The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung said Wednesday that it hopes a pair of new exhibitions showcasing Lithuanian photography and Taiwanese artwork will serve as a catalyst for future cultural exchanges between Taiwan and the Baltic country.
Museum director Liang Yung-fei (梁永斐) said the exhibition and the exhibition inspired by it demonstrate how bilateral cooperation between Taiwan and Lithuania has expanded into the art world for the first time, something he hopes will foster more ties in the field of cultural affairs.
The photographic exhibition, “Unveiling: Searching for Identity in Lithuanian Photography,” which opened on Saturday and runs through July 3, features 87 photographs submitted by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
Photo: Cyprus News Agency
The Taichung Museum said the artworks offer a glimpse into 21 artists spanning several generations in their search for Lithuanian identity, either under Soviet rule or after Lithuania became an independent country in 1990.
She added that these works not only reflect a shift in Lithuanian photography from realism to conceptual expressionism, but also reflect seven decades of social and cultural transformation in the country.
Meanwhile, the art exhibition “Reality Covered: Orientation and Archival Identity in Contemporary Taiwanese Photography” includes portraits and installations of 15 Taiwanese artists who began exploring their cultural identity as social movements flourished after the lifting of martial law in the late 1980s.
The museum said the exhibition, which opened at the same venue on Saturday, aims to “respond” and “replicate” the theme of the Lithuanian photography exhibition from a Taiwanese perspective.
At a press conference on Sunday, Culture Minister Lee Young-tee (李永) said the two events represent a rare international art exchange and represent an important milestone in Taiwan’s art history.
He added that Taiwan and Lithuania are separated by more than eight thousand kilometers, but the two countries have followed a similar path in pursuit of freedom and democracy after decades of oppressive rule by authoritarian regimes.
In a pre-recorded video shown at Sunday’s press conference, Tomas Ivanauskas, an official with the Lithuanian Cultural Attache in China and South Korea, said the Lithuanian exhibition aims to highlight the importance of freedom at a time when Europe has been hit by war. Russia is fighting Ukraine.
He added that he hopes that one day the Taiwan gallery will be able to tour Lithuania and expose Lithuanians to Taiwanese art, an idea the museum said is under discussion.
After completing its show in Taichung, the Lithuanian exhibition will move to the National Center for Photography and Photo in Taipei from September 8 to November 13, and the Taiwan show will follow suit from September 29 to December 4.
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