“Experimental Curation from TFAM's Collection” is a policy that was initiated by the museum’s former director, Huang Hai Ming, which I fully support and intend to employ a wider range of approaches to nail down or penetrate through the museum collection system. No matter with innovative methods to spark commotions or to deconstruct and reconstruct through meta-perspectives, the objective is to break down audience's existing memories and concepts (or notions)—not only to elaborate the value of art, but also reinvestigate social values in a more vigorous manner. The curatorial focus, issues, and artworks selected for The Secret South: From Cold War Perspective to Global South in Museum Collection cleverly respond to the objective of this policy. With the resemblance and juxtaposition of interinstitutional, interdisciplinary, and interregional objects and literature, also the reintroduction of material civilization and the cultural objects provided by a museum of anthropology, the narrative is not only carried out through an anti-authoritarian gesture but reorganized and made available to be seen through a broader perspective. Penetrating through or surpassing certain colossal or minute historical occurrences, the history behind institutional collection is cross-examined, allowing the artworks to serve as the aesthetic evidence and also the perceptual mediators where time-relevant messages are transmitted. Throughout this task, the key figure behind is the exhibition design; the curator and designer, Takamori Nobuoand Lin Chih Feng, together with myself, have jointly devised the exhibition context, which is designed to untie the aesthetic against a “white box” backdrop. The intention is to re-contextualize how history is experienced and seen. The same mechanism for interaction is also applied to the exhibition catalogue, which is designed in collaboration with designer Lin Guan Ming. Finally, we hope to provide a way to imagine and to listen for the sounds that we think we've heard before but perhaps never listened to.
《Curatorial Discourse on the South Project of TFAM: Imagination of “the South” in the Treasure Trove 》Ping Lin, Director and Chief Curator
Contents
Curatorial Discourse on the South Project of TFAM: Imagination of “the South” in the Treasure Trove / Ping Lin
The Hidden Collection from the Secret South / Takamori Nobuo
01. Return to the South: Taiwan at a Crossroads and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, 1940s – 1960s
02. Across the Strait: Taiwanese–Filipinos Art Exchange, and Cambodia, 1960s – 1980s
└ Archive A. Taiwanese-Filipinos / Taiwanese-Thais Art Exchange Archive, 1959 – 1994
03. The Secret Frontiers: The Cold War and the Lost Army, 1960s – 1980s
└ Archive B. Chronicle of Art Exchange Between Taiwan and Global South
04. Friends from an Equatorial Island: Taiwanese–Singaporean Art Exchange, 1980s – 1990s
└ Archive C. Taiwanese-Singaporean Post-War Art Exchange: Archive from Singapore Art Archive Project
05. New World: Taiwanese–Latin American Art Exchange at the TFAM, 1980s – 2000s
└ Archive D. Latin American Contemporary Art Exhibition Archive of TFAM, 1985 – 2008
Project A. I-DEN-TI-TY
Project B. Chinese Pagoda (Domaine Agro - Industriel Présidentiel de la N'Sele)
Project C. Kris Project+: Polaris, Southern Stars and the Darken Bats
06. Local as the South: Local Imaginings in Contemporary Art, 1990s – Today
└ Archive E. To Dear Neighbors: Taiwan-Global South Contemporary Art Exchange Archives After 2010
└ Archive F. Nusantara Archive
Appendix: List of Exhibited Documents