Preface
The book, Public Art in Taiwan Annual 2017, is a compilation of all of Taiwan's public art projects in 2017. The data on the percentage of public artwork budget and resource allocation produced should not merely be regarded as a single-year image presentation. Rather, with yearly data accumulated over the past two decades, it is time to apply the concept of database to these big data.
Taiwan’s public art projects received a budget of NTD$ 680 million ($681,987,095) in 2017, slightly more than the previous year. A total of 474 artworks in 100 cases have already been filed for reference. The majority of them are the traditional two- and three- dimensional works created by individuals. The two extreme statistics are the 250 pieces in the painting category and the single piece in the architecture. It’s worth exploring the meaning of these highest and lowest data points. Facing the change in the engagement of public art projects, what is important is no longer the creation of artworks and the production of physical objects. Instead, it is the network of relationships built in the name of public art; it is the public life improvement, environmental landscapes integration, local knowledge preservation and collective memory. What if every piece of public art is an art gallery rooted in a community?
Ethical Dialogue between Public Art and Architecture
Year 2017 saw the addition of one more architecture piece designated as public art. The “Lanyang Museum” became the first case completed the process of filing for reference[2] since the public art policy was implemented in Taiwan. According to the “Regulations Governing the Installation of Public Artwork,”[3] the museum was thus exempted from carrying out a public art project and could set aside one percent of the public art budget to be used for relevant education promotion activities. The Regulations was revised in 2008 and a mechanism of “Art Laurel” honor and “cash award” was designed. In order to “encourage architects to raise their standards toward ‘art’ in their architectural designs, the upgrading of public works was promoted (Ya-ching Chou, 2009).” Not only will the architects who are reviewed have a chance to garner the social reputation of “Art Laurel” for their buildings, but they can also receive “more than 20% of public art budget as cash award for the design of engineering technology service,”[4] with the condition of not exceeding the upper limit of NTD$ 5 million. Furthermore, the institutions can avoid the trouble of going through the processes mandated by the “Regulations Governing the Installation of Public Artwork” such as forming an execution team, review and procurement. Ten years later, an actual case of regarding a building as a piece of public art appeared, followed by raging attacks. The fact that the percentage of a building’s public artwork budget is exempted once the building is deemed public art can accelerate the deterioration of resource disparity between artists and architects (ARTouch Editorial Department, 2018). There are also questions about whether the public art review mechanism has appropriate processes and methods to examine the “artistry” of an architecture (Ray S. C. Chu, 2012). Regardless, the regulations which are meant to advocate for public art but bestow “public artwork budget exemption” as an award defy comprehension whether from the perspectives of administrative or legislative technology, architecture or fine art, community or the general public. Perhaps by returning to the scale of people and pondering the “publicness,” “environmental integration” and “public participation” in an “ethical” way, as well as asking questions such as “Whom is the art for? Why is the art? Whom is the architecture for? Why is the architecture?” can inspire a balance.
Enlightenment of Socially Engaged Art
The “Museum Meeting Library” project, hosted by Kaohsiung City Government’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs, is the main reason for the large number of two-dimensional works in the Public Art in Taiwan Annual 2017. The works were solicited and selected through the collection review mechanism at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts to ensure that “the artists were either born or were active in Kaohsiung and the selected works were placed in the branches of the Kaohsiung Public Library.... On the one hand, the quality of the works selected was safeguarded; on the other hand, the universality and accessibility of art, connected to local context, was also considered.”[5]
The highlight of this project is not about changing the styles when creating art pieces, but is about combining the capacities of professional institutions and actively using legal tools to initiate cultural activities participated by the local people. “Training storytelling volunteers in the Children's Museum of Art so that they can explain artworks to children in a story-telling manner.”[6] The collaboration of institutions to jointly create a multi-looped and sustainable “public participation” mechanism is something most public art projects look forward to.
