Taiwan’s official presence at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, titled NON-Belief: Taiwan Intelligens of Precarity, is organized by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) and curated by a curatorial team from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU). This exhibition, soon embarking on its journey to Venice, Italy, will take place at the Palazzo delle Prigioni from May 10 to November 23, 2025. A press conference was held on April 17 ahead of the event, featuring attendees such as Deputy Minister of Culture Ching-Hwi Lee (李靜慧), NTMoFA Director Kuang-Yi Chen (陳貺怡), and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chih-Chung Wu (吳志中)；jury members Chia-Chi Jason Wang (王嘉驥), June-Hao Hou (侯君昊), Ming-Song Shyu (徐明松), and Jr-Gang Chi (漆志剛), as well as Senior Vice President of NCKU Ping-Sheng Wu (吳秉聲), curator Cheng-Luen Hsueh (薛丞倫), and co-curator Sung-Chang Leo Chiang (江松長) , among others.
Grounded in the Biennale’s central theme, “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.,” NON-Belief: Taiwan Intelligens of Precarity builds on existing historical contexts to re-examine the notion of Taiwan’s “precarious intelligens”—a distinctive resilience emerging from the ambiguous intersection of unpredictable natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, globalization, and an uncertain, perilous future.
Curator Cheng-Lun Hsueh explains that beliefs can easily emerge in Taiwan, and people can swiftly discard them or adopt a skeptical stance. This perceptual fluidity arises from lived experiences shaped by constant seismic activity and frequent typhoons that affect the island, its strategic location between China, Japan, and Western trade routes, and its complex political history marked by regime changes. The exhibition reframes “precarity” as a positive lens for contemplating and critiquing globalization. While addressing global issues regarding technology and environmental sustainability, it highlights Taiwan as a technological island with unique resilience amidst political instability and ecological vulnerability, demonstrating its ability to foster a new architectural perspective that underscores the resilient practices and potentiality of intelligens from Taiwan.
This exhibition showcases numerous teams formed by the faculty and students from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and practicing architects. Each team engages in in-depth collaborative research rooted in actual architectural practices, addressing the future of architecture through multi-scalar studies and prototypes. Seventeen teams propose innovative architectural case studies and prototypes that indicate paradigm shifts, with thirteen of these teams creating “operable” architectural models to illustrate their concepts, stimulating layered imagination and interaction. On the one hand, the works focus on the ambiguous areas that emerge between belief and non-belief in spatial governance driven by advanced technology, rapid development, and control. On the other hand, the exhibition is organized around four interconnected thematic lenses: “Tactical Interdependence,” “Infrastructural Flux,” “Embodied Resilience,” and “Adaptive Assemblage,” which create a critical framework for understanding the exhibition.
Among the displayed works, BORDER ELASTICITY focuses on the Tainan Railway Underground Project. The belief in the future floor area ratio is reimagined as transparent acrylic sticks reminiscent of incense sticks, engaging the general public in deciding transferable development rights through the act of placing incense sticks after worship. This approach transforms the site’s rich temporal layers and its surrounding environment into an engaging and elastic border while uniting diverse stakeholders from academia, the cultural sector, and local communities, reflecting the adaptation and negotiation inherent in changes involving contemporary urban infrastructure. The work Climate Justice reveals the environmental issues we must address together as we strive for rapid, advanced development. Tainan City’s urban heat island effect occurs in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) area, while affluent groups living near Daan Forest Park experience less heat impact with comparatively fewer resources. A tech-island installation resembling a ritual offering table is built with high-tech electronic paper tags. Visuals depicting urban heat are displayed across the electronic paper screens controlled by chips, prompting viewers to contemplate the tension between the belief of a tech-island and that of an eco-island. Tāi-uân and Venice: The Embodied Intelligens of Two Island Republics reimagines a street block in Tainan’s Fanshuqi (蕃薯崎; now Lane 158, Section 2, Zhongyi Road in the Central District) through the custom of roadside banquets, rotating the internal spaces inside out and turning the storefront overhangs inward. This contrasts with the street blocks and the urban history of arcades on the islands of Venice and suggests a focus on resilience embodied by the body. It is also worth mentioning that Carlo Ratti, the curator of this year’s Biennale, contributed to one of the proposed projects showcased in Taiwan’s exhibition: Path of Knowledge - Southern Branch of the National Central Library. He envisions a ramp in a future library as a space for unexpected bodily, social, and intellectual encounters, subverting the standardized, hierarchical, and index-based control of knowledge from the past and transforming it into “human intelligens” (with the Latin suffix -gens denoting race, group, or people).
The design of the exhibition space embraces the concept of an “island” as a central theme. At its heart lies a “TECH-island” installation that showcases looping images of Taiwan’s landscape on E Ink electronic paper screens, illustrating the impacts of technological developments on the island’s environment. Surrounding the exhibition space, each architectural proposal is displayed through models, accompanied by research booklets or QR codes linking to videos, offering audiences an opportunity for deeper exploration. Another highlight is the installation Votive Lamp Wall, which comprises various votive lamps featuring deity figures prominently displayed in the front. In contrast, the back of the installation is covered with circuit boards containing glowing chips and wires, symbolizing the evolution of traditional faith toward a technology-mediated future. Additionally, Island in Between, a 2024 Oscar Documentary Short Film nominee directed by Sung-Chang Leo Chiang, will be screened regularly on-site. Portraying everyday scenes of Kinmen, the director metaphorically examines Taiwan’s ambiguous identity and the uncertainties it faces.
Taiwan’s participation in the Biennale this year also includes an international forum series that will take place throughout the preview period. This series will cover various topics, including “Architectural Pedagogy,” focusing on the exchange between Taiwan and the Università IUAV di Venezia; “Living Future Part I_Town and Gown,” examining higher education and industrial innovation; “Curating Precarity_Museum of the Future,” which draws examples from Taiwan and France; “Inside Outside_Navigating Precarity and Global Flux,” featuring prominent architects from Taiwan and beyond; “Taiwan Intelligens of Precarity,” a guided exhibition tour; and “Inhabiting Taiwan’s Geopolitics Through Moving Images,” a discussion led by director Sung-Chang Leo Chiang. In total, six forums will take place. Furthermore, this July, the Department of Architecture at National Cheng Kung University will bring its faculty and students to Venice for the “International Summer Workshop on Resilient Architecture,” facilitating in-depth exchanges and enhancing understanding of architectural education, innovation, and Taiwan's role in the ever-evolving global architectural landscape.
NON-Belief: Taiwan Intelligens of Precarity is curated by Cheng-Luen Hsueh and co-curators Ping-Sheng Wu, Meng-Tsun Su, and Sung-Chang Leo Chiang, working alongside a team from the NCKU Department of Architecture. The team includes the Chair of Tunghai University’s Department of Architecture and the exhibition’s consulting expert, Wei Tseng (曾瑋), and the international advisory expert Brian McGrath from Parsons School of Design in New York. The featured installations are developed in close collaboration with partners from the industry, encompassing a range of electronic paper research and creative applications enabled through a partnership with E Ink Holdings Incorporated, as well as technical support and partial funding from Hongsen Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., underscoring Taiwan’s visionary strengths in technology and design.
NON-Belief: Taiwan Intelligens of Precarity
Collateral Event at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia
Dates: 10 May to 23 November 2025
Venue: Palazzo delle Prigioni, Castello, Venice, Italy