PAST

The Taishin Arts Award founded in 2002 has adapted its current selecting process since 2013 not to award according to different categories but eliminating the boundary between arts. The new judging process has opened up more possibilities between arts and inter-disciplinary dialogues. After three years of ongoing, more discussions of the meaning of art and creative works have been raised during the deliberation. The brought and diverse engagements of contemporary art in Taiwan hence strive for constant perceptiveness. Over the past three years, the Museum of National Taipei University of Education (MoNTUE) have delicately created new ways to interpret the awarded works by utilizing the unique architecture layouts. Priorly unrelated works then through the setup of time and space have formed many ingenious dialogues. The audience obtains further independence to their own understanding. More possibilities therefore are born through the strucuting of the exhibition. The 14th Taishin Arts Awards Exhibition serves as a great example. The series created by Lee Mingwei is only separated by a wall to a new interpretation of almost-centennial Eugene O’Neill dramatic spirit by Body Phase Studio. The high ceiling of the second floor showcases a broad but subtle interchange of interchanging ideas between people mimicking a fluid texture; however, with barely sensible referencing, Body Phase Studio manages to remind us of the suffering that all mortal must endure. The third floor features GuoGuang Opera Company and Chu-Yin Culture and Arts Troupe two performing art pieces that couldn’t have been more different in their artistic origins: GuoGuang Opera Company’s Peking Opera, and Chu-Yin Culture and Arts Troupe’s Malan Amis tunes. Although with different ways of singing, the humanly stories with kind acceptance of history and the depth of souls are enclosed in their chants. On the basement floor, Hsu Che-Yu’s work is situated by itself. Through a still and unadorned perspective, it sympathizes the ever-changing and fragile lives of all. In addition to the awarded works, the exhibition also includes nine works that made into the final. From nominating committee, selecting process, the finals, to the winners of Taishin Arts Awards, the humanistic concerns of artists have embraced: history and land, life and humanity, politics and identities, group and individual. All together, they were weaved into a heterogeneous but abundant expression of arts. The outstanding works do not only change how we see, but also witness how arts generate a kaleidoscopic spectrum. Any award has it's own criteria of selection, but art should not be restrained by the process, nor only defined by the winning; Taishin Arts Awards Exhibition encouraged many cross-referencing but self-sustained association between people and people, people and works, work and work. The three-year-time participation of MoNTUE clearly marks the trends of contemporary cross-disciplinary arts in Taiwan; the exhibition also witness the fruitful results of the past, and highly-expected growth in the future of MoNTUE and Taishin Arts Award.