Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

As computer technologies and Internet are rapidly advancing, not only our daily life has stepped into an era of digital application, a trend of hi-tech media and digital art has become prevailing since 1980. Facing this so-called “third wave revolution” of our civilization, an irresistible new wave, many Taiwanese contemporary artists, especially the new generation, have begun to explore new means amongst traditional media, such as that of the brushes, paper, canvases and paint. They submerge themselves in creative works of the new media art, employing computer programs, mouses and screens, and electro-kinetic devices as media. Meanwhile, the utilization of the digital images, video installations, screen projections, virtual spaces and platforms on the Internet, and the mechanism of hyper links has brought about new models for art exhibitions as well as the investigation into various possibilities of artistic creation and publicization. “Crush on EMU” is co-curated by curators, Huang Chien-Hung and Chang Ching-Wen. While the title, EMU, uses the initials ofElectronic-Mobile-Ubiquitous to point out the change and formation of the three stages of the digital era, it also simultaneously corresponds to the French term, ému (as in “Je suis ému”), as an epitome of modern people’s reliance on the humanitarian environment and vision of the new digital technology. This exhibition includes 25 groups/28 contemporary Taiwanese artists, and they can be roughly divided into two types: (1) artists who specialize in digital media art, including Wang Jun-Jieh, Yuan Goang-Ming, Wu Chi-Tsung, Lin Guan-Ming, Wang Fujui, Tseng Yu-Chin, Yao Chung-Han, LuxuryLogico, Wu Chi-Yu, Chen Ching-Yuan, Yu Cheng-Ta, Hsieh Mu-Chi, Kuo I-Chen, Chang Ming-Yao, Li Cheng-Liang, Huang Po-Chih; and (2) artists who make use of non-digital media, including Chen Chun-Hao, Chen Shiau-Peng, Wang Sean, Tzeng Yong-Ning, Hsi Shih-Pin, Chou Tai-Chun, Tsai Home, Liao Chien-Chung, Huang Pei-Ying, whose works reflect the values and thinking, contemplations on trends, references of techniques or transformation of aesthetics of the digital era. The curatorial logic and the placement of the artworks in this exhibition indicate an attempt to incorporate and convert the exhibition rooms and hallways into a corridor of time to stimulate trends reading as well art experience. The planning of the space and traffic flow intentionally juxtaposes characteristic artworks of digital art of the recent decade in Taiwan and the correlating, exemplifying art works created by artists outside the digital art circle. In this exhibition, viewers can conduct an on-site, intensive, multi-perspective reading of the embedded dialogues and subtle tensions between various parties ranging from the walled-in academia to the diverse and competitive art circle, and therefore, perceive and imagine a “consequent and continuous” surging relationship therein.