenous art between November 2019 and October 2020.

彼勇．依斯瑪哈單（生於1984年）來自高雄山區那瑪夏區，擁有台灣原住民族布農族、泰雅族與卡那卡那富族的血統，目前是一名獨立策展人、藝術家和研究員，2021年1月取得英國艾塞克斯大學 (Centre for Curatorial Studies, University of Essex) 哲學與藝術史學院策展學研究中心策展學博士。研究涉及原住民策展實踐和去殖民主義美學之相關議題，專注於台灣原住民當代藝術策展，以「履踐式表述行為原民性」的詮釋、原住民創造主權、藝術合作實踐、策略的倫理學與原住民知識論、原住民策展和展覽設計史。2014年11月獲得倫敦大學金匠學院 (ICCE, Goldsmiths, University of London) 創意與文化創業研究所文化政策、關係與外交碩士學位; 2015年進修愛丁堡大學愛丁堡藝術學院 (Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh) 藝術學 MPhil in Art 課程。著名的策展計畫實踐包括《剝奪：2014-2019年原住民族的履踐相遇》，這是台灣原住民藝術家的國際藝術與文化交流。最近策劃的其他展覽，包括2019年桃園市原住民族文化會館年度展《地瓜路徑：當深度成為實驗》與七位來自不同部落且不同領域的原住民藝術家合作；2019-2020年擔任魯凱族裝置藝術家安聖惠 (峨冷．魯魯安) 加拿大國家藝廊全球原住民當代藝術五年展延續之火《Àbadakone》的協同策展人。在2018年曾擔任挪威政府文化部挪威當代藝術中心薩米當代藝術文件研究展《讓河流順著流：主權意志與新世界的創造》的策展助理與專輯出版作者。