From July 20 to August 16, the group exhibition “Utopia, Vol. 1 — Mapping a Possible World” will take over Palm Gallery in Taipei, presenting a selection of works that reactivate an imaginary more than five centuries old: that of the island of Utopia described by Thomas More in 1516.
In this foundational text, More imagined a distant island, geographically undefined but rich with an idealized social structure. Following in his footsteps, generations of thinkers, artists, and architects have projected their desires and doubts onto these fictional landscapes — hovering between dream and critique of the real.
“Utopia, Vol. 1” extends this cartographic tradition: through carefully selected works, some created specifically for the exhibition, the participating artists trace the outlines of new islands — fragmentary, shifting, sometimes subversive. These imaginary territories are neither refuges nor models, but mental landscapes where our fears, hopes, and personal or collective utopias are played out.
Whether it’s floating shores, post-technological worlds, fictional micro-societies, or impossible architectures, this exhibition questions our ability to imagine differently — to dream the world not as it is, but as it could be.