Critical and Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art at NTUE

📢Upcoming Talk 📢

Title: War and Art
Date & Time: May 6 (Wed), 15:30–17:30
Speaker: Chen Ching-Yao 陳擎耀 (Artist)
Venue: Y703 (Duxing Building)

Artist Chen Ching-Yao’s practice has long explored and engaged with the historical relationship between Taiwan and Japan. In recent years, his work has focused on the reinterpretation and translation of “war paintings” (Sensō-ga) from both Japan and Taiwan.

This talk will feature Chen Ching-Yao sharing insights into his recent projects, while also examining how he collects and approaches the differences between Taiwanese and Japanese art histories. He will further discuss how his work has been received in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, highlighting the distinct perspectives through which audiences and critics in each context have interpreted his practice.

CCSCA students visited the exhibition “遙視 Remote Viewing” at MoNTUE on April 17, 2026.
A big thank you to curator Alice Nien-Pu Ko and artist Tony Oursler for guiding the tour and sharing their insights.

Special thanks to independent curator Esther Lu for leading a generous and insightful curatorial workshop. She walked us through her curatorial approach in depth, discussing how an exhibition is conceived, carefully planned, and gradually developed through a series of workshops that help shape its direction and outcomes.

One highlight of the session was a simple yet engaging workshop she designed, encouraging students to reflect on their own skills and consider what roles they might take on within an exhibition. Through this exercise, students were also invited to think about curatorial practice across different contexts, gaining a more flexible and dynamic understanding of what curating can be.

📢Upcoming Curatorial Workshop 📢

Title: Multiple exposure on exhibition-making: The Mountain Algorithm as a case study
Date & Time: April 24 (Fri), 13:30–16:30
Speaker: Esther LU (Independent Curator)
Venue: Y702 (Duxing Building)

Curatorial practice can be understood as an expansive process of engagement, research, incubation, collaboration, and activation, leading to diverse forms of cultural production. Exhibition is only one common manifestation within this complex field—often initiated by a range of micro and macro incentives and shaped through multiple trajectories. Taking the exhibition The Mountain Algorithms (2024) as a case study, this workshop will trace the extended processes beyond its realization, while inviting participants to develop their own curatorial tools for future projects.

CCSCA 2026 International Student Admissions are still open.
📆 Application Period
👉 February 2 (Monday) – April 30(Thursday), 2026
Website: https://enroll.ntue.edu.tw/foreign

Many thanks to Fei Wu for leading a curatorial workshop for the Exhibition Practice class on March 13.

In the workshop, Fei Wu explored how healing might be rethought in a traumatized world through “being together” and relationships of exchange. Drawing on the concept of munus, both a gift and an obligation, the workshop emphasized the dynamics of giving and losing, rather than possession.

Through a series of questions, participants were invited to reflect on collective cultural “dis-ease,” the potential for art to respond to such conditions, and the ways personal emotions and beliefs intertwine. The workshop ultimately opened up a shared, collaborative space for connection, while inviting further reflection on what kinds of feelings and practices healing can hold.

CCSCA 2026 International Student Admissions are still open.
📆 Application Period
👉 February 2 (Monday) – April 30(Thursday), 2026
Website: https://enroll.ntue.edu.tw/foreign

📢CCSCA is still open for international applications.

Learning extends beyond the classroom. The CCSCA program offers institutional visits, lecture series, workshops, research forums, internships, and field-based learning experiences—allowing students to engage directly with curatorial and artistic practices in real-world contexts.

Through these experiences, students build a strong foundation in contemporary art across Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific, connecting critical thinking with hands-on practice.

🌏 Study trips have taken students to destinations such as Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok, and Phuket, expanding their perspectives on contemporary art in diverse cultural settings.

📆 Application Period
👉 February 2 (Monday) – April 30 (Thursday), 2026
🔗 Website: https://enroll.ntue.edu.tw/foreign

Many thanks to independent curator Esther Lu (呂岱如) for her sharing in the Global Biennial course on April 7.

Drawing from her own visits to both exhibitions, Esther compared the 2025 Bukhara Biennale and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, highlighting how such exhibitions are rarely established for cultural purposes alone, but are often intertwined with political, economic, and geopolitical agendas. Through selected artworks and curatorial approaches, she guided us in exploring how these large-scale exhibitions reflect cultural tourism, urban development, and broader global dynamics, while articulating different “worlds” through their curatorial visions.

