Celebration (生日快樂 — 夏卡爾的愛與美) presents more than 100 works by Russia-born French artist Marc Chagall, a pioneer of European modernism who synthesized the modernist art movements of cubism, symbolism and fauvism. But as this exhibition reveals, Chagall remained an exponent of the glories of his native village, its colorful flowers and ancient hovels. The works on display are gathered from museums and private collections across Japan, and include pieces from collections in France and Switzerland. Chagall’s 1915 masterpiece L’Anniversaire forms the centerpiece of the exhibition, which fully showcases Chagall’s art and life and his passion for color.
■ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221, Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號), tel: (02) 8692-5588 X2312 (10:30am to 6:30pm). Open daily from 9am to 5pm. Admission: NT$250
■ Begins Saturday. Until May 29
Photo courtesy of the National Palace Museum
Environmental destruction, global warming and terrorism are among the topics South Korean artist Zin Kijong depicts in Earth Report. The product of a new generation of artist-activists, Zin’s mixed media sculptures — detailed dioramas in the form of paintings — depict global issues with a sense of humor. Images include Osama bin Laden hauling an oil truck and the Hollywood sign slipping into the sea.
■ Sakshi Gallery (夏可喜當代藝術), 33 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街33號), tel: (02) 2516-5386. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm and 11am to 5:30pm on Sundays
■ Begins Saturday. Until March 27
Photo courtesy of Sakshi Gallery
Agony, minimalism and nothingness are terms one associates with the work of Samuel Beckett. For Lin Wan-shih (林萬士), however, Beckett’s oeuvre serves as the starting point for a new series of existential paintings titled Waiting for Godot (等待果陀). The vaguely representational canvases of islands and rocks in the middle of a sea of monotone color evoke thoughts of simplicity — though, as with a Beckett play, perhaps, they are a boundless “spiritual landscape” of interpretation.
■ La Chambre Art Gallery (小室藝廊), 31, Ln 52, Siwei Rd, Taipei City (台北市四維路52巷31號), tel: (02) 2700-3689. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 9pm
■ Until March 1
It’s time to haul out those soapboxes folks. LISTEN! The More the Merrier (多多益善 — 聲音實驗計畫) finds Project Fulfill Art Space transforming its exhibition space into a site of “collective reflection, reception and production.” Organized by New York-based artist Wong Hong-kai (王虹凱) and German artist Jens Maier-Rothe, the exhibit-cum-workshop seeks participants to discuss different aspects of the current status of “activist struggle and discursive art practice in Taiwan’s contemporary cultural landscape.” The exhibit will employ audio devices such as microphones, recorders and loudspeakers as conceptual and contextual tools to provide a framework for critical debates about social issues and modes of resistance within Taiwan’s activist community. Saturday’s opening reception features a performance by Echo (回聲樂團) frontman Wu Po-chang (吳柏蒼).
■ Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術中心), 2, Alley 45, Ln 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷45弄2號), tel: (02) 2707-6942. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Opening reception Saturday starting at 6pm. Until March 27
Live Ammo (活彈藥) presents a series of “situationist” video installations. The collaborative exhibit follows the Situationist International manifesto in experimenting with the construction of situations that seek to fulfill the primitive desires of humans.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Admission: NT$50
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 7pm. Until April 17
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby