The theme of the Hsinchu City Art Gallery’s new exhibition is that all humans — regardless of ethnicity, skin color or nationality — belong to the same community, with the hope that the displays would enrich people’s experience in a post-COVID-19 era.
“You Are Me: Mapping New Geographies,” which opened on Thursday and runs until Sept. 20, was curated by Annie Ivanova, one of Australia’s leading authorities on cultural diplomacy.
Due to COVID-19, Germany-based artists Achim Mohne and Uta Kopp, two of the artists featured in the exhibition, contributed their works via videoconferencing, the museum said.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
Known for making art on the rooftops of famous landmarks and cultural institutions around the world, but especially in Germany and Switzerland, Mohne and Kopp used remote technology to write “Animal Farm” on the rooftop of the Hsinchu Zoo, in their effort to convey the concept that all beings on the planet should respect each other and cohabit in harmony, it said.
Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass, whose father is Afro-Brazilian and mother is of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian descent, contributed 80 portraits of strangers of various skin tones that she met in 17 nations, it said.
The museum quoted Dass as saying that although her family members are all ethnically African, the tone of their skin color varies, inspiring her to capture people of different skin tones and to use her photographs to remove stigma surrounding certain skin colors.
Empty spaces have been left among the portraits hung along the exhibition wall so that viewers can stand in the spaces and take a selfie with the portraits, the museum added.
Other participating artists include Tseng Yu-chuan (曾鈺涓), Liao Chi-yu (廖祈羽), Lin Hao-chiang (林豪鏘) and Liu Chih-hung (劉致宏), it said.
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