In Exploring the Media Boundaries (媒界探勘), seven artists use digital technology to offer immersive installations and experiences of augmented reality. Bram Snijders and Carolien Teunisse from the Netherlands present Re:, a 360-degree installation featuring a projector that can project light on itself. In Exploded Views 2.0, Marnix de Nijs analyzes the GPS tags of photos on Flickr and other sharing sites, converting the most photographed locations into 3D, and building the world as it’s represented on the Web. This exhibition is staged in collaboration with the V2_Institute for the Unstable Media, a center for art and technology based in Rotterdam.
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立臺灣美術館), 2, Wuquan W Rd Sec 1, Greater Taichung (台中市西區五權西路一段2號) tel: (04) 2372-3552, open Tuesdays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 6pm
■ Until August 17
Photo Courtesy of TFAM
Discard is a solo exhibition by acclaimed Shanghai-based porcelain sculptor Liu Jianhua (劉建華). Liu brings five small-scale pieces and the titular work Discard (遺棄), a simulation excavation site. Discard features pits filled with colorful heaps of counterfeit antiques and pale replicas of familiar utensils — perverse porcelains that tell a story of materialism gone wrong, with all of its sweet comforts. Born in Jian (吉安) in 1962, Liu participated in the Venice Biennale at the China Pavilion in 2003, showing porcelain replicas of daily objects that prioritize appearance and symbolism over function.
■ TKG+ Projects Taipei, B1, Ln 548, 15, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號B1), tel: (02) 2659-0798, open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10am to 7pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 4:30pm. Until July 20
Photo Courtesy of VT Artsalon
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (臺北市立美術館) presents a retrospective on the life and work of the late abstract expressionist Chen Cheng-hsiung (陳正雄). Around 80 paintings, catalogues, literature and documentary films illustrate Chen’s career from his early semi-representational works to his exuberant forays into pure abstraction at Chen Chen-hsiung: A Retrospective (陳正雄回顧展). Born 1935 in Taipei, Chen became one of the leading abstract painters of Asia, working out of Taiwan throughout his career and exhibiting overseas. In 2001, he was recipient of the Florence Biennale’s “Lorenzo il Magnifico” Lifetime Achievement Award.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays. Admission: NT$30
■ Until August 17
Eating Wind (吃風) brings together 13 Malaysia-based artists who respond to Malaysia’s recent initiatives to boost art tourism, in which visitors fly in to attend local art festivals, concerts, wine events and museum tours. Curated by Hoo Fan Chon of Malaysia and ##Chen Yi-chiu (陳依秋) of Taiwan, the pieces depict personal notions about traveling on holiday (which in Malaysia is colloquially called “eating wind”) and address the repercussions of “eating wind” on both the traveler and the host country. This show was first staged in Penang and is winner of VT Art Salon’s (非常廟藝文空間) annual open call to curators.
■ VT Artsalon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 17, Ln 56, Xinsheng Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生北路三段56巷17號B1), tel: (02) 2597-2525, open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11:30am to 7pm, Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9pm, closed Sundays and Mondays
■ Curator’s talk tomorrow at 5pm, opening reception at 7pm. Until July 19
At Natural to Next Natural (自然而然), 17 teams of Dutch and Taiwanese artists present design solutions for four issues: environmental sustainability, war-related suffering, disease and illness and the technological divide. A fifth gallery, themed Biotech, presents innovations in fabrics that harness new biological technology.
■ 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. Free admission
■ Until July 20
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and