CHEN Chieh-jen

Taiwanese　1960

Born in Taoyuan, Taiwan in 1960. Before and after the lifting of martial law (1987) in Taiwan, he was active in performance art. Starting in 1996, he created the series "Revolt in the Soul & Body", using computers to alter historical photographs of executions. In 2000, he began his straight photography series "The Twelve Karmas Under the City", exploring the "virtual future". He has taken part in international exhibitions such as the Taipei Biennial (1998), the Sao Paulo Biennial (1998), the Biennale di Venezia (Taiwan Pavilion) (1999), the Biennale de Lyon Contemporary Art (2000), the Kwangju Biennale (2000), the Taipei Biennial (2002) and PhotoEspana (2004). In 2001, he held a solo exhibition at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. He won the Special Award of the Kwangju Biennale in 2000. He was the recipient of the Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation's National Awards for Arts in 2009. Since 2002, he has created video installations such as "Lingchi - Echoes of a Historical Photograph" and "Factory". The films explore issues such as colonialism, globalization and their impact on peripheral regions.