Earlier this year our chief content officer wanted to experiment with a daily blog written by the editorial team to be published on the Taiwan edition of our website. Though an editor for the international edition, I also had to contribute to the blog and, to be honest, I dreaded each time the monthly deadline for my blog loomed closer. It is not that I dislike writing, I would not be working in journalism if I did, but first of all, it had to be written in Chinese, and second, it was difficult to come up with something to write about. We were not restricted to any topic, but that just made it harder for me.
In late March, that dreaded deadline was once again near and I was getting frantic. Having a background in arts journalism, there was something I had wanted to write about for a while but frankly did not have the courage. However sitting in a coffee shop that Sunday, I was feeling frustrated and cynical, so I went ahead and typed the piece out.
The article was about my thoughts on the exhibition culture in Taiwan and how I felt the audience in Taiwan mostly went to exhibitions to upload photos to social media platforms to “show off.” The piece received a fair amount of both positive and negative comments, and like for most articles, the fever died down as time went by.
So I was surprised earlier this month when an email directed to me regarding the article was sent to our company’s general account. I thought it was another reader commenting on how I was acting like I was morally better than everyone else.
The email was long, like you had to scroll three times to finish reading the entire email long, and was sent by the executive vice president of SEE Art Co., Eric Kuo (郭庭翰). Kuo detailed how he understood where I was coming from, but as a company profiting from holding exhibitions in Taiwan, they could not avoid holding “commercial-focused exhibitions.” He pointed out their latest exhibition “Kumi Yamashita | 25 Years of Creation,” which opens on Dec. 30, is an attempt to hold a more “in-depth” exhibition while being able to make a profit, but he is so far predicting a loss, based on how pre-sale tickets have been doing.
The sincerity of the email got me interested in the point-of-view of curators regarding the exhibition culture in Taiwan, so I set off to interview Kuo two weeks later.
Kuo, in a loose T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, greeted me in his company's surprisingly spacious office. It was no Trump Tower, but it was bigger than I had expected. I was welcomed into their conference room, which had photos of their past exhibitions hanging on the walls, from various cartoon exhibitions to one featuring The Beatles.
“We have an inside joke that goes, ‘Are we holding exhibitions or running amusement parks?’” Kuo says as he settles down.
We dive right into the conversation, in which at the very start Kuo, says that his company does not want to hold exhibitions only for the audience to take photos and “check in” on social media, but “the reality is that I might not necessarily profit from holding an ‘in-depth’ exhibition.”
“We aren’t an art gallery or a cultural foundation, so a company like us needs to make a profit to survive. This [making money] is my top priority,” says Kuo, who has had six years of experience in holding exhibitions.
But he also says people have criticized them saying some of their exhibitions had no value other than entertainment.
“I think the Taiwanese are especially difficult customers. You go to an exhibition meant only to entertain, but then you come out and criticize the show for having no intellectual value. This is a unique phenomenon. It’s like telling a street food stand that their plating is ugly,” says Kuo.
Another phenomenon Kuo has observed is that many Taiwanese go to exhibitions to see “big names.” While acclaimed collections, like Van Gough and Pixar, do attract audiences, the associated rights to hold such an exhibition is expensive and many have already been used, he says.
“You can tell that ‘good’ intellectual property (IP) is being used up when you start seeing the same names appear,” says Kuo.
He says the latest trend for the exhibition industry, apart from purchasing mainstream IP, is exhibitors generating their own content. This is something each exhibition company is working hard to do but probably will not see much of a result from in the years to come.
“If we can build our own IP and sell it to others, this will benefit us in the long run, as opposed to constantly buying IP from other countries,” says Kuo. “Most well-known IP are ridiculously expensive, but they also have risks.”
Kuo uses their upcoming Kumi Yamashita exhibition as an example. While he understands the audience is attracted to interactive elements, Kuo says they were unable to include too many of these for two reasons: a tight budget and the artist refusing to give permission – the latter being something they did not know beforehand.
In terms of government help, Kuo says the best way the government can assist in boosting the quality of exhibitions in Taiwan is to “provide resources, but not stick its nose into our business.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s money, exhibition space or promotion resources,” says Kuo. “Profit will always be put before quality for us, but if the government is willing to help and ensure we won’t lose money, then I would be willing to aim for quality and a good reputation.”
But Kuo says this is another dilemma, because who would be willing to offer resources without having a say in what they are doing?
“The government is too rigid. Procedures are always the top priority and its document procedure slows down its reaction speed, which leads to a certain gap between [the government and] the society in the long run,” says Kuo. “I wouldn’t ask the government for money unless I was starving.”
Though constantly facing dilemmas when holding exhibitions in Taiwan, Kuo is still hoping one day the audience can learn to appreciate shows like their Kumi Yamashita exhibition, which looks to provide a balance between entertainment and in-depth content. There is nothing wrong with taking photos and checking-in on social media at exhibitions, says Kuo, but he agrees that he does not wish for these to be the sole reasons people participate in these events and believes “the willingness to pay to see an exhibition is a habit that can be cultivated.”
Editor: Edward White
