Bringing a hundred years of light back to life
In 1921, Chiang Wei-shui established the Taiwan Cultural Association, which gathered artists and writers to promote Taiwan's democracy through culture and art. In 2021, the Museum of National Taipei University of Education invited experts and scholars to hold an exhibition to mark the centennial of Taiwan Cultural Association. Dr. Chiang Po-shin and the team from the Museum of National Taipei University of Education studied the works and literatures of that time to launch "Lumière: The Enlightenment and Self-Awakening of Taiwanese Culture ", to reenact the works and materials of the artists who advocated social participation hundred years later in Taiwan.
The exhibition will be organized by Museum of National Taipei University of Education and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA) and run from May 21 to September 18, 2022 at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts after the exhibition from December 18, 2021 to April 24, 2022 at Museum of National Taipei University of Education. Due to the condition of the exhibits and the location of Kaohsiung, the KMFA has invited Dr. CHIANG Po-shin to be the curator of the Kaohsiung Exhibition. He worked with the KMFA team to adjust and supplement the exhibition contents, thus turning the crisis into a turning point and pressure into a driving force for change. This also made the preparation process of the Kaohsiung Exhibition into a Renaissance journey in Southern Taiwan.
The exhibition includes Chen Cheng-po's painting "My Family," which was classified as a sensitive work in the 1970s due to its inclusion in a book on the art of the working class, "Proletarian Painting Theory." This work shows how the artist was still trying to convey his concern for public life in a high-pressure society. Huang Tu-shui, an artist who went to Japan to study, was still concerned with Taiwan, reflecting on the situation and identification of the Taiwanese. His sculpture work of a young girl standing out of a shell with her head turned upward, Water of Immorality, which was hidden for more than sixty years, was recently revealed to the world, and will also be exhibited in the Kaohsiung exhibition.
At the moment of KMFA's transformation, "Lumière: The Enlightenment and Self-awakening of Taiwanese Culture" is not only closely connected with the spirit of the Southern Culture promoted by KMFA, but also the artistic feast expected by the art community and citizens in Southern Taiwan. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Taiwan Cultural Association in 2021, we welcome you to come to KMFA and see how Taiwanese artists explored and sought freedom fearlessly.
