Political art is coming back, be it in the forms of documentary, intervention in real or virtual space, performance, installation, etc. Much of today’s social and political work deals with informal economies (economic behaviours for survival and outside of the state’s regulations) and informal politics (political processes that go beyond democratic procedures or the state’s power structure).

Why does informality in these realms interest contemporary artists? What relevance can this type of art have to social life? How to produce and exhibit these political artworks, especially in considerations of the diversity of localities and the complexity of globalization?

Video interview: Barbara Borčić (Head of SCCA-Ljubljana) and Manray Hsu, length: 08:14 (first 2 mininutes in Slovene, the rest in English)

Video interview: Manray Hsu, length: 06:34

Video of the lecture, length: 10:00

Exhibition Wayward Economy
21. 1. – 21. 2. 2005
Main Trend Gallery, Taipei
Curators: Manray Hsu and Maren Richter

Exhibition Naked Life
3. 12. 2006 – 4. 2. 2007
Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei
Curators: Manray Hsu and Maren Richter

Manray Hsu lives in Taipei and Berlin and works as an independent curator and art critic. He was a co-curator of The Sky Is the Limit: 2000 Taipei Biennial. His exhibitions include Wayward Economy and Naked Life (collaboration with Maren Richter) and the 2006 Liverpool Biennial (with Gerardo Mosquera). Together with Vasif Kortun he is a co-curator of 2008 Taipei Biennial.

The lecture was held in English language.