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Hosted by the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts (TMoFA), the 2025 Taoyuan International Art Award (TIAA) aims to foster diverse artistic development and nurture contemporary art talents. Through an international open call, the award selects artists to exhibit their works in Taoyuan, strengthening global artistic exchange and connecting with the international art scene. Following the preliminary review in June last year (2024), 11 finalist works were chosen to compete for the award. After an extensive secondary review by an international jury panel, the final winners were announced at the award ceremony held this afternoon (26^th). The Grand Prize was awarded to Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Kasamaponn Saengsuratham, Arjin Thongyuukong, and Krongpong Langkhapin for the work Red Eagle Sangmorakot: No More Hero In His Story, with the honor presented by Deputy Mayor Su Jun-Bin. The Sojourn Award was won by Taiwanese artist duo “Working Hard” (She Wen Ying, Kuo Po Yu), while the Honorable Mention was granted to three artists: The Japanese artist duo couch (Hiroki Miyazaki and Reiko Asao)’s A fable of a fable <Wildcat>, American duo Kevin Corcoran and Jorge Bachmann’s Refrained Invocations (Encodings), and Lee Tek Khean’s Gai Gaau. All 11 finalist works, including the award-winning pieces, will be on display at the Taoyuan Arts Center from March 26 to May 18. In conjunction with the exhibition, TMoFA has organized an international panel discussion chaired by Abby Chen, Head of Contemporary Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Panelists Reuben Keehan, David Teh, Lu Pei-Yi, and Yeh Chia-Jung will explore the collaborative dynamics among this year’s participating artists and collectives, further discussing the growing emphasis on interdisciplinary exchange and agency in contemporary artistic practices. For details on the exhibition and event updates, please visit the official website of the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts.

The Grand Prize was awarded to the Thai four-person collective—Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Kasamaponn Saengsuratham, Arjin Thongyuukong, and Krongpong Langkhapin. Their work Red Eagle Sangmorakot: No More Hero In His Story uses the traditional sport of Muay Thai as a vehicle to unveil the influence of Cold War politics and nationalism in shaping society while also examining the construction of the "hero" figure within Thailand's broader cultural trends and its gradual internalization as an ideology. Jury chairman Reuben Keehan remarked, “A very well-resolved combination of documentary, archival, and performative approaches that succeeds as both art and ethnography. The structure, modeled after a Thai boxing match, is clear and effectively engages audiences in a way that traditional documentary modes sometimes struggle to achieve.” The jury unanimously praised the team's exhibition approach, artistic expression, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

This year’s TIAA received an unprecedented 1,161 submissions from artists across 83 countries, setting the highest in the award’s history. These remarkable numbers reflect the growing recognition of the award since its transformation into an international open call in 2021, drawing significant attention from art professionals and creators worldwide. The 11 finalists hail from Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, the United States, Canada, and Belgium, representing diverse artistic disciplines—including spatial installations, moving images and interactive works, and project-based practices. Beyond showcasing the heterogeneous nature of contemporary art, the selected works also respond to pressing social issues and foster an interwoven dialogue across cultural landscapes.

The migration of human dwellings is one of the central themes explored by the participating artists in this exhibition. Taiwanese artist Tsai Yu Ting’s See you next time employs a multi-screen video installation and found objects, using rivers as a metaphor to explore the boundaries between home and community, interweaving narratives across Taiwan, Thailand, and Myanmar. The Taoyuan-based collective “Delayed Takeoff From Taoyuan” (Lin Yan Xiang, Wang Cheng Hsiang) has long focused on the issue of land development within the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project. Their work, Urge Miracle to Stay, employs field research and site-based explorations to retrace and reconstruct the site’s past narratives, opening up alternative ways of imagining the landscape. The Sojourn Award recipient, Taiwanese artist duo “Working Hard” (She Wen Ying, Kuo Po Yu) presents Sleep in Fish (Ikan Kapan Bobok), incorporating marine debris and found objects as materials. Drawing from construction techniques used by Indonesian fishery workers, they transform the exhibition space into a temporary spiritual refuge, subtly addressing the global crisis faced by migrant workers. Belgian duo Robbe Maes and Reynout Dekimpe explore the concept of “home” in Welcome to Fieldkapelle. Through miniature models and photography, they create an imagined town, inviting viewers into a seemingly familiar yet distant place. Immersed in nostalgia, the work quietly gestures toward an irretrievable past.

