The Digital Art Festival Taipei returns to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei) for its 14th edition. RTS: ReTranSens (再轉存), curated by Loh Li-chen (駱麗真) and Chen Hsiang-wen (陳湘汶), seeks to explore how technology is transforming human perception, and how art, in turn, represents those changes. Fifteen artists and groups are participating, including the London and New York-based experimental architecture and design practice Minimaforms, German video artist Clemens von Wedemeyer and Taiwanese sound artist Olifa Hsieh (謝?瑩). Interdisciplinary art collective Whyixd (何理) and indie band DSPS will be kicking off the opening ceremony tonight at 7pm with The Tunnel of Subconscious (潛意識的通道), a collaborative performance that organizers say will send the audience into a hypnotic dream-state. The museum will be hosting talks with artists, guided tours, performances and workshops throughout the festival. For more information, visit: www.mocataipei.org.tw.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館), 39 Chang-an W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3721. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until Nov. 10
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
The Michael Ku Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition of two interconnected video installations by Taipei-based artist Wang Shao-Gang (汪紹綱) that examine the concept of youth. Deep Blue shows a group of young men and women in the ocean, frolicking suggestively in the water, while Apple Green, set in a forest, portrays how answers are sought about the future through tarot cards. “There is often a sense of uncertainty stemming from not fully knowing one’s path,” the artist says. “Yet this sense of uncertainty is not absolute, but rather a speculation of what will be.” The works explore the feelings of vitality, hope, anxiety and fragility associated with being young.
■ Michael Ku Gallery (谷公館), 4F-2, 21 Dunhua S Rd, Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段21號4樓之2), tel: (02) 2577-5601. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Starts Sunday; until Jan. 19
Photo courtesy of Michael Ku Gallery
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts is re-launching its third-floor gallery space as the South+ Special Collection Gallery (大南方多元史觀特藏室), and the first exhibition to be held there will be South as a Place of Gathering (南方作為相遇之所). The exhibition challenges existing notions of the “global South” and its meaning within the context of Taiwan’s history. The exhibition is in conversation with the 14th edition of the quinquennial German contemporary art exhibition Documenta, which was held in 2017 and pushed the idea of the South as a “state of mind.” It features works from the 1930s to the 1960s by Chang Chi-hua (張啟華), Liu Chi-hsiang (劉啟祥), Chuang Shih-ho (莊世和) and other southern Taiwanese artists. Through these works, selected from the museum’s collection by curators Fang Yen Hsiang (方彥翔), Wu Hui-fang (吳慧芳) and Hung Ching-chan (洪金禪), the exhibition also maps the arrival and development of modern art in southern Taiwan.
■ Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (高雄市立美術館), 80 Meishuguan Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市美術館路80號), tel: (07) 5550-331. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm
■ Starts tomorrow; until Sept. 5, 2021
Photo courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
One-Forty, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering Southeast Asian migrant workers in Taiwan, yesterday kicked off a week-long exhibition to tell some of the stories of the approximately 700,000 migrant workers in Taiwan through 300 photographs. Turning Point: Taiwan (轉機: 台灣) is divided into four “stops”—“Leave For,” “Landing,” “Grow,” and Glow”—designed to follow the migrants’ journeys. A section in the end helps viewers learn about the work the organization has done. Photographs include submissions from migrant workers across the nation, as well as ones taken by Joan Pabona, an award-winning Filipino street photographer based in Hong Kong. The exhibition also showcases three costumes designed by Mark Lester Reyes, a Filipino artist and factory worker in Taoyuan, and a collaborative piece by Taiwanese artist Lo Yi-chun (羅懿君) and an Indonesian migrant worker. “This is not just a photography exhibition,” One-Forty co-founder Kevin Chen (陳凱翔) said. “Its greater significance is in providing a stage for migrant workers to express their voices.” At 7pm tonight, Still Human (淪落人), last year’s film about the bond between a Hong Kong man with a physical disability and a Filipino domestic helper, will be screening at the exhibition. Talks with Pabona, Reyes and the One-Forty team, and guided tours, have also been scheduled throughout the week. For more information, visit: www.one-forty.org/exhibition-2019.
■ Songshan Cultural and Creative Park Warehouse No 1 (松山文創園區一號倉庫), 133 Guangfu S Rd, Taipei City (台北市光復南路133號), tel: (02) 2765-1388. Open daily from 10am to 6pm, with extended hours until 8pm from Fridays to Sundays
■ Until Oct. 30
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
Founded in 1952 by painter Kuo Po-chuan (郭柏川), the Tainan Fine Arts Association is hosting its 67th anniversary exhibition at the Tainan Cultural Center. Works by more than 100 member artists working in four categories—traditional Chinese painting, Western-style painting, sculpture and photography—will be on display. Exhibited alongside the members’ works will be the works of 78 artists nominated or selected for one of the association’s nine awards. This year, the association is dedicating its Achievement Award to Shen Ming-hui (沈明輝) and its Lifetime Contribution Award to Wang Wen-chung (汪文仲) and Liu Wen-san (劉文三), who passed away in 2014 and last year, respectively.
■ Tainan Cultural Center (台南文化中心), 332 Jhonghua E Rd Sec 3, Tainan City (台南市中華東路三段332號), tel: (06) 2692-864. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
■ Until Nov. 10
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
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist