Taiwanese artist Tu Wei-cheng (涂維政), who is best known for creating "lost civilizations" to provide a parallel perspective on the real world, will hold a yearlong solo exhibition at the national Dutch museum Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam from Oct. 16, 2019 through October 2020.
Tu is an unconventional artist in Taiwan's contemporary art scene whose works span sculptures, visual arts, photographs, and large installations. His works often contain elements of inception that question and explore relations between traditionalism and modernism, authenticity and duplicity, as well as art and commercialism.
"The Future of Now: Bu Num Civilization in the Rijksmuseum" is based on Tu's ongoing "Bu Num Civilization Site (卜湳文明遺跡)" project from 2000, in which he creates faux excavation sites and a series of fictitious cultural relics based on modern items such as the remote control, mouse, and computer mainboard to reflect his observations on the latest developments in the real world.
The ever-expanding project over the course of nearly two decades is a reflection of Tu's creativity and his intentions to reinterpret the concepts of time and space while questioning the meaning of human civilization by making each faux excavation site a caricature of modern culture.
Through a four-piece selection, "The Future of Now: Bu Num Civilization in the Rijksmuseum" attempts to construct new holy icons and a fresh mythological hierarchy by presenting contemporary information technology and consumer culture as legend.
Thanks to exhibition curator Wang Ching-ling (王靜靈), Tu's artworks will be accompanied by special displays from the Rijksmuseum collection to present a time-conscious dialogue between the old and the contemporary. The year-long duration of the exhibition was also made possible by negotiations carried out by Wang, who curates Asian art for the Dutch museum.
‘The Future of Now: Bu Num Civilization in the Rijksmuseum’
Date: Oct. 16, 2019 – October 2019
Venue: Rijksmuseum
Address: Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands
Site: www.rijksmuseum.nl