The National 228 Memorial Museum on Saturday opened an art show featuring the works of a Hungarian-American painter whose creative themes usually revolve around human rights activism.
The “Spectre of Freedom: Art of Resistance” exhibition features the selected works of Steven Balogh and is to run until March 23.
While the artist himself could not make it to Taiwan to personally attend the exhibition’s opening due to an injury, he gave thanks to the 228 Memorial Foundation in a pre-recorded video for organizing his show and also talked about the inspiration behind his works.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan shared a lot with his native Hungary in that its peoples have always strived for national independence and freedom, Balogh said.
The artist is expected to visit Taiwan in February next year to create an installation artwork to memorialize the 228 Incident, following which thousands of people protesting the authoritarian Chinese National Party (KMT) regime in 1947 were killed or arrested.
Balogh was born in 1954 in Hungary when the country was still under the shadow of the Soviet Union, and his first foray into art came when he served in his country’s Air Force at the age of 20.
Balogh was inspired to pursue art after witnessing a gruesome injury suffered by a peer in the air force, Taiwanese American Arts Council CEO Luchia Meihua Lee-Howell (李美華).
He trained under various mentors to create artwork criticizing the Hungarian Communist Party, which put him on the radar of Hungary’s authoritarian government. That led him to seek asylum in a refugee camp in Austria in 1986 and become stateless, she said.
Balogh has been living in New York since he was granted refugee status by the US, she said.
Photos of his performance art back in 1979 in Hungary and works from when he started living in New York would be exhibited at the show in Taiwan, Lee said.
Museum curator Lan Shih-po (藍士博) said one of Balogh’s works in Taiwan is a painting of a Hungarian college student who committed self-immolation, which mirrors the history of Taiwan independence activist Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who also self-immolated in the name of freedom and free speech.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the
RSS