Ministry of Culture collaborates with Spain's art platform "Hablar en Arte" for the first time to introduce a residency program. Taiwanese comic artist Tseng Yao-ching (曾耀慶) will be the first Taiwanese resident artist at Hablar en Arte (Talking about Art) in Madrid.
By collaborating with Hablar en Arte, the Ministry of Culture hopes to create more collaborations across borders and increase the visibility of Taiwanese comics. MOC pointed out that, since 2015, MOC and France have selected two Taiwanese comic artists as artists-in-residence of the Maison des Auteurs in the French city of Angouleme. Later in 2018, the Ministry formed a partnership with bd BOUM residency program in France. So far, a total of 16 Taiwanese comic artists have been selected for the two France-based programs.
Tseng, who earned his bachelor's degree in fine arts from the National Taiwan Normal University, started comics creation in 2012. Tseng explores the inner self, portrays feelings, and expresses life experiences with different themes, spanning dreams, theater, and mirror images in his illustrations. He has published works including "The Park (公園)" and "Monsoon Vol. 3: The Runaway (熱帶季風3－異鄉人)," among others.
Tseng's "Nightmare Garden Creation (惡夢花園創作計畫)" project, which will develop a story based on similarities between the contemporary history of Spain and Taiwan, is selected by the Spanish artist-in-residence program. Tseng will create a comic strip that is not limited to specific historical facts, but provokes thinking and creates a possibility of different observations. He will reside in Madrid, the capital of Spain, from September through October.
The residency program invites cartoonists from across the globe to create artworks and exchange ideas with local artists. Artists will attend comic-related events hosted by Heroes Comic Con Madrid, Spain’s largest entertainment festival that brings together cartoonists, editors, publishers, and actors.
Hablar en Arte is an independent platform for projects that works to support the creation, publicizing dissemination and promotion of contemporary culture.