Rewriting Territories: PALM Gallery | Taipei

When this stability infiltrates too deeply into affective intensities, it can rigidify the spontaneous flows of sensation and intensity, limiting the possibilities for self-renewal and transformation. Affects—those pre-verbal forces and dynamic shifts in our capacities to affect and be affected—become stifled under the weight of fixed routines. According to Deleuze and Guattari, an overemphasis on stability “territorializes” our experience, reducing life to repetitive, predetermined frameworks. As a result, we might sense an underlying tension, a visceral yearning for the dynamic intensities that creativity and art can unleash, even before we can name these desires. When we step into a museum, gallery, or fair, we are drawn to spaces where affective forces flow freely, bypassing the constraints of rigid structures. These spaces, as Deleuze and Guattari would describe, are "smooth spaces," where we are liberated from predefined boundaries, free to explore, connect, and feel the emergence of new intensities. The artworks that move us operate on this level of affect, resonating deeply within us, triggering forces and movements that transform our perceptions, even before we fully grasp or articulate the breakthroughs they symbolize.

This dynamic is deeply intertwined with Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “deterritorialization.”  In A Thousand Plateaus (Mille plateaux, 1980), Deleuze and Guattari define deterritorialization as a process of breaking away from established structures, frameworks, or contexts. Deterritorialization does not emphasize the destruction of the original system but rather focuses on the new possibilities and opportunities for connection. In their view, artistic creation inherently embodies this process, as it breaks away from existing orders, creating space for new possibilities and connections. Artistic creation inherently embodies this process, as it dislodges existing norms, social structures, and material forms, making space for new connections and regenerative forces. Artists not only deconstruct societal norms, linguistic structures, and material boundaries but also create a new field of potential after destabilizing these fixed contexts. Deterritorialization frees artworks from predetermined purposes and rules, allowing them to generate entirely new forms of expression and meaning. This is why we look forward to witnessing breakthroughs in art and life—because breakthroughs symbolize the vitality of life and the potential for self-regeneration.

When a work challenges the traditional use of materials or recombines linguistic symbols, it is essentially breaking away from existing contexts and orders, allowing the material or language to acquire new meaning and vitality. Deleuze’s concept of “becoming” is reflected here, similar to the symbiotic relationship between orchids and bees, where the orchid mimics the scent and form of a female bee to attract the male for pollination. In this interaction, the male bee undergoes a process of becoming, just as the orchid evolves. They do not simply imitate each other; instead, they transform mutually through a shared process of becoming, creating new relationships and possibilities. Similarly, artistic creation weaves together deterritorialization and reterritorialization: artists extract elements from existing frameworks and infuse them with new meaning in altered contexts. This process does not merely dismantle structures; rather, it reorganizes and regenerates, creating new spaces of meaning and expression.

Artistic creation, as a practice of deterritorialization, embodies a dual process of challenge and reconstruction. In this exhibition, the artists' works challenge existing social structures, linguistic forms, material boundaries, and spatial perceptions, collectively showcasing the diversity of deterritorialization. They liberate their forms from fixed structures, opening up new possibilities for connection. The artists themselves, like practitioners of deterritorialization, continuously explore new connections and possibilities, transforming art into a field of vitality and becoming. We experience how materials, language, and space detach from their established frameworks, generating new perceptions and meanings.

The core spirit of this exhibition is to showcase how these artists engage with “deterritorialization,” generating new vitality and potential while deconstructing old orders. These works do not simply break traditions; instead, they seek a dynamic balance between destruction and regeneration, allowing the inherent boundaries within art and the world to be deconstructed, opening pathways to innovation and transformation.