Taiwan's protest over the issue of its name at the 25th Sao Paulo Biennial Art Exhibit in Brazil took a dramatic twist on Sunday, as six countries donated an English letter each to form the word "taiwan" for the nation's exhibit hall.
A Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday that the innovative protest action was the brainchild of an Austrian artist, George Thomann, who took the initiative in urging other participants to take an English letter from each of their respective exhibition name plates to donate to Taiwan.
Thomann took the letter "t" from Austria's name plate and artists from five other countries followed his lead.
The report said Canada donated the letter "a," Croatia donated the letter "i," Puerto Rico donated an "o" -- which was cut into two pieces to form the letter "w," Singapore donated another "a" and Panama donated the "n."
The cooperative effort was then attached to the name plate on Taiwan display's shortly before biennial opened. The Sao Paulo biennial is one of the world's three most important exhibits of contemporary art.
The Taiwan display was originally labeled as "Chien-Chi Chang (
Three days before the opening of the show, Brazilian organizers abruptly removed the "Taiwan" from the name plate without giving any explanation.
Chang protested by closing the Taiwan display and sending a protest letter in English to the organizers. Copies of the letter were given to the 190 participating artists from around the world to solicit their support.
Thomann responded by plastering a bulletin on the closed door of the Taiwan display on the eve of the opening of the art show calling for donations of English letters.
"The generous donation made by the six countries has enabled us to reopen our exhibition hall in time to meet the raising of the curtain on the biennial show," Chang was quoted in the newspaper report as saying.
"The unprecedented move has left the name plates of each of the donor nations with one letter missing from their respective national titles," Chang said. "But their missing letters have helped add an `artwork of protest' to the dazzling array of exhibits on display here."
Huang Tzai-lang (黃才郎), director of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, who is also in Sao Paulo, said that the new word "taiwan" on the name plate is a creative work of art.
"We admire the artists from the six donor countries for their courage in standing up to support our protest," he said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS