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In architect Wang Dahong’s novel (2013), satyrs chase nymphs through tapestries in the dining hall of the spaceyacht Medusa as a young prince and his tutor munch on foie gras while touring his solar empire. In the spirit of Wang, a pioneer of Taiwanese modernism, the 2021 Asian Art Biennial, titled “Phantasmapolis” and held at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung, used both architecture and science fiction to examine the past and chart new courses toward the future. Yet the traces that were etched throughout the exhibition amounted to more than just a careful mimicry of the contours of history; chief curator Nobuo Takamori, working with a curatorial team comprising Ho Yu-Kuan, Tessa Maria Guazon, Anushka Rajendran,
