Taiwan artist ChihChung Chang featured in Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial 2025, one of the world’s most prominent contemporary visual art exhibition officially opened on 7th June. With the support from Cultural Division, Taipei Representative Office in the UK, Taiwanese artist ChihChung Chang (張致中) is invited to exhibit his works, alongside more than 30 groups of international artists from 25 other countries.
The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial, curated by British curator Marie-Ann McQuay, is running until September 14. With “Bedrock” as this year’s theme, it not only represents local geological features, but also represents the robust foundation of local civic values. This year’s biennial especially emphasizes the participation of public spaces, with the expectation of reflecting Liverpool’s role in past trans-Atlantic slave trades and colonial exploitation of natural resources from other countries by discussing the development of local recognition through the history of immigrant communities.
Chih-Chung Chang’s work “Port of Fata Morgana” (海市) centres on a model ship from his childhood. With ship as a symbol and port as a metaphor, this work explores family histories, alongside the history of naval architecture and social movements around Kaohsiung Harbour. The curator believes that this work not only discusses the opposing phenomena of modern port development and natural disasters, but also discusses the strength of national authorities and civil disobedience.
Chang's newly commissioned work, “Keystone” (拱頂石), reflects the shape of Liverpool’s Imperial Arch. Continuing his ongoing exploration of global material and architectural memory, the project is a collective creation realized through workshops with local residents. Approaching from an outsider’s perspective, Chang examines Liverpool’s Chinese-speaking community to explore how history, culture, and site-specific interactions shaped the collective memory of a particular environment. In addition, the creating process was documented and screened at Pine Court.
Born in 1986 at Kaohsiung, Chang’s works combine multiple forms and media with keen craftsmanship, paying attention to those ever-changing environments of ships, islands, waters and ports, and exploring the universal experience, tension and grey areas between human, civilization and nature. He is adept at using digital images, installation, photography, painting, documents and workshops. Both his works in Liverpool Biennial closely match with this year’s theme “Bedrock”, and they share parallels with the overall historical development of Liverpool that would resonate with local society.
https://www.biennial.com/artists/chihchung-chang-張致中
