The theme of the ICOM Kyoto 2019 General Conference is Museums as Cultural Hubs: The Future of Tradition. In response, the Taiwan Pavilion includes two themed exhibitions: Taiwan: A Living Museum and Reinterpreting Tradition: National Palace Museum New Media Art Exhibition. The exhibitions spotlight the various social roles played by museums in Taiwan, while also demonstrating the spirit and significance of Taiwan’s diverse natural environment and cultural development.
The main exhibition hall, Taiwan: A Living Museum, combines elements from various Taiwan's museums and presents their work over recent years, displaying proposals and practical results on four of the major issues of our time: environmental sustainability, human rights and justice, social inclusion and cultural equity, and social and public participation. This exhibition of Taiwanese knowledge and culture echoes with changes currently taking place around the world and shows the substantial contribution of museums to social development in Taiwan. At the same time, it reflects the significance of the museum in a time when Taiwanese society is moving towards multicultural development to achieve a more diverse and inclusive world.
The National Palace Museum Pavilion hosts the Reinterpreting Tradition: National Palace Museum New Media Art Exhibition, which showcases achievements attained by the museum in recent years, using digital technology to present art in a new light. By transforming the traditional cultural heritage embodied in ancient artifacts, the museum is opening up an inter-disciplinary dialogue between these artifacts and contemporary craft, music, dance, technology, environment, and ecology. The result is innovative museum practices built upon a foundation of traditional culture but still relevant to the present.
The exhibition design of Reinterpreting Tradition takes inspiration from a curio box originally in the Qing imperial collection, using many hidden chests and drawers to lead visitors on an exploratory adventure. Digital technology creates a live visual feast: while seeing the artifacts themselves has an immediacy, their digital interpretation unlocks the imagination and brings forth a National Palace Museum for the present and the future.
