Chen Chieh-jen was born in 1960 in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and graduated from a vocational high school for the arts. He currently lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan.
In 1980s, the Cold War/Martial Law period in Taiwan, Chen challenged the limits of expression under the Martial Law system and the conservative art establishment with guerrilla-style performance art and underground exhibitions.
In 1996, Chen created a series of photographic and video projects that re-imagine, re-write and re-connect his experience of living in a marginalized region. Working with local citizens, Chen Chieh-jen combines experimental aesthetics with the unique poetic qualities of video to initiate dialogue and connections with audiences around the world. Chen emphasizes the use of visual art to suggest bodily memories, perceptions, elusive states of mind, and hard to articulate atmospheres related to ideological and political topics, especially those in this era of increasing neoliberal domination. His artwork is not only an act of resisting the historical amnesia that surrounds us, but is also about imagining new forms through which a “people’s history” can be written and new possibilities through which a “democracy of diversity” can be achieved.
Chen Chieh-jen frequently receives overseas invitation, and enjoys high reputation worldwide. His works were collected by several significant art museums, such as Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris; M+, Hong Kong; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung; Kaohsiung Museum Fine Arts, Kaohsiung; Asia Society and Museum, New York; Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts; Artium Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte contemporáneo, Vitoria, Spain; Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris; UBS AG The UBS Art Collection, Zürich; COFF Photography Foundatio, Spain; DSL Collection Contemporary Chinese Art, France. Important institutions held the artist’s solo exhibitions include: MUDAM Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei; REDCAT, Los Angeles; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Asia Society and Museum, New York; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris. The artist’s important group exhibitions include: Biennale di Venezia, Biennale de Lyon Contemporary Art, Liverpool Biennale, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Bienal de São Paulo, International Istanbul Biennial, Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Biennale of Sydney, New Orleans Biennial, Taipei Biennia, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Aichi Triennale; and photo festivals in Spain, Lisbo, Arles. The awards Chen has won include: 2018 The 12th Annual Artist Award, Award of Art China, China; 2009 The 13th National Award for Arts, The National Culture and Arts Foundation , Taiwan; 2008 PULSE Prize, PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, USA; 2000 The Special Prize, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea.
Born in 1960, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Currently works and lives in Taipei, Taiwan. | |
Selected Solo Exhibitions | |
2018 |
After the Financial Crisis and Automated Production, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan |
2017 |
Chen Chieh-jen: A Field of Non-Field, Long March Space, Beijing, China |
2016 |
The Bianwen Book I–Chen Chieh-jen Solo Exhibition, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan |
2015 |
The Bianwen Book: Images, Production, Action and Documents of Chen Chieh-jen, The Cube Project Space, Taipei, Taiwan |
Realm of Reverberations Returns to Losheng, Losheng Sanatorium, New Taipei City, Taiwan | |
2013 | Chen Chieh-jen, MUDAM Luxembourg, Luxembourg |
2012 |
Happiness Building, Hanart Square, Hong Kong, China |
Temporary Assembly of the Exiled—The Making of Happiness Building І, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan | |
Happiness Building,Yi-ping Construction Material Factory, Shulin, Taiwan | |
2010 |
Empire’s Borders I & II, Long March Space, Beijing, China |
On the Empire’sBorders: Chen Chieh-jen 1996-2010, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan | |
Empire’s BordersII-Chen Chieh-jen, REDCAT, Los Angeles, US | |
2008 |
Military Court and Prison- Chen Chieh-jen, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain |
2007 |
Condensation: Five Video Works by Chen Chieh-jen, Asia Society and Museum, New York, US |
2006 |
Lingchi-Echoes of a Historical Photograph, De Hallen Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands |
2004 |
Lingchi-Echoes of a Historical Photograph, Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporanea, Lucca, Italy |
2002 |
Lingchi-Echoes of a Historical Photograph, Lien-Fu Garment Factory, Taoyuan, Taiwan |
1998 |
Revolt in the Soul & Body II, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan |
Selected Group Exhibitions | |
2018 |
Awakenings: Art and Society in Asia 1960s-1990s, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan |
Trans-Justice:Para-Colonial@Technology, MOCA Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan | |
People Walking the Future, MoCA Busan, Busan, Korea | |
Screen Refreshing/Labor: AMNUA Photograph Exhibition 2018, AMNUA, Nanjing, China | |
2017 |
Cities Grow in Difference, 2017 Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism Architecture, Nantou Old Town, Shenzhen, China |
The Human Condition, Cultural Foundation Ekaterina, Moscow, Russia | |
Please Come Back. The World as Prison, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, València, Spain | |
