From Invisible to Visible: Arts Festivals and the Transformation of Infrastructure

This project takes visibility as its point of departure to examine the values and problems that art festivals articulate at both aesthetic and political levels. It addresses issues including the narrative techniques of contemporary artistic production and exhibition-making, the ways in which art festivals appropriate existing or derelict infrastructures and transform them into fluid forms of social infrastructure, and the questions of publicness that emerge from these processes.

The study not only demonstrates how contemporary art practices in Taiwan since the 2000s—including curatorial practices—have articulated forms of social engagement through the format of art festivals, but also approaches these festivals from the perspective of state governance, interrogating their material and institutional conditions. Grounded in contemporary art while maintaining a broader social and political horizon, this research seeks to expand the scope of existing scholarship on art festivals and participatory art in Taiwan, and to contribute cultural and artistic insights to the study of social infrastructure.