The National 228 Memorial Museum on Saturday opened an art show featuring the works of a Hungarian-American painter whose creative themes usually revolve around human rights activism.
The “Spectre of Freedom: Art of Resistance” exhibition features the selected works of Steven Balogh and is to run until March 23.
While the artist himself could not make it to Taiwan to personally attend the exhibition’s opening due to an injury, he gave thanks to the 228 Memorial Foundation in a pre-recorded video for organizing his show and also talked about the inspiration behind his works.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan shared a lot with his native Hungary in that its peoples have always strived for national independence and freedom, Balogh said.
The artist is expected to visit Taiwan in February next year to create an installation artwork to memorialize the 228 Incident, following which thousands of people protesting the authoritarian Chinese National Party (KMT) regime in 1947 were killed or arrested.
Balogh was born in 1954 in Hungary when the country was still under the shadow of the Soviet Union, and his first foray into art came when he served in his country’s Air Force at the age of 20.
Balogh was inspired to pursue art after witnessing a gruesome injury suffered by a peer in the air force, Taiwanese American Arts Council CEO Luchia Meihua Lee-Howell (李美華).
He trained under various mentors to create artwork criticizing the Hungarian Communist Party, which put him on the radar of Hungary’s authoritarian government. That led him to seek asylum in a refugee camp in Austria in 1986 and become stateless, she said.
Balogh has been living in New York since he was granted refugee status by the US, she said.
Photos of his performance art back in 1979 in Hungary and works from when he started living in New York would be exhibited at the show in Taiwan, Lee said.
Museum curator Lan Shih-po (藍士博) said one of Balogh’s works in Taiwan is a painting of a Hungarian college student who committed self-immolation, which mirrors the history of Taiwan independence activist Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who also self-immolated in the name of freedom and free speech.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS