"Thus is the earth one infinite plane.”

When Milton[1], a fictional traveler created by poet and painter William Blake (1757-1827), passed by the earth on his immortal journey from heaven, he found himself surrounded by the sun, the moon and stars, and realized that the essenceof the earth is an infinite plane. Even if the earth as a sphere has become a scientific truth and dominates our perception of the world, in the fields of art and culture there remain unique historical tours that picture it differently. In Genesis, the world was depicted as formless and void. Then the word developed the world. The battlefields of Greek gods, the Republic of Plato, the organism of Gaia Hypothesis[2] or the fragmented Big Bang debris colliding with each other while touring the universe. Regardless, each world image elaborates a parallel worldview. The world is polysemic, meanwhile, existing in the form of the universe, the earth, and the land. It can be imagined but also being the azimuth. It exists physically while being completely made up, only in our heads. It is about time while being about space. So what is true, among these seemly contradictory propositions?

The 3rd edition of the Greater Taipei Biennial of Contemporary Art presents « Authentic World » as an invitation to experts, artists, poets, industries, institutions, and research departments worldwide. Those who operate within the fields of folklore, history, religion, nature, science, technology, literature, art, visual culture, etc. furnish diverse horizons to thedialogue on the original authentic world. These world-oriented perspectives fortuitously merge, attach, mutually exclusive, or coexist when approaching reality. However, a certain essentiality may still be hidden. The Greater Taipei Biennial of Contemporary Art will remove the shield to illuminate what is not yet in sight, and to reveal the arche of the world. The exhibited works and collaborations shine a light on the labors, disciplined processes, and practical thoughts of each field's everyday life. These daily routines serve as materials for the artistic agenda. Perhaps, among all, out-of discipline and creativity will be shaped gradually. The practices will carry out certain mythical and overall artistry through their varying fields. Each leaves a shadow behind in reality as time flows and gradually condenses in the art. While the layers of solidified afterimages emerge, the reality of the art world is unfolded. Similarly many scientific formulas and conclusions seem to be calculated independently but are intertwined to form the physical world that humans rely on. However, we are still wondering how to be authentic?

Time-traveler Milton continues his marvelous journey. In Blake's narrative, Milton soars across heaven and earth in a vortex. A tour guide of the world compresses progress, shows the panorama of the world, sings the global gospels in a melody connecting the world from end to end. Through the curatorial context, it brings the resounding musical notes from the valley. In Bunun Poet Salizan Takisvilainan's Carrying Mountains with Headbands[3], the "sanadan[4]" from the deep mountains - high-level experts in mountaineering[5], equipped with tinaqis[6] and patakan[7] which carried tribal history, hummed tribal tunes as they set foot in their ancestral motherland. By the wisdom of nature, collapsed ancient footpaths wouldn't stop the guides progress nor the rhythmic echo in the mountains.

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"The Tour Guide of the World" is adept at anthropology and literature and their footprints cross from France to the rest ofEurope, and from California to northernmost Alaska. As "The Tour Guide of the World", through writing and representation in different media, they lead us on a journey. Perhaps it begins at The Raven[8] by poet Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849), or it may be the anthropological exploration of near-arctic Eskimoes. Each is equally authentic and astonishing.

The tour guide of the world has broadened the scope of the horizon. Groups of astronomers observing distant galaxies, simulating the operational mode of the universe, and investigating a space-time tunnel built by radiance and energy (heat, magnetism, gravity, etc.), for instance. Interdisciplinary collaboration allows the transmission of physical, truthful images of exotic outer space (such as black holes) to become present in our perception. Possibly, the tour guide possesses different tasks and missions to build up paths out of curiosity about the arche of the world's corporality. They yearn for exploring in the authentic world. Following their paces, we will experience the prototype where the world is genuine yetheterogeneous.

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Probing the arche of the world fabricates the agent of the biennial: Not only the quotidian, but even "normality" will serve as subject for artistic dialogue. Coupled with afterimages in reality, these draw the outline of an unreachable world. Then the world is as authentic as it is shown. The tour guide of the world roams between NTUA Art Village and 9 Art Space. In tandem, an Artistic Dwelling Project is sprinkled into the biennial. Six invited artists propose the concept of the daily world that coexists with the biennial through a building that bore witness to local history. Blending the narrative context of the region and the artists' own scenarios, the invited artists construct an everyday landscape through diverse time and space in an artistic scenography. The audience will be immersed in an authentic life setting through their perception of the exhibited surroundings.

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The definition of work is a dynamic act. What the eyes see is merely a certain "aspect-seeing[9]" of the "Authentic World". The Greater Taipei Biennial of Contemporary Art brings together a sphere for presenting and interpreting thevarious faces of authenticity, simulacrum authenticity, fictional authenticity, dialectical authenticity, and reproduction authenticity. Therefore, the actual knowledge systems can be surmounted through our fusion of different horizons. Step by step, all the "aspects" will be fulfilled to put in perspective of the arche world. Set beneath the banner of humanism, we comprehend what real means while being in an ever-moving era.