Taking a walk in northwest part of Taipei can be a migration through a cultural revitalization of the neighborhood.
Start off at Shin Leh Yuan Gallery with its current exhibition City of Swallows:
Migration, Post-colonial Memory and New Taiwan Color which continues on Zhongshan North Road and ends up at the SPOT-Taipei Film House. Curator Elsa Chen (陳香君) explores the idea of migration as seen through the eyes of Taiwanese artists, filmmakers and activists and a comic book artist from Hong Kong. The gallery provides headsets with audio tours of the exhibition in Mandarin, Hokklo, Hakka, English, Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese.
PHOTOS: SUSAN KENDZULAK
At Shin Leh Yuan Art Gallery, there is filmmaker Mia Chen's (
At St Christopher's Church, Lin Hsiao-fang's (
Taking it to the streets, Yin Pao-ning (殷寶寧) placed sofas and bar stools at various spots along Zhongshan North Road.
Additionally, the exhibition has an ongoing series of panel discussions from 2:30pm to 5pm at Room D, Zhongshan District Community Centre, 2F, 21, Lane 59, Sec 2, Zhongshan N Rd. On Sunday, Taiwan is Becoming Home: Documentary Films and the Intervention in the Condition of New Immigrants is the heady topic for a scheduled talk led by artists and academics. For April 9 the topic is Contemporary Taiwan and Imperialist Gaze: Post-colonial Memory and Aesthetic Transformation.
An exhibition of more traditional white-cube fare can be found at IT Park. Painter Juin Shieh (
A couple of doors down is the newly opened artist-run VT Salon. Besides being an elegant lounge bar, it exhibits the latest in contemporary Taiwanese art. A gray cement minimalist feel to the interior sets the sophisticated tone for the works on view. Howard Chen's (陳浚豪) shiny thumbtack mandala wallpiece appropriately fits in along with the pseudo-architectural bas-reliefs of Tu Wei-cheng (涂維政). And since it is a darkened ambient space, video projections work quite well and for Very Video 100, various videos by local artists will be shown. Wu Dar-kuen's (吳達坤) latest video of a topsy-turvey New York lends an other-worldness to the room. This group collaboration shows that art does not only belong to the realm of the daytime well-lit gallery but that it can become a nighttime denizen too.
PHOTO COURTESY OF VT SALON
What: City of Swallows: Migration, Post-colonial Memory and New Taiwan Color
Where: Shin Leh Yuan Art Gallery, 1F, 15-2, Lane 11, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 2, Taipei (
When: At SPOT from 11am until 9pm Tuesday through Sunday; at Shin Leh Yuan Art Gallery from 1pm until 8pm Weds through Sun, call (02) 2561 1548 for more details; until April 9
PHOTO: SUSAN KENDZULAK
What: From Chora to Female Pedigree by Juin Shieh (
Where: IT Park, 2/3 F, 41 I-Tong St, Taipei (
Telephone: (02) 2507 7243
When: Tues to Sat, 1pm to 10pm through April 15
What: Very Video 100
Where: VT Salon, 45-47, I-Tong St, Taipei, Taiwan. (
When: Ongoing
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