Upon entering the doorway, visitors are warmly welcomed as if guests to a friend’s home. “Welcome to Jhongshan Liu’s house!”. Upon hearing this heartwarming greeting, exhibition visitors will naturally feel more relaxed, as if visiting someone’s home. The can rest comfortably on the black leather sofa appreciating The Innocents by Bill Viola, or lying in bed looking at the photography series by Tsui Kuang Yu, or even sitting in front of the desk above which hangs Chen Jianrong’s work while appreciating the view from the French windows.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Taiwan Fine Art Museum, an experimental project of TFAM’s collection has been carried out for the first time. Three curators are invited to re-interpret the museum’s collection from their own personal perspective so as to bring the audience a complete different angle of appreciation. Me at Liu’s Home takes place in room 206 in the museum. There,curator ChinYachun creates for the viewer an illusion that they have entered a space which does not belong to an exhibiting venue. It seems both compatible and incompatible to the theme. Chin requested Liu Ronglu design this “house” in the museum where they arranged the collections purely according to their own aesthetic sense. As a result, it is not simply an exhibition in the house built within the museum, but is also a piece of artwork itself. There are three levels of curative implementation: Chin acting as part of the home. Working under this structure, curators should put equal effort in the “rearrangement” in order to “remake”. This exhibition venues act as a space of simulation where public becomes private, or as the intersecting point of both. On the other hand, the tasks of finding a new way to showcase the collections and establishing a conversation with the modern era seem to be made possible because of all the effort committed by contemporary curators.
“In view of the dynamics between human and our housed, and the opposing force between our houses and the universe, we are far from any pure gwometrical referential framework” – Gaston Bachelard
Jhongshan District is a house located in the art museum. Because of that, all the exhibits point to a certain artistic image, and so the museum has taken a more private direction. In his book The Poetic of the Space, Gaston Bachelard mentioned pure phenomenology, which can be applied to explain the relationship between space and image. According to his theory, one does not have to wait for his own imagination to become real. They can simply direct his attention to the mind that generates imagination. The most preliminary stage of all artworks is pure imagination. To create is to disclose the secret in our heart through artwork which is a form of expression. When the artwork is displayed, its function goes on to communicate with thee world outside. An immense sense of privacy turns to openness. Jhongshan District and all its exhibits are from the private section whereas TFAM represents the world. The exhibition attempts to overlap these two worlds, switching the works and viewer’s experience from open back to private. However, since this virtual home is placed in a public art museum which is wide open to the public, the balance between privacy and openness is well maintained, not clinging to either side.
Everything inside the house is composed of the collection items of TFAM. Artists are the builders. Curators are the designers who draw and write about this house. To describe the appearance of all these roles, Simon Sheikh quotes the words by the artist Julie Ault: an exhibition is a venue for social activities where various vectors intersect to produce writings for exhibition and to generate extensive values, even to make up imaginary history. Therefore, the exhibition tries to remove any limitation of the white cube from the house. By using wisely the huge French window in room 206, inner and outer space are integrated. The earlist usage of room 206 was for exhibiting permanent collections. However, as there is no clear strategies for permanent collection, the room is not fully utilized. Fortunately this exhibition has deployed the room to its best advantage, including its spaciousness and relative dynamics, showcasing the room’s greater displaying capacity.
The venue is a significant component for a successful contemporary exhibition. The exhibition’s theme, works and the way to display greatly affect the interpretation of viewers. The spatial narrative applied in Me at Liu’s Home has changed the viewer’s experience from static to dynamic, which suggests that viewers are no longer the passive objects entering the venueto receive information. Instead, they have become a part of the exhibition. Curators therefore need to consider which way of interpretation the spatial narrative would lead the audience to. The artwork can be readily readable, or take time for the viewers to digest and absorb. Yet there is a third way for the visitors of Liu’s house to read the home, and that is to response differently under a pre-designed within two overlapping worlds, the visitors are not restricted by the guilding tour, or any explanatory notes. Instead they can simply have a first-person experience and interaction with the house.
While planning for this project, Chin was most concerned about both the visible and the invisible. The above mentioned works, space, viewers and events are something visible; whereas the involvement of people and the the joined effort by curators, artists and organisers, is invisible. “I hope that my exhibition can have influence on every single person who is involved.” she states. Jhongsshan Distirct is the project that Chin invites Liu to work on. Liu is in charge of picking the furniture, decorations and other spatial arrangement. After making up his mind, he will discuss with Chin regarding other aspects such as the visual impact, ranking of the collection, content of the displayed work etc. The whole on-the-spot production, focus of which is placed on the venue, is indeed a challenge to the artist, who is in this case also the home designer and builder, because they need to make sure that the collections do not appear to be merely decorations. Working with the artists and organisers, curators have to figure out their role and function in order to produce the best result, which means both the house and the collection are equally brilliant and thought-provoking.
The curator needs to give attention to both aspects of “reappearing” and “remaking” in this experimental project carried out by TFAM. In this way, the core responsibility of TFAM is not lost while curative effort is still maintained. The main function of traditional exhibition is to showcase the character of the museum and to hold a conversation with modern time so that the collection and its essence can reappear. However, Lu Pei-yi points out that contemporary art exhibition should have focused more on the aspect of “time” at “soul-level” where the traditional way of thinking that art experiment to integrate the past and the present in order to create the future. Only this way can the exhibition become real, instead of a skill subject, the execution of which is capable of changing certain status and exploring more possibilities.
In a “social venue” that is packed with people and meanings, curators should be more aware of the relation between art and society which is referred to as “the invisible” before. Nearly all art museums face the same important issue-collection question, that is no longer simply collection. At the moment it seems difficult to foresee the future direction in the long run. Yet this trial project by TFAM has no doubt shed some new light on how to display museum collection. It addresses, perhaps indirectly, the issue through overlapping the public and private aspects of “home”, and demonstrates the cooperating relationships among various parties behind the scene. Curators no longer opt to build the future based on the past. Instead they put the past in here and now to give room for all future possibilities.
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