The arts participation pattern we are accustomed to is mainly the viewing of artwork which, of course, is done after the work is completed. It is no wonder most of the public art participation approaches “proposed” by the Ministry of Culture are passive, e.g., exhibition orientation, artwork guide, publications, unveiling/inauguration ceremonies, etc. The statistics of the public participation manners in the Public Art in Taiwan Annual 2017 were unsurprisingly similar to those in the past years, with the majority fell in the passive approach category. The “Exhibition / Orientation” and “Artwork Guide” approaches had the most numbers, each with 71 cases. The least participated approach was in the “Others” category. The projects such as “Workshop” and “Participatory Creation,” which invited visitors to actively participate, were only held at half of the statistics of the leading ones. We can summarize that, in the broad realm of “Participation,” the public engaged in our public art projects in the most passive type of “nominal participation.” According to Pablo Helguera, a researcher of socially engaged art, there are at least 4 types of “participation” (Yao-Hua Su and Dai-Rong Wu translated, 2018):
- Nominal participation: Visitors or viewers can complete the process of participation by contemplating the work in a reflective manner. Although they are more or less passively detached, it is nonetheless a form of participation.
- Directed participation: Visitors participate in the creation of the work by completing simple tasks.
- Creative participation: Visitors provide content for a component of the work within a structure established by the artist.
- Collaborative participation: Visitors share responsibility for developing the structure and content of the work in collaboration and direct dialogue with the artist.
If we want to break through the formalization and “it’s better than nothing” approach of public art participation, the socially engaged art is an operational option since it can provide changes to make the “art course” a core element of “artwork” and allow visitors to play the role of partners, participants and collaborators of the artwork (Yao-Hua Su and Dai-Rong Wu translated, 2018).
Why the Community Art Galleries?
The Public Art in Taiwan Annual 2017 selected the phenomenon that a large number of implementation cases were created by the locals, neighborhoods and communities as the year’s practice highlight. One of the origins of public art was to remedy and promote environmental aesthetics. In many cases, however, public artwork became a destructive element in the environment, community and aesthetics. Here I propose treating public art as a metaphor of art galleries. It shouldn’t be worshiped with reverence but should be created for the masses. It shouldn’t regionalize a city, but should make communities neighborhoods. When creating a public artwork, the creator should use the “art gallery level” as an inspiration in its design and implementation. Hopefully a network of sustainable relationships in public life can be developed.
I look forward to the day when every public art project, when the case is completed, can become part of people’s daily life and continue the educational mission of staying in public life and aesthetic life. This is the metaphor of 4,152 art galleries.
References
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. Museum Meeting Library. “Museum Meeting Library” Public Art Project at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 20 November 2014, website link. Accessed 7 April 2019.
ARTouch Editorial Department. The building of Lanyang Museum was legally recognized as a public art piece at last. ARTouch website, 1 January 2018, website link. Accessed 7 April 2019.
Chou, Ya-ching. An Overview of Taiwan's Public Art Policies. The Article Section of the Ministry of Culture’s Public Art Website, 18 September 2009, website link. Accessed 7 April 2019.
Chu, Ray S. C. Issues in assessing whether a building is public art. The Article Section of the Ministry of Culture’s Public Art Website, 2 October 2012, website link. Accessed 7 April 2019.
Su, Yao-Hua and Wu, Dai-Rong. Ten Key Concepts of Socially Engaged Art. Taipei National University of the Arts, 2018. Translated from Education for Socially Engaged Art: A Materials and Techniques Handbook. By Pablo Helguera, New York: Jorge Pinto, 2011.
Footnote
[1] The statistics showed that a total of 4,152 public artworks were completed from 1999 to 2017.
[2] The College of Social Sciences Library, National Taiwan University, designed by Toyo Ito, was the first to pass the review, but has not yet completed the process of filing for reference.
[3] Article 6 of the “Regulations Governing the Installation of Public Artwork” states that “When a public building or the main body of a government’s major public construction conforms to the spirit of public art, the organizing agency may submit relevant documents in statutory review and others to the Ministry of Culture’s Review Committee for consideration…. After passing the review, it is then considered public art. The organizing agency is exempted from conducting a public art project in accordance with the relevant provisions of these Regulations….” Source. Accessed 7 April 2019.
[4] Chou, Ya-ching. An Overview of Taiwan's Public Art Policies. The Article Section of the Ministry of Culture’s Public Art Website, 18 September 2009,website link . Accessed 7 April 2019.
[5] Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. Museum Meeting Library. “Museum Meeting Library” Public Art Project at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 20 November 2014, website link . Accessed 7 April 2019.
[6] Same as above.