Taipei Dangdai 2025: Where Art, Technology, and Identity Intertwine

As spring unfurls across Taipei, the city once again transforms into a vibrant confluence of creativity, culture, and global dialogue with the return of Taipei Dangdai Art & Ideas. From 9–11 May 2025 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, this sixth edition—presented by UBS—unites the world’s top galleries, thought leaders, and artists for a celebration of visual innovation deeply rooted in Taiwan’s dynamic art scene.

This year’s fair reflects not only an expansion in scale and ambition but a renewed commitment to challenging narratives, confronting digital paradigms, and amplifying Asia’s critical voice in contemporary art. At its core is a question both intimate and urgent: how do we think critically in a world shaped by technology, identity, and reinvention?

"What Is Your Favorite Primitive" @Li-YiFan

Between Technology and Consciousness: Artists at the Edge

Nowhere is this question more electrified than in “Pulling the Plug,” a major special exhibition co-hosted with Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture. Bringing together visionary figures like Shu Lea Cheang, Su Hui-Yu, and Zhang Xu Zhan, the exhibition delves into the emotional and political textures of technology in our lives.

For Shu Lea Cheang, a pioneer of new media art based in Paris, the act of creation is inseparable from resistance. “Taiwan has a hacker’s mentality,” she says. “We adapt, adopt, reverse-engineer. I declare I don’t own any technology—I borrow, I steal, I hack.” Her latest work—a morphing self-portrait constructed through AI—sits less like a sculpture and more like a provocation.

Echoing this duality is artist Su Hui-Yu, who notes that Taiwan’s role in the global tech supply chain is both empowering and perilous. “We’ve always lived in a techno-optimistic society. But Taiwanese artists are starting to ask: what is new media, really? Can we still be critical while benefiting from it?” His collaboration with digital collective XTRUX offers a layered reinterpretation of military propaganda through open-source AI tools, challenging viewers to confront the politics encoded in everyday images.

Li-Yifan @Li-YiFan

Spotlight: Li Yi-Fan and the New Global Gaze

Perhaps no artist embodies Taipei’s dual gaze—both inwardly reflective and internationally resonant—better than Li Yi-Fan, the inaugural featured artist in Taipei Node, a new platform spotlighting global talent rooted in Taipei. Already named Taiwan’s representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale, Li’s work bridges self-developed game engines, dark humor, and cinematic experimentation.

“My work investigates the relationship between humans and machines,” Li explains. “I use that dynamic to reflect on contemporary life—and the quiet power structures embedded in our tools.” From his studio at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, where he’s currently supported by the Hong Foundation, Li prepares for both Venice and a solo debut at Berlin’s EIGEN + ART Lab, where he’ll present howdoyouturnthison and what is your primitive—two playful yet piercing critiques of modern digital aesthetics.

Ideas Forum: Dialogue Beyond Borders

The Ideas Forum, a signature pillar of Taipei Dangdai, returns in 2025 under the poetic theme “Braided Strands of Fate”. Through a series of public panels and conversations, this year’s edition grapples with cultural entanglements in a fractured world. From “The State of the Asian Biennial” to “Digital Art and Its Markets”, the Forum brings together figures such as Nicolas Bourriaud, Vera Mey, and X Zhu-Nowell, offering critical insights across geographies and generations.

It’s within this setting that the urgency and nuance of Taiwan’s contemporary artists come alive—not merely as creators, but as commentators, agitators, and architects of new visual languages.

A New Chapter in a Global City

Taipei Dangdai is more than a fair—it is a testament to Taiwan’s ever-evolving place in global contemporary art. As international visitors weave between museum shows (from Louise Bourgeois to Hiroshi Sugimoto), sample local gastronomy at Sinchao Rice Shoppe and Koshi Café, or attend exclusive VIP programming and the inaugural Edge Artist Award, the fair pulses with a rhythm both worldly and deeply local.

In a world increasingly driven by algorithmic efficiency, Taipei Dangdai 2025 dares to ask how art can reclaim complexity, ambiguity, and agency. Whether through the subversive gestures of hackers, the meditations of digital alchemists, or the reflections of diasporic visionaries, it is clear: the most vital art today doesn’t just reflect the world—it rebuilds it.