(Central News Agency reporter Dai Yazhen, Tokyo, 4th) The large-scale exhibition "Synchronic Star Cluster", which brings together about 200 Taiwanese exhibits, about 500 documents and about 100 Japanese works, held an opening ceremony today at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition focuses on the development of art and culture in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period, spanning the fields of art, literature, film, music, drama and dance, and reorganizing the intertwined and complex cultural relations between Taiwan and Japan a hundred years ago.
"Synchronic Stars" takes the documentary "Japanese Walkers" directed by Alex Huang as its starting point. The film focuses on the "Windmill Poetry Society", a modernist literary group founded in Tainan in the 1930s. It records a group of poets who tried to introduce surrealism to Taiwan during the Japanese rule and wrote in Japanese.
The exhibition space also incorporates images directed by Alex Huang, reflective materials, and a maze-like tour route, making the space itself a medium that connects works, history, and audiences.
"Simultaneous Star Cluster" will be officially open for viewing starting from the 5th and will be on display until December 13. The opening ceremony will attract people from Taiwan and Japan's art and literary circles.
Ninomiya Masaya, Chairman of the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, said in his speech that the "star cluster" in the exhibition title means the gathering of stars, and is also reminiscent of stars that emit unique light, establishing relationships with each other across eras, regions and art types.
He said that the exhibition will focus on characters and their cultural practices that cannot be fully covered by existing narratives or single historical perspectives, and he hopes that the exhibition will connect with each viewer's different perspectives and life experiences to form a new "constellation."
Ninomiya said that holding this exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art will help deepen mutual understanding between Taiwan and Japan, and will also bring about new learning and exchanges, demonstrating the deep cultural connections between Taiwan and Japan.
In his speech, Alex Huang said that this exhibition was first displayed at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in 2019, and then went all the way to Tokyo through the global epidemic. The cooperation between the Taiwanese team and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art team has lasted for nearly three years.
Huang Alex stated that he came into contact with the "Windmill Poetry Society" in Tainan by chance in 2012, and later used this as the theme to shoot "Japanese Strollers". This literary group composed of Taiwanese and Japanese creators opened his imagination to pre-war history.
He said that through the eyes of the members of the poetry club, we can see how Taiwanese creators a hundred years ago were exposed to the wave of modernization and communicated with the world through art. The curatorial team also searched for clues from fragmented documents, extending from the poetry society to different art fields, and rediscovered many unknown artists who worked quietly.
Huang Alex said that fortunately, thanks to continuous research by the academic community over the years, as well as proper preservation by the artist's family and collection institutions, these works and cultural relics were able to cross the ocean and be presented to the Tokyo audience.
As for why the exhibition must come to Tokyo, Huang Ali said that before the war, Taiwan and Japan had jointly experienced profound issues such as the colonial system, the impact of localization of modern civilization, and cultural identity. The historical and political structures also deeply affected the artistic creation at that time.
He said that, however, the memory of this cultural encounter fell into silence after the war due to political pressure and language rupture. Therefore, the exhibition came to Tokyo not to show one-way influence, but to start a "simultaneous dialogue" between Taiwan and Japan.
Huang Alex said: "Only by examining the efforts of our predecessors in difficult times with introspection and empathy, can we return to the profound exploration of the value of art in the contemporary era and truly understand the value of democracy and freedom today." (Editor: Tang Shengyang)
