VIENNA.- The Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2018 goes to two artists who hail from a cultural sphere that has been riven by a sharp political divide since the end of the Chinese Civil war in 1949: from the People’s Republic of China and the island nation of Taiwan (officially known as the “Republic of China”). The two honorees agreed on the title Keep me close to you for their diverse explorations of current as well as historic forms of the transmission of immaterial goods across both countries’ respective political and ideological boundaries.

Ting-Jung Chen’s audio installation You Are the Only One I Care About (whisper) conveys a vivid impression of a peculiar phenomenon spawned by propaganda strategies between the poles of projection and appropriation: the artist has reimagined the enormous “broadcast walls” that both socialist and capitalist countries in East Asia erected along their borders to flood their enemy neighbors with slogans and songs from the “better world.” Her sculptural and musical composition prompts wide-ranging reflections on the transformation of modes of the dissemination of ideology specific to a place and time into today’s global commercialized space.

The media and sound artist Hui Ye presents the 32-minute video Quick Code Service, which scrutinizes contemporary digital communication technology and its limitations. Using WeChat, the most popular communication platform in China today, and her personal QR code, the artist “constructs” her own—digital—identity on the network from a distance. She is separated from her avatar by the Great Firewall, which the government of the People’s Republic has installed to regulate data traffic and block many international online media. Balancing between documentation and fiction, Hui Ye’s video draws attention to the potential for manipulation inherent in digital media while also grappling with how far she has come.

Ting-Jung Chen (b. Taipei/Taiwan, 1985) studied performative art and sculpture with Prof. Monica Bonvicini at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She graduated in 2018.

Hui Ye (b. Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China, 1981) studied transdisciplinary art with Ricarda Denzer and Franz Thalmair at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She graduated in 2018.

Curator: Lucas Gehrmann