To facilitate exchanges between Taiwanese artists and the Japanese art community, the Taiwan Cultural Center in Japan has cooperated with major Japanese art media outlet Bijutsu Techo to hold the third online lecture "Guided Readings of Art by Masters."
Taiwanese artist Michael Lin (林明弘), who took part in the “Taiwan NOW” exhibition, held an online conversation with the chief curator of the Mori Art Museum of Japan, Mami Kataoka, sharing core issues faced by contemporary art during the pandemic, such as international exhibitions and exhibition planning.
The Taiwan Cultural Center said that in response to the many restrictions on cross-border movement as well as artistic and cultural exchanges caused by the pandemic, artists find themselves often unable to participate in person and thus must adjust how they work in terms of creation and presentation.
This has opened new opportunities for cross-border performance and artistic practice in the post-pandemic era. For example, through innovative approaches to co-creation and cooperation, along with the combination of virtual and physical exhibition, we can see the soft power of Taiwan’s cultural brand amid challenges and opportunities.
Lin, who participated in Taiwan NOW with his work titled "Untitled Gathering Tokyo 2020," held a conversation with Kataoka discussing important issues such as ties between traditional culture and innovation in the Asian art world, art publicity, and exhibition participation and planning during the pandemic. They also focused on the art environment and industrial trends in Taiwan and Japan in a conversation conducive to in-depth exchanges and value promotion in the field of Asian contemporary art.
In his seminar, Michael Lin introduced his main exhibition experiences of recent years and talked about how most of his works are created for specific spaces and thus have a particular locational uniqueness. Mami Kataoka shared her thoughts and observations on contemporary Asian art's diversity and complexity of themes through the works of Taiwanese artists that were displayed at the Mori Art Museum.
Representative Taiwanese and Japanese artists are invited to the Taiwan NOW series of events, their works will be exhibited in Tokyo, Kaohsiung, and in the cloud space from October to December. These works include visual and performing arts, interdisciplinary art, and performance art.