Taiwan Pavilion artist Li Yi-fan

Li Yi-fan’s Taiwan Pavilion project in Venice is built around a fairly specific subject: what constant life through screens does to perception, memory and emotion. Taiwan News reported on May 19 that the Taiwanese artist is using this year’s pavilion to examine “digital anxiety,” while official Taiwan and Biennale materials describe a show that folds video, installation and sculpture into a staged environment at Palazzo delle Prigioni. The project is titled “Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan,” and it is Taiwan’s presentation at the 61st Venice Biennale, organized by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and curated by Raphael Fonseca. The exhibition opened in early May and runs until Nov. 22, 2026, according to the Taiwan culture ministry and La Biennale di Venezia. ### What exactly is Li Yi-fan showing in Venice? (taiwannews.com.tw) “Screen Melancholy” centers on a new video installation and a larger physical environment built around it. La Biennale says the exhibition’s central video is shown on an LED panel and stages its action inside a simulation of Palazzo delle Prigioni itself, creating a self-referential setup in which the real exhibition site appears again as a digital model. (moc.gov.tw) The Taiwan culture ministry said the pavilion also includes site-specific image installations and 3D-printed human sculptures arranged into a maze-like space “where the virtual and the real converge.” That matters because the show is not presented as a single-screen video work; it is built as a walk-through environment in which viewers move between rendered imagery, objects and bodily scale. (labiennale.org) ### Where does the “digital anxiety” part come from? Taiwan News described Li’s pavilion as an examination of the personal and social effects of digital technologies. The official Biennale entry uses different language but points in the same direction, saying the project preserves an “anxiety trigger” that has accompanied more than a decade of Li’s practice. (moc.gov.tw) Universes.art, summarizing the exhibition materials, said Li works across painting, animation, game engines and generative imagery to explore how images shape human perception, storytelling and self-understanding in an era of information overload. That framing helps explain why the pavilion is being read not simply as a technology-themed show, but as one about psychological and social strain produced by image systems. (taiwannews.com.tw) ### Who is Li Yi-fan, and why was he chosen? The Taiwan culture ministry said Li was born in Taipei, holds a master’s degree in new media art from Taipei National University of the Arts, and is currently an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Taiwan’s pavilion materials place him in a generation that witnessed the rise of internet technology firsthand. (universes.art) Taipei Fine Arts Museum selected Li and curator Raphael Fonseca for the 2026 Taiwan Pavilion, Taiwan News reported in an earlier announcement. Fonseca was identified at the time as a museum curator whose collaboration with Li would shape the pavilion under the theme “Screen Melancholy.” ### Why is the venue itself part of the story? Palazzo delle Prigioni is not just the address. (moc.gov.tw) La Biennale’s listing says Li’s central video recreates the building in simulation, turning the pavilion into both subject and setting. That choice fits the show’s broader method. Official materials describe Li’s practice as theatrical, with recurring use of staged compositions, maquettes and constructed situations. (taiwannews.com.tw) In Venice, those devices are being used inside a historically charged site, with the exhibition effectively asking viewers to look at a real room, then at a rendered version of that same room, and then at themselves moving between the two. (labiennale.org) That is an inference from the exhibition description and layout, rather than a direct quote from Li. ### What should readers watch next? The Biennale listing says “Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan” remains open at Palazzo delle Prigioni through Nov. 22, 2026, with hours changing after Sept. 30. Taiwan’s pavilion website and La Biennale di Venezia’s collateral events page are the main public listings for schedules and venue details. (labiennale.org)