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
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and