Artist talk and exhibition opening
Sheng-Wen Lo, the winner of Organ Vida Portfolio Prize 2016 which included a solo show in the official exhibition programme during OV 2017, will introduce himself with the project named “White Bear”.
“White Bear” depicts polar bears on display and their artificial habitats globally; it attempts to shed light on dilemmas concerning captive animal programmes: Under certain circumstances, it may be beneficial to keep animals in controlled shelters and sanctuaries; however, some practices of zoos and aquariums are debatable. The project has been executed in 26 sites across Europe and China.
“White Bear” is not about polar bears — it studies the questionable symptoms of captive programmes by focusing on one specific species. With their attempts to mimic the arctic environment and yet still be accommodating to people, these often uncanny structures are a combination of nature, home and stage. Juxtaposed with man-made backgrounds, the enclosures and their furry protagonists formed visions decorated with contrasting elements — boulders, grasslands, plateaus, swimming pools, car tires, fake seals, stone stairs, painted icebergs, yachts, airplanes, and even skyscrapers. Having limited space and resources, the configurations of captive polar bears portray the ambiguity of some modern zoos. Often promoted as exotic, charismatic megafauna, white bears stand at the crux where the mission of conservation, research and education seems challenged by the notion of entertainment.
Sheng-Wen Lo was born in 1987, Taiwan, currently based in the Netherlands. He is interested in contemporary human-animal relationships, and attempts to spark off debates. Sheng works with still and moving images, video games and installations. He received his MA in Photography from Kunstakademie St.Joost in the Netherlands, and MSc in Computer Science from the Computer Music Lab at National Taiwan University. Scientific values and methodologies are also crucial to his works.
His recent works are shown in EYE Filmmuseum and Fotofestival Naarden in The Netherlands, OrganVida Photo Festival in Croatia, ICP Museum in New York, FORMAT Photo Festival, Belfast Photo Festival in UK, and LianZhou Foto Festival in China. He is the winner of portfolio reviews at FORMAT Photo Festival (2017), OrganVida Photo Festival (2016), and Young Art Taipei (2015).