📢 Interested in conducting research in Taiwan? Apply for the 2027 Taiwan Fellowship!

The 2027 Taiwan Fellowship, established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), will be open for applications from May 1 to June 30, 2026.

This prestigious fellowship supports international scholars and experts interested in conducting advanced research in Taiwan. Eligible research areas include:
🔹 Taiwan studies
🔹 Cross-strait relations
🔹 Asia-Pacific regional studies
🔹 Sinology
🔹 Taiwan’s domestic and foreign policy (e.g., integrated diplomacy, energy security, transnational repression, undersea cables, and global supply chain resilience)

✨ What’s included:
• One round-trip economy-class airfare
• Monthly stipend during your stay in Taiwan
• Research duration: 3 months to 1 year

📅 Application deadline: June 30, 2026
📬 Hard copies must be submitted to TECO in San Francisco by July 1, 2026

🔗 Learn more & apply:
https://taiwanfellowship.ncl.edu.tw/eng/index.aspx

🔗 TECO San Francisco details:
https://www.taiwanembassy.org/ussfo_en/post/6297.html

#臺灣獎助金

我國 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC（Taiwan） 年度「臺灣獎助金」（MOFA Taiwan Fellowship）申請活動即將展開，相關資訊如下：
1. 開放對象：外國國籍人士，需為國外大學相關系所之教授、副教授、助理教授、博士後研究員、博士候選人或博士班學生，或在海外學術機構具同等級研究員資格者；
2. 計畫內容：申請核可者將獲我國外交部補助來回機票，以及2027年赴台進行三個月至一年研究計畫之每月獎助金；
3. 研究領域以台灣、兩岸關係、中國大陸、亞太區域、漢學研究、總合外交、能源安全、跨國鎮壓、海底電纜、全球供應鏈韌性等相關主題。

💡我國外交部於2010年成立臺灣獎助金，截至2026年，錄取國籍及學人已超過93國逾1,600人。本獎助金旨在鼓勵全球對臺灣、兩岸關係、亞太區域、漢學研究等領域有興趣之專家學者來我國各大學校院或學術機構進行研究，促進學術交流。

📝申請人請於本年6月30日之前檢附相關文件完成線上申請，並於7月1日（郵戳為憑）前將紙本資料寄至本處。
詳細資訊請參考「臺灣獎助金」官網：https://taiwanfellowship.ncl.edu.tw/eng/index.aspx
以及本處官網：https://www.taiwanembassy.org/ussfo/post/14392.html

2027 Taiwan Fellowship open for application from May 1- June 30, 2026

The Taiwan Fellowship is established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to award foreign experts and scholars interested in researches related to Taiwan, cross-strait relations, Asia-Pacific region and Sinology to conduct advanced research at universities or academic institutions in Taiwan.

We also welcome research topics related to Taiwan’s domestic and foreign policy issues, including integrated diplomacy, energy security, transnational repression, undersea cables and global supply chain resilience.

MOFA will subsidy one direct round-trip economy-class ticket and monthly stipends during the stay in Taiwan, with minimum duration of three months and maximum of one year.

Application period is from May 1st to June 30th, and the hard copy of application materials should be delivered to TECO in San Francisco by July 1st, 2026.

For further information regarding the eligibility, duration, and grants, please visit: https://taiwanfellowship.ncl.edu.tw/eng/index.aspx
&TECO in San Francisco website: https://www.taiwanembassy.org/ussfo_en/post/6297.html

Thanks OCAC 打開當代and TQS studio 頭前工工作室 for introducing your practice.

CCSCA alumna Hue Nguyen will present her paper “Towards a Spatial and Temporal Address of Diaspora,” at Panel 4: Environmental Genealogies of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art in the 4th Harvard-Yale Southeast Asian Studies Graduate Conference. The paper is based on her thesis of the same title completed last year. Congratulations, Hue! 💫👊

📢 CCSCA upcoming talk📢

Title: From Local to Global: The Evolving Role of Art Fairs
Speaker: Viola Yao (Art Director of Taiwan Art Gallery Association)
⏰2025.12.16 (15:30-18:00)
📍 Room301 (Duxing Building)