Themes of contemporary media and popular culture are also evident in several works featured in this exhibition. Malaysian artist Lee Tek Khean’s Gai Gaau constructs a fictional “religion” through a combination of antiquated-looking prints and fabricated short-form documentary videos. His work reflects on the overwhelming and rapid dissemination of contemporary media while simultaneously staging the absurdity of modern life. This work has also received this year’s Honorable Mention Award. Japanese media artist Goh Uozumi’s Social Choice and Its Enemies - ver.2 creates an online voting system that invites audience participation. Through this interactive project, which unfolds over the course of the exhibition, Uozumi examines the boundary between the virtual and real worlds as shaped by contemporary media. Canadian artist Erdem Taşdelen’s Demagogues: 7 employs site-specific production, transforming the exhibition space into a creative field. Using photography and text-based compositions, the work highlights the intricate interplay between truth and fabrication in contemporary media circulation and its broader societal impact.

The interaction between humans and non-humans is another central theme explored by the artists. Japanese artist Aisuke Kondo presents Yellow Peel, a work that draws from his experience of living in Europe. Through moving images and prints, Kondo examines racial divides, historical conflicts, and contemporary tensions from the perspective of the global pandemic. The Japanese artist duo couch (Hiroki Miyazaki and Reiko Asao), recipient of the Honorable Mention, shifts the focus to the animal world in A fable of a fable <Wildcat>. Using slit animation technology, they construct a kinetic installation within the exhibition space, weaving a layered fable about wildcats and other species. Another Honorable Mention Award recipient, American duo Kevin Corcoran and Jorge Bachmann’s Refrained Invocations (Encodings) explores the realm of sound by blending environmental recordings from California with AI-generated audio based on popular love song archives from Taiwan during the Cold War period. Through the intent of military communication encoding, they created an encrypted soundscape narrative.

In addition to showcasing outstanding works from around the world, the international jury panel is a defining feature of the award. The preliminary review committee for this edition was composed of Abby Chen, Head of Contemporary Art and Curator at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; Reuben Keehan, Curator at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Australia; Sunjung Kim, Artistic Director of Art Sonje Center in Seoul, South Korea; Wang Po-Wei, Artistic Director of the Digital Art Foundation in Taiwan; and Lu Pei-Yi, Associate Professor at National Taipei University of Education. The secondary review was convened by Chang Chih-Min, Acting Director of the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts, along with two additional jury members: Associate Professor David Teh from the National University of Singapore, and Yeh Chia-Jung, Director of Hong-Gah Museum.

Regarding the works presented in this exhibition, the jury commented that ‘cooperation’ has become increasingly prominent in contemporary art over the past decade. Collaborations between individuals from different backgrounds can better address complex and ever-changing issues, and this phenomenon is also reflected in the profile of this year’s art awards. We are pleased to see the global participants' thorough preparation for the TIAA, and we can observe the artists' desire for this international platform. Additionally, in today’s rapidly advancing digital age, artists are more focused than ever on exploring the concept of 'authenticity' and they have the responsibility to resist constructed truths. Acting Director Chih-Min Chang, remarked, “The most important spirit of the Taoyuan Award lies in creating an opportunity for artists to directly engage with leading international jurors. The significance of having experts from different backgrounds as jurors is to understand the artists’ original intentions from various perspectives. As such, each work will be continuously assessed and viewed through multiple lenses, and this dialogue space is precisely what the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts aims to emphasize as its commitment to embracing art."

The Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts (Qingpu main building) is scheduled to officially open in 2027. Seven years since its founding, TMoFA has continued to operate as a museum without a physical building, prioritizing programming and organizational development. The Taoyuan International Art Award serves as a platform for fostering international artistic networks and a global perspective. The award follows a biennial cycle, with one year dedicated to an open call for submissions and the next to the exhibition, allowing artists ample time for creation and exhibition planning. The guidelines for the next edition are expected to be announced at the end of this year (2025), ensuring the continuation of this recurring international open call. In the future, the Taoyuan International Art Award is set to be hosted at the Qingpu Main Building upon its completion.

The “2025 Taoyuan International Art Award” special exhibition is now open and will run until Sunday, May 18, on the first floor of the Taoyuan Exhibition Center. During the exhibition period, special guided tours will be held on weekends, offering visitors an in-depth look at the selected works and the creative journeys of the participating artists. For more details, visit the TMoFA Website (https://tmofa.tycg.gov.tw/en) and the TMoFA Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/tmofa10711/).

Exhibition Information

2025 Taoyuan International Art Award

Exhibition Period: March 26 – May 18, 2025

Venue: 1F, Taoyuan Arts Center (No. 1188, Zhongzheng Rd., Taoyuan Dist., Taoyuan City)

TIAA Official Website: https://tmofa-tiaa.com/

Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts Official Website: https://tmofa.tycg.gov.tw/en

Organized by: Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts