An exhibition of British street artist Banksy’s Love Is In the Bin opens today at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Taipei — the first stop on its international tour.
It is to be displayed in the middle of an individual showroom, giving visitors the opportunity to enjoy the piece from every angle, museum director Loh Li-chen (駱麗真) said yesterday.
Getting Love Is In the Bin to the museum was challenging, because the frame weighs 50kg and the artwork includes pieces of shredded paper, she said.
Photo: CNA
“When opening the box, some colleagues commented that the piece resembled princess Snow White or Sleeping Beauty lying inside a thick, heavy box,” she said, adding that the pieces of paper were wrapped up and placed in another box — and that the total package weighed about 300kg.
“While we were trying to fix the frame or move the artwork, we tried our best not to shake the pieces of paper,” she said, adding that this type of artwork had never been seen before, which made the whole experience extra tricky.
The creation of Love Is In the Bin was in itself an accident. During an auction in 2018, Banksy tried to use an inbuilt self-destruction mechanism to destroy his Girl With Balloon artwork. However, the shredder broke down and only half the painting was shredded — prompting Banksy to rename the work Love Is In the Bin.
The artwork was sold at an auction in 2021 for more than ￡18 million (US$22.8 million), a record for the artist.
“Banksy shredded his work to convey his resistance against capitalism,” Loh said.
Since starting as a street artist, Bansky has used his art to highlight injustice and unrest.
Although his work has appeared on streets, walls and bridges all over the world, few people know his real identity, and plans for the international tour were kept highly confidential before the schedule was announced, Loh said.
As for why MOCA was chosen to be the first location to display the artwork, Loh said the museum has held numerous exhibitions highlighting social issues.
“For example, MOCA was the first official museum to address LGBTQ issues in Asia,” she said.
The exhibition runs until Aug. 13. Admission is free, but visitors must make reservations first.
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS