TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Ministry of Culture-sponsored art exchange program co-curated by Ukrainian non-government organization Open Place and Taiwanese artist Chen Nien-ting (陳念庭), entitled “Unstable Condition: Greeting From A Stranger,” opened online on Monday (April 25.)
According to organizers, planning for the project began early last year, and the exhibition and related events were meant to be held at physical locations, including the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Artsvit Gallery in Dnipro. However, due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the physical exhibition had to be postponed and a virtual one has been launched in its place.
The exhibition features 11 groups of artists from Ukraine and Taiwan who present their political attitudes and observations about society through visual works, re-examining changes in their country’s status in the post-Cold War era. Featured Ukrainian artists include A. Rachinskiy and D. Revkovskiy, Mykyta Lyskov, Oleksiy Radynski, Pavlo Kovach, and Yevgen Nikiforov, while the Taiwanese artists include Ting Chaong-wen (丁昶文), Lin Che-chi (林哲志), Sun Chih-hsing (孫知行), Tseng Han-sheng (曾涵生), Chang Li-ren (張立人), and Shake (雪克).
The theme of the project, "Unstable Condition," implies that such conditions are created not only for Ukrainians but for all. The collaboration also draws on the experiences of Ukraine and Taiwan as countries that neighbor authoritarian regimes and maintain passive, delicate security relationships with other world powers.
“The current pandemic and war reveal the future we once envisioned is now re-orienting,” wrote the organizers. They added that human civilization is being hindered by political and ideological constraints and failing to break through self-imposed walls at a time when people should be uniting to overcome difficulties as a collective community.
The virtual platform was developed in collaboration with Xctuality, a multimedia tech team from Singapore, and is accessible to viewers around the world. In addition to the artworks by Ukrainians and Taiwanese, there is a space for artistic entities and visitors from elsewhere to respond to what is happening in Ukraine. Visitors can also make a direct donation to support the suffering country.
The online exhibition is available at unstable-condition.xctuality.