The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Taipei assured the public on Tuesday that all its exhibitions followed legal and safety regulations in the wake of a controversial show on Sunday in which sleeping pills were reportedly handed out.
Local artist Su Hui-yu (蘇匯宇) staged a sleepwalking exhibition entitled Stilnox Strolling, in which he appeared to be handing out Stilnox, a prescription medicine used to treat sleep disorders, and then encouraged participants to discuss the drug’s side effects.
Su’s exhibit created a stir because Stilnox, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, memory loss and hallucinations, is considered a controlled drug by the Department of Health.
In reality, Su gave out candy pills that had been made to resemble Stilnox. A museum official said fake pills were given to the audience, along with a release form they had to sign detailing Stilnox’s alleged side effects and releasing MOCA from any liability.
“Only a few knew of the truth behind the experiment, because we wanted to create a real-life experience,” the official said, adding that the museum was aware from the beginning what Su’s exhibit would entail and it was supportive of the project.
Although health officials had told local media earlier that they would open an investigation into the incident, they had yet to contact the museum, the MOCA official said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
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China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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