The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in the central city of Taichung organized an event Nov. 17 to publicize its first international-artist-in-residence program, highlighting ambition to integrate Taiwan into a global art network.
The Villa Formose is a project under the auspices of the French Office in Taipei which takes place in multiple locations throughout Taiwan. To facilitate exchange and deepen research on its collections, the NTMOFA collaborated with the FOT and Taichung City-based National Chung Hsin University to facilitate a residency by Amsterdam-based embroiderer Aurélien Lepetit.
During his residence from October 2023 to November 2024, Lepetit visited local bodies including the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute in the central county of Nantou and the TSMC Museum of Innovation in the northern city of Hsinchu. The artist gained insight into Taiwan’s textile art and other media which acted as a catalyst to his work.
During the Nov. 17 seminar, Lepetit presented research on the NTMOFA’s collections and introduced his own pieces. His work explores feminism and LGBTQ culture.
Speaking at the event, NTMOFA Director Chen Kuang-yi noted that this marked the Taichung museum’s first artist-in-residence project, adding that next year the project with French Office would be continued and that international artists, academics, curators and critics would also be selected for research on Taiwan art history.
Chen concluded by saying that further enhancing research on Taiwan’s art history required the participation of international researchers and practitioners. (POC-E)
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