The North American Gallery kicks off a year-long 30th anniversary celebration

Written/Compiled and Reported by MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel Life Network, Chen Guanxin

 

To celebrate the upcoming 30th anniversary of the North American Gallery, events will begin with its 29th anniversary, starting December 23. Over the course of a year, various special activities are planned, including expanded audience participation, a 30th-anniversary premium commemorative ticket set, the Zheng Shanhui 12 Zodiac Print Joint Exhibition, as well as diverse exhibition themes showcasing the diversity and retrospectives of Taiwanese contemporary art, thematic exhibitions on collection restoration, internationally curated contemporary art, and several publishing projects themed around 30 years of retrospection. The aim is to reconnect audiences with the museum through a rich and fulfilling year of activities that enhance shared life experiences.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum officially opened on December 25, 1983. In 2013, it will celebrate its 30th anniversary, with a series of special events beginning at its 29th anniversary on December 23, 2012. First, from its opening in 1983 to the end of November 2012, the museum has welcomed a cumulative total of 16,847,987 visitors. Therefore, the museum’s special plans for its 30th anniversary revolve around the theme of "people." As part of the expanded audience participation, an image-based search activity titled “1 in 16,847,987+ The Museum Is Looking for You” will run for one year starting December 23. Using images as a tool, old photos and digital archives stored in the museum will be uploaded in batches to a dedicated event website, providing a platform for visitors to search for their personal memories at the museum and claim commemorative photos.

 

For the commemorative premium ticket set, the North American Gallery will issue a limited-edition set with both ticket functionality and collectible value to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Three different designs are planned, to be launched sequentially in December 2012, June 2013, and December 2013. The first edition includes six valuable tickets, starting with a construction photo taken before the museum opened in 1983. The images selected mainly feature artists using the museum’s interior and exterior spaces as canvases for artistic creation. The first set will go on sale at 9:30 a.m. on December 25, 2012.

Since 2002, the North American Gallery has invited renowned ink painter and first recipient of the National Arts Award in the fine arts category, Zheng Shanhui, to create unique zodiac prints for the museum each year. From the first “Year of the Horse” print to each subsequent year’s highly anticipated piece, 2013 marks the 12th year Zheng Shanhui has created zodiac prints. The museum will unveil the “Year of the Snake” print together with Zheng and present a complete exhibition of his 12-year zodiac print series in the “12 Zodiacs Are Here” Print Joint Exhibition. The event will be held in the museum lobby from February 5 to February 24, 2013.

 

Other exhibitions will include themes such as showcases of premium collections, diverse aspects and retrospectives of contemporary art, international exchanges, and displays. Content will cover the “Hidden Truths—Collection Restoration Exhibition,” opening on February 2, 2013, which marks the museum’s first display of significant restoration achievements over the years for oil paintings, mineral paintings, and paper works. Also scheduled is the 30th-anniversary retrospective exhibition “Before & After” on June 8, 2013 (tentative), which will review the key developmental period from the first half of the 1980s to the 1990s, focusing on the major shifts in political, economic, and social environments, especially the development of contemporary art, through the lens of the museum’s 30-year history. The “Sounding Light—Cross-Disciplinary Light and Sound Installation Exhibition,” planned for September 28, 2013, on the first-floor exhibition space, is considered a highlight of the museum’s international programming for the end of 2013. This project is a collaboration between the museum and France’s GRAME (Groupe de Recherches Musicales de l’Université Lyon) in 2013, curated for Taiwanese audiences by one of GRAME’s founders, James Giroudon, and will feature multimedia audiovisual works by 16 international artists. By intertwining soundscapes and visual lines, the exhibition invites visitors to traverse the vast spaces of the museum.

 

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