Discordant Harmony: Observations of Artistic Practices in East Asia at the Transition betweenthe1980s and the 1990s, Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China | |
Uprising, Serviço Social do Comércio, São Paulo, Brazil | |
Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US | |
Uprising, Museo Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina | |
Rosa’s Wound, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan | |
Uprising, National Art Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain | |
Please Come Back. The World as Prison, National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome, Italy | |
Work in Motion – The Video Camera’s Eye on Social and Economic Behaviour, MAST, Bologna, Italy | |
2016 |
Uprising, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France |
Gestures and Archives of the Present: Genealogies of the Future, 2016 Taipei Biennia, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan | |
Migration Politics: CAMP at SMK, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copehnagen, Denmark | |
Weaving & Me,Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art,Zhejiang Art Musem, Hangzhou, China | |
Declaration / Documentation: Taipei Biennial 1996-2014, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan | |
Discordant Harmony: Critical Reflection on the Imagination of Asia, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan | |
Time Test: International Video Art Research Exhibition, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China | |
Singular Pluralities ∞ Plural Singularities, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand | |
12 Rooms 12 Artists, Tokyo Station Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | |
Time of Others, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia | |
Moving Tales: Video works from the La Gaia Collection, Complesso Monumentale di San Francesco, Cuneo, Italy | |
A Hole in the Sea, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany | |
The Shadow Never Lie, Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China | |
The Future Is Already Here - It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed, 20th Biennale of Sydney, Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia | |
The Dividing Line, Center for Art on Migration Politics, Copenhagen, Denmark | |
2015 |
Discordant Harmony: Critical Reflection on the Imagination of Asia, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan |
Time of Others – Exploring Boundaries, Differences, and Otherness, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore | |
Rewind_Video Art in Taiwan 1983-1999, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan | |
The Civil Power, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China | |
Banned Images-Control and Censorship in East Asian Democracies, nGbK, Berlin, Germany | |
Mobile M+: Moving Images, Midtown POP, Hong Kong, China | |
Discordant Harmony: Critical Reflection on the Imagination of Asia, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, korea | |
2014 |
Whorled Explorations, 2014 Kochi-Muziris Biennale,Aspinwall House, Kochi, India |
Social Factory, 10th Shanghai Biennale,Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China | |
Asia Triennial Manchester 2014, Museum of Science and Industry.Imperial War Museum North, Manchester, UK | |
Home, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia | |
Tales From the Taiping Era, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China | |
We Have Never Participated,The 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale,OCAT, Shenzhen, China | |
Altering Nativism – Sound Cultures in Post-war Taiwan,MoNTUE, Taipei, Taiwan | |
2013 |
West Bund 2013: A Biennial of Architecture and ContemporaryArt, Xuhui Waterfront, Shanghai |
Former West: Notes from Berlin, BAK, Utrecht | |
Move on Asia –Video Art in Asia 2002 to 2012, ZKM,Karlsruhe | |
2012 | The Great South,1st Montevideo Biennial, Montevideo |
Pull the Thread: Montage of Attractions, ARTIUM, Vitoria-Gasteiz | |
Modern Monster, 2012 Taipei Biennial, Shilin Paper Mill, Taipei | |
The Unseen, 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou | |
Border Crossing, Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense | |
Image Anxiety, PHotoEspaña, Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid | |
You Are Now Entering______, Centre for Contemporary Art, Londonderry, Northern Ireland | |
Boundaries on the Move– a Cross-culture Dialogue,Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art,Tel Aviv-Yafo | |
2011 | The Walls that Divide Us, Apexart, New York, U.S.A. |
Past Desire, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria | |
Rewriting Worlds, 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, ARTPLAY Design Center, Moscow | |
Super Organism, CAFAM Biennale 2011, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing | |
The Eye is a Lonely Hunter – Images of Humankind,4thFotofestival Mannheim_Ludwigshafen_Heidelberg, Mannheim Kunsthalle & Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Mannheim_Ludwigshafen_Heidelberg, Mannheim& Ludwigshafen& Heidelberg | |
Pandemonium: Art in a Time of Creativity Fever, 6th Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Göteborg Museum of Art, Göteborg | |
Terrible Beauty: Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance, Dublin Contemporary 2011, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin | |
2010 |
Rehearsal, 8th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai |
There is always a cup of sea to sail in, 29th Bienal de São Paulo, Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo, Parque do Ibirapuera, São Paulo | |
The Right to Protest, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem | |
