The Cultural Ministry’s National Human Rights Museum announced on Monday that the next Green Island Biennial, formerly the Green Island Human Rights Arts Festival, will be held in May 2025.
Curatorial team head Nobuo Takamori says this year's theme is, "Duration of 149 Sea Miles: The Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting." Takamori says it represents the journey of the first political prisoners transferred to Green Island in 1951. While the physical distance between Taiwan and Green Island is relatively short, he says the historical trauma experienced during the journey has become a significant challenge for Taiwanese society to overcome.
The biennial features artistic works by 23 individual artists and groups, both domestic and international, with a diverse range of media including video art, painting, and archival materials.
Museum Director Hung Shih-fang (洪世芳) adds that five domestic artists have been invited to showcase their works and kick off an exchange program at the 2024 Jeju Biennale in South Korea. According to the Human Rights Museum, these works will be displayed at the Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art from now until February 15 of next year. This marks the Jeju Biennale as the first in its history to feature the largest number of Taiwanese artists, further enhancing the global visibility of the Green Island Biennial.
The National Human Rights Museum has been organizing the Green Island Human Rights Arts Festival annually since 2019. To deepen the curatorial teams' and artists' understanding of the life stories of political victims, the festival transitioned to a biennial format after the 2023 edition. This change aims to strengthen the festival's connection to the historical significance of the Green Island Memorial Park.