11/06/2019
By Amy CHAO
-History-
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA Taipei) was completed and inaugurated in 1921. Originally, the building was “Kensei Shogakko”, or Jian Cheng Elementary School, for educating Japanese children during the Japanese ruled period.
In 1996, the former Taipei City Government building was designated as a Municipal Heritage Site; and based on the policy of reusing historic building, the front of the building was renovated into MOCA, Taipei whereas the two lateral buildings were assigned as the classrooms of Jian Cheng Junior High School.
Since its inauguration in 2001, the museum had been managed and operated by Contemporary Art Foundation, a civil organization founded by entrepreneurs and commissioned by the government for the first seven years.
On January 1, 2008, the BOT contract that lasted seven years ended, and Taipei Cultural Foundation took on the task of managing and operating the museum.
-Environment-
MOCA Taipei is located at Datong District, the center of Taipei City, Taipei Main Station is just two blocks away. It is extremely convenient for visitors to head over by public transportation, such as MRT (Chung Shan Station Exit 6) or bus (216, 217, 218, 220, 224, 247, 260, 287, 310).
MOCA Taipei is a two-story building which possesses 11 exhibition rooms, and there is also a bunch of public artworks near MOCA Taipei, the official website of MOCA Taipei has provided a strolling map for visitors as well.
-Recent Exhibitions-
“Passion and Emptiness: Alvaro Trugeda Solo Exhibition”
Date: 2018/12/29-2019/3/34
Venue: MOCA cube
Admission: free
Artists: Alvaro Trugeda
About:
Trugeda’s solo exhibition, Passion and Emptiness, features multiple paintings and small-scale sculptures, which have embodied the artist’s exploration of his creative inspiration and talent charged by the collision and interaction between sensibility and rationality. However, when such talent becomes contained by rules, it can also become a constraint in artistic creation. Trugeda believes that intuition is essential in making a breakthrough in this situation, and this process of making a breakthrough is similar to meandering in the Greek mythological “labyrinth,” which seems extremely complicated but still has a definite exit. Artworks, from this perspective, are exploration and thinking during the search of the right path as well as the emotional expression and manifestation that integrate sense and sensibility.