Site: Lobby of Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Creative Concept:

With the timely help from people in the art circle, some effects were gradually taking shape after the TFAM─ Taipei Flat Arts Museum performance project conducted from May through June of 2011. Taipei’s former Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner, Hsieh Hsiao-Yun, was asked to step down (however, she was renamed a counselor of the city government, making it not exactly something to be overly happy about). Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM)’s Policy Review Mechanism for themed exhibitions was finalized on December of 2011 and officially implemented in 2012. The Policy Review Mechanism clearly states that exhibitions must adhere to the rules of the Government Procurement Act, and must be conducted through open bidding, under the supervision of a review committee. Furthermore, in addition to official in-house staff, third-party experts and scholars must be included in the review. Companies bidding for exhibitions must also provide curatorial credentials and proof of financial support.

However, up till March of 2012, TFAM was still missing an official director, and although two proxy directors have come and gone, no official explanations were made about the museum’s happenings last year. After TFAM was exposed for its scams with unlawful rights it provided to Universal Exhibition Company for presenting exhibitions at the museum, dates that were originally reserved for more “themed exhibitions” were allotted to other Taiwanese contemporary artists, such as for the group exhibition of Time Games: Contemporary Appropriations of the Past presented for four months on the first floor of the museum; these gestures by the museum made it appeared like “TFAM is back on the right track”, but the impression was simply a false illusion. After exposure of the scam a year before, other than playing the mouthpiece for the authority at the Department of Culture, TFMA was acting like an outsider, making the scam appeared like an accident. The museum even claimed that it was not responsible for helping to sort out critical proofs for down-stream vendors that the Universal Exhibition Company owned debts to. The museum even declared that due to the “confidentiality agreement” it has signed with Universal, it was in no position to make public the confidential account related to the case. These actions made this sacred white box institution appeared like a black box operated behind curtains, as the museum painted a false picture of peace to cover up its wrong doings. Therefore, although the Policy Review Mechanism for themed exhibitions has already been passed, it is still possible for the museum to conduct business through means that were not made transparent. The museum’s current effort to refocus on Taiwanese contemporary art may only be something that is transient and superficial. Thus, the objective of this performance piece is to call out to everyone in the art circle to become aware of the problem, and it is also a way for me to directly convey my viewpoint on this matter to the museum.

Truly False Arts Museum intends to use art to express the relationship between the present conditions that we (the art circle) and TFAM are respectively in. It hopes to act as a reminder to the art circle and TFAM that the matter has not come to a closure. After the scam was exposed, in May and June, an anonymous letter was written to the mayor of Taipei from employees of the museum, and during the second half of the year, Universal Exhibition Company went into involuntary bankruptcy, with TFMA claiming a lawsuit has been filed against the company. However, in the next ten months, TFAM did not join hands with people outside of the museum to collaboratively fight for effective measures to resolve the problem. In other words, the museum has been gutless in handling the incident. It seems to hope to just safely slide by without taking on any further burdens, and is unwilling to face its own current situation and push for tangible reform.

Therefore, compared to the performances that took place in the span of five weeks at the museum’s outdoor plaza last May through June, the site for this project is purposely moved to the museum’s indoor lobby (because the target of this performance is directed at TFAM). The three-page letter (written by employees of TFAM to Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin, please see attached) was frozen inside a big block of ice in the size of 36cm (length) X 25cm(width) X 17cm (height). When this letter was virally being passed around online, certain people from within the museum were threatening to file a lawsuit, which led to the quick disappearance of the letter. However, prior to the letter was halted, I’ve already made a complete copy of it from the internet. Without saying a word, the performance includes me using various parts of my body to slowly and carefully melt the ice, and finally, the three-page letter is placed flatly on the floor of the museum lobby. I then leave the premise, concluding this gesture of expressing my current stance with TFAM’s approach for handling the incident.

Although Truly False Arts Museum and the 2012 TFAM─ Taipei Flat Arts Museum (which includes Cubic AD on Taipei Flat Art Museum, Confession Room/ Informer Terroristic Box, Impressionism Before The Hall, Bureau Chief Hsieh’s Memorial Song, Taking Out Ai Weiwei from Local Production and Direct Marketing) are all related to the politics observed in the ecology of art and the art circle; however, the project that took place in the span of five weeks last year was targeted at problems caused by the museum’s sketchy doings and exploitations (caused by former Commissioner Hsieh and the Universal Exhibition Company). Truly False Arts Museum, on the other hand, places more emphasis on the current conditions of the museum. As a leading art museum in Taiwan, there are many issues pertaining to TFAM that require persistent discussions. Just because this cultural action was able to effectively lead to the stepping down of Hsieh and exposure with Universal’s involuntary bankruptcy, it does not mean everything has been rectified. The problem continues to exist, and it is an issue of cultural governance that cannot be resolved in a short span of time, because it requires more collective efforts to confront the system, which may then lead to the possibility of change.

The title, Zheng-zhi, in Chinese is named according to the following:

(1) Phonetically, it is pronounced the same way as “politics (zheng-zhi)” in Chinese, and was used in ancient writings to mean the same thing as the modern day usage for politics.
(2) The term is derived from The Principles and Prohibitions for the Medical Profession, written by early Qing dynasty medical expert, Yu Chang, and can be translated as orthodox treatment or routine treatment. Based on Chinese medicine, the method treats illnesses directly based on the particular disease’s symptoms and causes. It also applies Chinese medicine’s approach of combining heat and cold. As stated in the book, “…treatment of disease adverse to its manifestations (symptoms and signs), also known as "adverse treatment", applicable to disease with nature in conformity with its manifestations. Warm syndrome is marked by warm manifestations, cold syndrome by cold manifestations, and the action tendency of drugs are opposite to the manifestations of disease, known as adverse treatment. When the nature of disease is not completely in conformity with its manifestations, or even marked by false manifestations, with heat syndrome marked by cold manifestations, cold syndrome by heat manifestations. Thus, the treatment of disease should be agreeable to its manifestations; adverse treatment in such case would exacerbate the condition.” It is used here as a metaphor to connect the ice block with the TFAM scam, and the political climate endured collectively by the museum employees is also analogous to a form of “symptom” that TFAM suffers from.
(3) The term also indicates a state of progress, as it can be explained in Chinese as “administration/management in progress”.