Major Taiwanese Contemporary Art Exhibition "Before the Storm" Is on View in Budapest

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The title Before the Storm. Taiwan on the Frontier of Past and Future clearly reflects what most fascinates the world about Taiwan today. The thematic metaphor envisions Taiwan as a modern vessel navigating the vast ocean—equipped with the most advanced technology, scientific capability, and information resources, yet constantly buffeted by primal natural forces and storms, repeatedly pushed toward perilous waters (Waters Aktie), and tested for resilience. Through the language of art, the exhibition seeks to guide viewers in contemplating how Taiwan, amid an era of transformation, charts a course toward possible futures through its cultural resilience and creativity. While providing an overview of Taiwan's contemporary art scene, the exhibition also reflects Taiwan's experiences and challenges across the past, present, and future.

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However, in today's highly interconnected world, the waves stirred up by these storms—whether trade conflicts, resource competition, or ideological and military tensions—will inevitably reach every shore. Taiwan's circumstances and its embrace of cherished core values—democracy, freedom, human rights, and cultural diversity—strongly resonate with European society, creating a solid bridge for cultural exchanges.

The selection features the works of twenty internationally recognized artists and collectives who address important topics such as the cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples, the lingering traces of colonization, Taiwan's turbulent and often traumatic history at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the evolution of modern Taiwanese identity and values, and the technology-based economy and society of the present and future. The exhibited works are extremely diverse in terms of genre: in addition to installations, interactive projects, videos, and animations using the most innovative technologies, visitors can also encounter archaic techniques, paper works, paintings, and sculptures.

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The exhibition is organized around the following five themes:

1. The Beautiful Island
   Artists explore Taiwan's Indigenous cultural heritage, presenting the remarkably diverse natural environment spanning over 3,000 meters in elevation from mountain peaks to coastal plains. Through flood myths that resonate with universal human origin narratives, environmental protection and ecological preservation consciousness inherited from ancient hunters, and folk ritual traditions borrowed metaphorically to honor martyrs who sacrificed for Taiwan's struggle for democratic freedom, these works reveal the richness and emotional depth of this island nation's history.
2. Parallel Histories
   These artists ground their works in various periods of colonial history, creating new allegories through overlay, manipulation, fictionalization, folding, and allowing them to proliferate. Drawing on familiar memories or traumas, they construct more profound and expansive narratives that offer audiences yet another layer of critical reflection.
3. Turbulent Histories and Traumas
   These works focus on Taiwan's turbulent history and social upheavals from the 19th to 20th centuries. Whether through epic-scale narratives or spotlights of brutal directness, they explore how the past influences both individual and collective memory, while emphasizing the pain and struggles that should never be forgotten.
4. The New Taiwanese Identity
   Through distinct approaches and methodologies, these works examine the interplay between contemporary Taiwanese social values and cultural practices, the development of modern democracy and Indigenous identity, and the rise of contemporary cultural values.
5. Taiwan Today and Tomorrow
   In this age of rapid compression of both time and space—especially on this island nation where semiconductor manufacturing leads as the global technology engine—these artists, whether through bodily performance practices or AI and digital computation, focus their attention on interpersonal interactions and emotional relationships, and on the artistic reflections and social imaginaries provoked by the rapid advance of modernization, economic development, and emerging technologies.

Dates: 15. November, 2025 - 29. March, 2026

Venue: Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest

Curators

Krisztina Szipőcs, HU Yung-Fen

Artists

CHANG En-man, CHANG Li-Ren, ChihChung CHANG, CHEN Ching-Yuan, CHEN Chun-Yu, CHENG Hsien-Yu, HSU Chia-Wei, HUANG Tzu-Ming, LEE Mingwei, LI Yi-Fan, LIU Yu, LO Yi-Chun, Simple Noodle Art (CHEN Zi-Yin, CHUANG Hsiang-Feng), SO Yo-Hen, Hong-Kai WANG, YANG Mao-Lin, Your Bros. Filmmaking Group (SO Yo-Hen, TIEN Zong-Yuan, LIAO Hsiu-Hui), YUAN Goang-Ming, Yuma·Taru, ZHANG XU Zhan

Organizer: Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Website https://mocatpe.tw/ca04dJFry
Co-organizer: MoCA TAIPEI
Website https://mocatpe.tw/ca04PuiMn

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