Musica Mobile, a Poetics of Sound and Movement (聲動) is a group exhibition of audiovisual works co-organized by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館) and National Center of Musical Creation in Lyon. Curator James Giroudon brings together 28 artists from Taiwan and abroad to explore the question: “How does movement transverse through space and time?” Over the centuries, there have been many artists who have explored ideas concerning movement — the developments of futurism, cubism and optical art of the 20th century, for example, continue to influence the arts. Pascal Frament’s Like a Point is an installation that projects words by French scholar Blaise Pascal onto the visitors palm. Lee Ming-wei’s (李明維) The Quartet Project (四重奏計畫) is another interactive work that plays 19th century Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s quartet American. A collaborative project between French artists Stephane Borrel, Christophe Lebreton and RANDOM (lab), Smartland-Divertimento, consists of a cluster of cellphones listening, responding and glowing in the dark. A phone application is available for download, which allows the audience to engage with the devices on view.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館 TFAM), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (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
■ Until July 14
Photo Courtesy of Tina Keng Gallery
The Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館) presents Pacific Pirate (太平洋海盜), a collaborative project between Writing FACTory, a research-based project initiated by Taiwanese artist Chang Wen-hsuan (張紋瑄) and RRD, a Mexico City-based independent platform for the production and distribution of printed and audiovisual content. The two groups examine the shared histories of Taiwan and Mexico — both are colonial countries and have a complex history with a powerful neighbor. Re-DBT is a collection of over a hundred videos that were submitted by open call from Taiwan, Mexico, Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil. These videos vary in length, genre and degree of originality. #PiratePirateManifesto is an installation of documents and video that address the idea of freedom in the context of today’s copyright regulations.
■ Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號), tel: (02) 2896-1000 X 2432. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm
■ Until June 30
Photo Courtesy of White Stone Gallery Taipei
GUTAI-JIN in Taipei (具體人在台北) at Whitestone Gallery is a group exhibition of the post-war Japanese art group Gutai Art Association. Founded in 1954, the radical collective aimed to go beyond abstraction, to abandon traditional art and to “present concrete proof that our spirit is free,” writes the exhibition press release. Led by artist Jiro Yoshihara, Gutai created installations, performances and theatrical events in search of a new art language. Jiro’s motto, “Do what has never been done before,” exerted a strong influence on the group and the spirit of Gutai continued to thrive in the individual artists despite the group’s dissolution in 1974. The title of the show, which literally translates to Gutai-person, encapsulates the long-lasting impact of the group on 12 of the artists in the exhibition. Tsuyoshi Maekawa, a protege of Jiro Yoshihara, is known for painting on and manipulating jute rice bag surfaces with enamel and other materials. The late Shozo Shimamoto was a co-founder of Gutai known for his contributions in mail art, a genre that involves sending artworks through the postal service.
■ White Stone Gallery (白石畫廊), 1 Jihu Rd, Taipei City (台北市基湖路1號), tel: (02) 8751-1185. Opens Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm.
■ Until May 12
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Fine Art Museum
Wearing Asia — The Exchange and Creation of Textiles (穿上亞洲-織物的交流與想像) is currently on view at the southern branch of The National Palace Museum. The exhibition includes fabrics and wardrobes in the museum collection, including selections from China, Japan, Tibet, India and Indonesia. These artifacts demonstrate different styles of each cultural region, including various techniques of spinning, dyeing and ornamentation. For example, China was known for its mastery of smooth silk, while India produced premium quality dyed cotton fabrics that became popular worldwide. The exhibition not only highlights the originality of various textile cultures, it also offers insight into the cross-regional exchanges achieved through the flow of trade. Batik Lower Body Wrapper with Design of Cloud on a Red Ground is a 20th century Indonesian textile that features repeating patterns of Chinese-style clouds. The detailed work includes different shades of color and gradation techniques to achieve a three-dimensional illusion. The piece is from Cirebon, a northern port in Java, where motifs such as clouds, rocks, dragons and phoenixes are typically found on local batik cotton fabric.
■ Southern branch of the National Palace Museum(國立故宮博物院南部院區), 888 Gugong Blvd Taibao City, Chiayi County (嘉義縣太保市故宮大道888號), tel: (06) 362-0777. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
■ Until July 28
Photo Courtesy of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts
For Hong Kong artist Ying Hung (洪少瑛), art making is a continuous process of exploring ideas around culture and identity, addressing sociocultural issues of the past and present. Mind and Matter: Derivation — Ying Hung Solo Exhibition (神思物遊) is her latest solo exhibition organized by Tina Keng Gallery. The title refers to a 5th Century Chinese text, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (文心雕龍), by Liu Xie (劉勰), where he explores human emotions and their impact of art. Hung’s exhibition also responds to the creative process and its connection to spirituality. Drawing inspiration from the history of human civilization, natural landscapes and the values that they allude to, such as strength, transcendence and eternity.
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Until May 26
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Fine Art Museum
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In the aftermath of the 2020 general elections the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was demoralized. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had crushed them in a second landslide in a row, with their presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) winning more votes than any in Taiwan’s history. The KMT did pick up three legislative seats, but the DPP retained an outright majority. To take responsibility for that catastrophic loss, as is customary, party chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) resigned. This would mark the end of an era of how the party operated and the beginning of a new effort at reform, first under