- 期刊
Facing Glocalization: A Case Study of Tainan Art Museum ＂Paying Tribute to Gods-The Art of Folk Belief＂
摘要
Since the 20th century, the number of museums has increased dramatically, and the architectural forms are dazzling. The multi-faceted development of museums and their social and cultural connections have become a global social phenomenon. Such trends suggest that a certain kind of museum coherence is emerging. The anthropologist Arjun Appadurai reminds us that the phenomenon of globalization is a complex and changing political economy whose core problem is the non-exclusive relationship between cultural homogeneity and heterogeneity, so what we have to deal with are ＂globalizing and localizing processes＂ (Appadurai, 2000). Local museums should pay more attention to local, community and tribal subjectivity. Through the multi-diamond interpretation of local culture, museums' general globalization has different appearances. It triggers positive or negative responses from different social and cultural systems, driving other regions' political and economic landscapes. Four centuries ago, Tainan's status as Taiwan's capital city attracted many Han Chinese settlers looking to reclaim land, boost its population and develop vibrant local temple culture. Indeed, 400 years later, Tainan still has the highest number and most remarkable concentration of temples in Taiwan. In 2020, Tainan Art Museum curated an exhibition titled ＂Paying Tribute to Gods-The Art of Folk Belief＂ which focused on visual art forms developed by temples. The exhibition explores the history of such development from tradition to modern times while explaining how the art of folk belief evolved as part of a never-ending dialogue in line with changes in Taiwanese society and culture. The exhibition name ＂Paying Tribute to Gods＂ means ＂a salute to the religious art that is forever an integral part of daily life in Taiwan,＂ but also references ＂the way artists use art to pay tribute to the Gods.＂ This essay discusses the curation of ＂Paying Tribute to Gods-The Art of Folk Belief＂ and how the exhibition showcased the dialogue between traditional and contemporary religious art themes. A crucial part of this discussion is how art museums have responded to the rapid globalization brought by the information revolution in the 20th century, offering an analysis of the role of art museums and possible future developments through the prism of globalization theory. In the context of the globalized world, this article explores how the Tainan Art Museum, as a city art museum, plans the ＂Homage to the Gods-Palace and Temple Art Exhibition＂ and highlights the city's characteristics and presents religious art in the exhibition. After the information revolution in the 20th century, Tainan Art Museum used the content of religious art to carry out a dialogue between traditional and contemporary art in response to rapid globalization. The curatorial team at Tainan Art Museum sought to combine the city's distinctive local features and use the exhibition to detail local art history by showcasing the modern artistic language of glocalization. In this context, art museums are replete with stories that meet people's need for exchange, to feel things and desire experiences to make up for the emotional void created by the post-modern world. In modern societies, art museums are where people can connect with history, bringing together the eternal and the individual, past and present, allowing the past to serve as a muse for the truth.