Place：A1.B1.C1-C4.E
If art is an expression of human values, then undertaking a contemporary interpretation of established traditional systems can be useful in taking on the impact of changing times. The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts’ presentation of Home – Taiwan Biennial 2008, conceived by veteran curator Chia Chi Jason Wang, sets out from a position of self-reflection on values to explore through art the socio-cultural significance of Taiwanese society over the course of historical development.
The Confucian greater East Asian region and its core ethical values and basic structure of interpersonal relationships centered on “home,” has deeply impacted the modes of thought and behavior of the people of Taiwan. If “home” can be understood as a state of residing in a certain time and place, then it implies living in reality, a presence that encompasses both the subject and the entity.
Taiwanese society is a mixture of mostly indigenous aborigines, Han Chinese, and other immigrants. As a result, its cultural roots and traditions and its collective psyche carries a strong family complex/sentiment. Moreover, especially since the twentieth century, as an immigrant society, whether immigrants coming in or emigrants going out, the separation and establishment of “home” has had a rich or at times complex socio-cultural meaning.
Home – Taiwan Biennial 2008 solicited over 120 works from 60 artists tracing the development of Taiwanese modern art. During the Japanese period of the twentieth century in particular artists came from all strata of society, and simply by virtue of that fact as a fundamental component of society, the “home” these artists probed through assorted formal conventions is a microcosm of the general psyche and tenor present throughout the historical development of Taiwanese society. As curator Chia-Chi Jason Wang relates: the exhibition “endeavors to scan through highlights of how artists in Taiwan from the twentieth century onward – and in particular once modern art began to blossom – engage in dialogue with the connotations of ‘home,’ including how they have confronted, portrayed, commented on, imagined, or even criticized the subject of ‘home.’”
As time passes by, our experience and perception of “home” changes. Over the inexorable tide of history, “home” is the wellspring of our cultural values, and as we live and grow “home” is the hub of our life force. This exhibition offers a “home” that brings both yours and mine together, and a setting for our minds and spirits to meet.
Source and Photo courtesy of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立台灣美術館)
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