The 4th Artes Mundi Prize, National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff | |
2009 |
The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane |
NS Harsha: Nations & Chen Chieh-jen: Factory, Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), London | |
Foreign Affairs, 53th Biennale di Venezia-Taiwan Pavilion, Palazzo delle Prigioni, Venice | |
Hundred Stories about Love, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa | |
A Factory, A Machine, A Body…- Archaeology and Memory of Industrial Spaces, Centre d’Art La Panera, Lleida; Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo de la UNAM de México, Mexico City | |
Biennial Cuvée 09, O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Linz | |
2008 |
Prospect.1, New Orleans Biennial, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans |
Home, Taiwan Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts,Taichung | |
Corporeal / Technoreal, Mediations Biennale, Poznan | |
Farewell to Post-Colonialism, 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou | |
Memoria- Casting a Gaze, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto-CAMK, Kumamoto | |
Tiefenrausch (Rapture of the Deep): Stream of Forgotten Memories, O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Linz | |
Crossing Values, les Ateliers de Rennes – biennale d'art contemporain, Rennes | |
Biennial Cuvée 08, O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Linz | |
Art is for the Spirit: Work from The UBS Art Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo | |
Encounter the landscape – The individual and his self-formation in the social transformation, Palazzo della Esposizioni, Rome | |
2007 |
Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary – Optimism in the age of global war, 10th International Istanbul Biennial, İMÇBuilding, Istanbul |
Shooting Back, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna | |
Thermocline of Art-New Asian Waves, ZKM (Center for Art and Media), Karlsruhe | |
Geopoetics, Subject, class and identity, Centro Guerrero, Granada | |
The Screen Eye or the New Image –100 vidéos pour repenser le monde, Casino Luxembourg – Forum of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg | |
World Factory: Resistance and Dreams, Exhibitions & Public Programs Coordinator, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco | |
2006 | Naked Life, Museum of contemporary Art, Taipei |
Liverpool Biennale: International 06, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool | |
Fever Variations, Gwangju Biennale 2006, Biennale Hall, Gwangju | |
Zones of Contact, 15th Biennale of Sydney, Gallery 4a, Sydney | |
Biennial Cuvée 06, O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Linz | |
2005 |
Parallel Realities-Asian Art Now, 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial 2005, Fukuoka |
This Storm is What We Call Progress, Arnolfini, Bristol | |
Variation Xandu, Museum of contemporary Art, Taipei | |
The Agony and the Ecstasy, FACT( Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), Liverpool | |
The Experience of Art, 51st Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia, Venice | |
Lisboa Photo 2005, Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, Lisbon | |
2004 |
Do You Believe in Reality?, 2004 Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei |
Techniques of the Visible, 2004 Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai | |
Work it, SCAPE Biennial, Christchurch | |
Histories: Eyelids and Lips, Photo Espaňa 2004, Antigua Fábrica de Tabacos, Madrid | |
2003 | Shifting Time/ Space, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich |
2002 |
Great Theatre of the World, 2002 Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei |
Translated Acts, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City | |
2001 |
Floating Chimeras - Contemporary Asian Art, Edsvik konst och kultur, Sollentuna, Sweden |
Translated Acts, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Queens Museum of Art, New York | |
2000 |
The 31st Rencontres Internationale de la Photographie, Abbaye de Montmajour, Arles |
The Mind on the Edge (of the New Centres), Photo Espaňa 2000, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid | |
Sharing Exoticisms, 5th Biennale de Lyon Contemporary Art, Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon | |
Man & Space- Art & Human Rights, Gwangju Biennale 2000, Biennale Hall, Gwangju | |
1999 |
International Photography Biennale, Centro de la Imagen, México City |
Close to Open, 48th Biennale di Venezia-Taiwan Pavilion, Palazzo delle Prigioni, Venice | |
1998 |
Routes, Routes, Routes, Routes, Routes, Routes, Routes, 24th Bienal de São Paulo, Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo, Parque do Ibirapuera, São Paulo |
Site of Desire, 1998 Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei | |
1996 |
The Quest for Identity-Sexuality and Power, 1996 Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei |
Selected Film Program | |
2016 | Prospectif Cinéma, Centre Pompidou, Paris |
Aichi Triennale: Film Program, Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya | |
2014 | Instants Vidéo Numériques et poétiques, Marseilles |
2012 |
dOCUMENTA 13: Film Program, Gloria Cinema, Kassel |
Lecture Performance | |
2016 |
Lecture Performance: Realm of Reverberations, Shibaura House, Tokyo |
Honors and Awards | |
2018 |
The 12th Annual Artist Award, Award of Art China, China |
2009 |
The 13th National Award for Arts, The National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan |
2008 |
PULSE Prize, PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, USA |
2000 |
The Special Prize, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea |