Some art works are worthy of collection because they gather the wisdom and toil of the creative process; some art works are worthy of being passed down through the ages because they radiate the energy and brilliance that can inspire later generations. 

Collecting Taiwan art is one of Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts’ key missions, and we would never forget our duty to let art shine and radiate energy. 

For 20 years, we have served as the faithful guardian of these gleaming cultural assets that have been revealed by the passage of time, and we have actively and enthusiastically responded to the vast changes sweeping the information world from the late 20th century until the present. However, although today’s all-pervasive communication technology may enable people to experience art with negligible effort, the torrents of fragmentary information circulating online may perhaps drive away true art treasures. 

As the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts’ 20th anniversary approaches, the museum has been planning an invitational creation & exhibition project based on the museum’s collection pieces and involving interdisciplinary interchange— “Marvelous Encounters in the Collection: On Wings of Music and Poetry.” This has caused us to ponder how to get people to contact the purity of original works of art in an intuitive way, then extend their senses and imagination from this point of origin, and explore the creative essence of literature and music. We want people, further transcending traditional conceptual constraints and expand their field of vision, to appreciate various groundbreaking expressive short films which break through the conventional boundaries between different realms to interpret works of art, and, in a playful mood, to experience the interactive visual state of “dancing with art” thanks to the gifts of modern technology. Imperceptibly, visitors will soar on wings of music and poetry in the heavens of art, and have an extraordinary encounter in the collection that they will never forget. 

Collection x Contemporary Poetry
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts selected 39 original works of art representing the artistic media and forms of different periods, and invited 20 poets, who actively publish their work in Taiwanese- or Chinese-language publications, to appreciate the original works on the basis of their solid literary qualifications and express their thoughts in refined writing, and then 40 exquisite contemporary poems were completed. 

Collection x Contemporary poetry x Musical Creativity
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts invited three composers via a professional music production organization to gather inspiration from the foregoing original works of art and contemporary poetry, transform concrete visual art into abstract musical art, and compose eight powerful and moving musical compositions, including five chiefly instrumental pieces and three works of vocal music based on poetry. Musicians were invited to sing and perform in a recording studio, where they produced the first compilation of music presented by the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. 

Collection x Contemporary Poetry x Music x Documentary Films
When reciting his or her own poetry, a poet can best express the works’ tones and nuances. In order to give audiences this sense of immediacy, we invited Huang Ming-chuan, who has gained an outstanding reputation as a director of documentary films on art and literature, to personally film documentaries with the collection storeroom as a studio. The 20 poets were invited to enter the studio to engage in a dialogue with works of art via their body language and the sound of their voice as they recited their poems written for the works. Thanks to Huang’s great experience in directing films with innovative formats, the 40 poetry recitations became 40 “single-poem dramas” featuring reciting and action, which then were edited into 40 uniquely expressive documentary films. 

Collection x Contemporary Poetry x Music x Interactive Audiovisual Media
How to apply new technology and multimedia to art has consistently been an important issue in contemporary art. A wish to impart even more appeal and playfulness to art, and ensure that it meets today’s tendency to combine fun with education, induced us to team up with the Creative Media Center, Kun Shan University in applying interactive audiovisual methods employing digital technology to create a new medium of art appreciation fusing art, contemporary poetry, and music. 

In-tune art appreciation
The creations of poetry, music, films, and interactive multimedia accumulated during the past three years now are presented together with our collection pieces in this exhibition in a way that enhances synergy. In addition, we also asked several prominent photographers, who have worked extensively with Taiwanese artists, to participate in this exhibition. Over 60 of their portrait photographs of artists whose works are in this exhibition have been selected and displayed in a special area, where they portray the artists’ rapt concentration as they capture their inspiration, and express the artists’ self-confident satisfaction after having completed a masterful work. Thanks to the photographers’ insightful observations and skilled shutters, these respected artists reveal their charming side in front of the lens, leaving unforgettable and even more intriguing impressions. 

We hereby invite all art lovers to come personally to experience this “in-tune” approach to art appreciation: become in-tune with the artists’ creative spectra, with your own many senses, with other persons’ varied insights, and with interdisciplinary frequencies at many levels.

Impressions ╳ Responses ╳ Interpretations ╳ Comprehension ╳ Creation
“Let us strive for, conceive and create the new building of the future that will unite every discipline, architecture and sculpture and painting……” The impassioned Bauhaus Manifesto is still ringing in our ears even after nearly a century. Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts’ current interdisciplinary art project celebrating its 20th anniversary uses works from its collection to concretely express the complex formative effect of “inspiration” through the stages of impressions, responses, interpretations, comprehension and creation, as well as to activate the multilayered reactions of art between creativity and appreciation, which is also a profound and moving self-expectation. 

*image (left)
© Kaoshiung Museum of Fine Arts