The Taipei Art Book Fair is coming back again! In this year, ‘Taipei Art Book Fair & Bang Bang Bang’ will be held from October 12th to October 14th in the multi-purpose exhibition hall at second floor in Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.
The directors of Art Book Fair from New York, Tokyo and Shanghai are invited to hold a series of lectures. The three directors of the art book fairs of the lectures are multi-tasked in the field. Sonel Breslav is the director of fairs and editions in Printed Matter. She is also the founder of Blonde Art Books and Bushwick Art Book and Zine Fair (BABZ Fair); Nakajima Yusuke is the director of the Tokyo Art Book Fair and the owner of the POST independent bookshop; Xie Yan-You is the curator of the Shanghai Art Book Fair as well as the current director of Jiazazhi Press/ Library. The three art book fair directors will share and present their respective urban city atmospheres and distinctive publications.
“Not to be too serious” and “To constantly reverse the innovation & More" are the spirit of Taipei Art Book Fair. By then, a theme will be put forward every year as well. With the the past theme "Sponge " and "Herb", the related activities of the theme were held and have been well received. In addition, in response to the theme “Bang Bang Bang” this year, the workshops related to the universe and the spiritual universe will be held during the event. In terms of art, Taipei Art Book Fair has also collaborated with the design library "Not Just Library", bringing a series of workshops such as game drawing workshops hosted by American artist Chris Romero. Tiana Wong, the founder and editor-in-chief of the “eggwich” magazine from Hong Kong also will be hosting a Japanese-style hand-made book workshop.
The Taipei Art Book Fair, which aims to integrate Taiwan's native art publishing through the fair and to connect and interact with the international art publishing community, began its journey in the fall of 2016. The first year of the Taipei Art Book Fair was held in the Polymer Art Space and the venue was changed to Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in the following year. With the increase in popularity, the number of participating book stalls has grown rapidly since then. This year, more than 160 independent publishers, bookstores, galleries, Zine and artists from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Germany, France and Australia participated involved in Taipei Art Book Fair, shared the goal of strengthening connection with international book fairs in major cities.
In particular, the Taipei Art Book Fair this year has its first publication, that including the feature article about the New York Art Book Fair and the Tokyo Art Book Fair, and the comic story of "The Birth of the Taipei Art Book Fair " by Pao-Yen Ding, the winner of the Pingtung Cartoon Rookie Award.
Frank, the curator who organized the Taipei Art Book Fair, was unexpectedly not trained with the relevant background. He studied accounting as his profession at National Chengchi University, and continued his studies in Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. During his studies in University of Southern California, he took courses in the famous School of Cinematic Arts, and the experiences of exploring in arts during his internship in the California College of the Art has also a profound impact on him. The occurrence of the Taipei Art Book Fair is also a coincidence. In 2016, Frank found that one of the exhibition space in Polymer Art Space will be taken over by the landlord in the next year, He felt that he should do something with the space. The first thought came out from his mind was to run an art book fair. Therefore, with the help of the founder of ‘Not Big Issue’ independent publication market, the Taipei Art Book Fair was successfully launched with a short preparation time of one and a half months. Although the theme of every session was pop out from the casual chat, but the team’s initial intention is to introduce Taiwan's development nowaday. Hence, the theme of this term "Bang Bang Bang" is actually in response to the forum hosted by professor from Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University this year, with the topic of “Aerospace industry trends and technology development”. The relevant workshop will be hosted during the book fair too.
When asked about the unforgettable experience of organizing Taipei Art Book Fair among these three years, the curator said that every stage is hard to forget. But somehow, he is still optimistic about the art book publishing industry and looking forward to collaborate with publishers who agent indie books, especially those from Central and South America in the future. He believes that Taipei Art Book Fair will be getting more international, and more excellent publishers will be introduced to Taiwan.
The press conference of Taipei Art Book Fair is very lively. The curator Frank Huang not only shared the journey of organizing Taipei Art Book Fair since its inception in 2016, together with the founder of ‘magonthespot’ (a fan page founded in Facebook), and gave a tour guide as well. However, Printed Matter, the key book stall of the Taipei Art Book Fair 2018, was unable to showcase their books in the first place due to the customs issue, but the visitors can still able to see the Printed Matter’s selected books on tomorrow and the day after.
In recent years, Taiwan has had an atmosphere with Indie music and independent publications, which have been quietly working underground. These music and publications have finally sprung up from the ground, leading a unique atmosphere and contending with the popular. In addition to benefiting the youths who love independent books, it adds a more literary atmosphere with a wider, more energetic and energetic style in Taiwan.
Figure 1: Taipei Art Book Fair 2018 exhibition space
Figure 2: The curator Frank Huang (second left) with the team and exhibitors
Photos by YIART
