The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts held last Saturday (Nov 29) a presentation summing up the period of the NTMoFA International Residency. The Polish curator and art historian Jan Elantkowski is the second International Residency Researcher of the first edition of the program. His residency at NTMoFA take place from 27 October to 5 December. He presented his research, touching upon the aspects of his ongoing study, followed by an exchange with Professor WU Chieh-Hsiang from the National Changhua University of Education. Researchers and scholars from the fields of art history and cultural studies also attended, creating an active participation and vivid discussion, looking forward to new perspectives in the writing of Taiwanese art history.
Dr. Jan Elantkowski was selected from 183 applicants coming from 53 countries. During his residency, he had several in-depth meetings and exchanges with the researchers of NTMoFA, and he also visited many experts and scholars working in the fields of Taiwanese art history, cultural research, and contemporary art outside the Museum. He examined Taiwan and Central-Eastern Europe as two regions that have been positioned in a “peripheral” space within global art-historical narratives, and—based on the concept of “horizontal art history” formulated by Piotr Piotrowski—discussed how the construction of art-historical narratives can be developed in different political and cultural conditions.
During the residency, Dr. Elantkowski had conversations and exchanges with 18 researchers and professionals at NTMoFA, conducted in-depth meetings with 13 experts and scholars outside the Museum, and had exchanges with 6 artists. He also visited 17 institutions in Taiwan. These experiences deepened his understanding of the development of Taiwanese art history and made visible the possibilities for dialogue between Taiwan and Central-Eastern Europe in terms of historical trauma, national identity, and institutional narratives. Elantkowski noted that the residency allowed him to see more clearly the distinct character of Taiwanese art history, and he hopes to continue the collaboration between NTMoFA and the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, where he is working.
In the presentation, Dr. Elantkowski shared his cross-regional research under the title “Reconstructing the History of Art in Taiwan and Central-Eastern Europe: Comparative Approaches to Writing Peripheral Art Histories.” He approached the institutional background of writing art history in Taiwan and responded to the questions of art-historical narratives in a postcolonial context, proposing “comparative writing of peripheral art histories” and a “regional perspective” as frameworks for understanding Taiwanese art history. Dr. Elantkowski noted his interest in the works by CHEN Shih-Chiang (Taiwan Landscapes, 1999) and JENG Jie-Wei (Contemporary Taiwan News, 1996) from the NTMoFA collection, as these works are closely connected to the social and political conditions in Taiwan and correspond to the aspects he touched upon in his research.
The discussion was joined by Professor WU Chieh-Hsiang, who responded to Dr. Elantkowski’s observations on writing Taiwanese art history, focusing on the three aspects he touched upon: “Environmental Issues and Technology,” “Plurality,” and “Locality.” Scholars including WU Chao-Ran and GUO Jau-Lan took active participation in the conversation, looking forward to encouraging reflections related to Taiwanese self-identification and positioning, and to opening new perspectives for the writing of Taiwanese art history.
Director CHEN Kuang-Yi noted that bringing in the perspectives of international researchers is not only an important strategy of the project “Reconstructing the History of Art in Taiwan,” but also a necessary way to deepen the knowledge system of Taiwanese art history and to expand its dimensions through comparative approaches. Through the NTMoFA International Residency, the Museum is able to introduce multiple theoretical frameworks and complex cultural contexts, giving Taiwanese art history more methodological support within global academic discourses and allowing it to be understood in a more profound way. NTMoFA will continue to strengthen the depth and breadth of research on its collection and aims to advance transnational collaboration, promoting cross-cultural and regional dialogue, comparison, and mutual reflection. Only through such processes can Taiwanese art establish a more substantial theoretical position and visibility within the international academic field.
The first edition of the NTMoFA International Residency connects artistic and academic networks in Taiwan and abroad, offering the researchers access to nearly twenty thousand works from the Museum’s collection, the art library, and the research support system, promoting the flow of knowledge across disciplines and regions. During his residency in Taiwan, Dr. Elantkowski developed a comparative study that underscores the importance of researching peripheral art histories within a global perspective. NTMoFA hopes that the International Residency will gather more international scholars in the future, and that through cross-cultural collaboration and the exchange of knowledge, a more comprehensive and plural understanding of Taiwanese art history can gradually be formed, fostering long-term transnational research networks.
More about Jan Elantkowski, PhD
Jan Elantkowski, PhD, is an art historian and curator based in Budapest (HU). He holds a master’s degree in art history from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (PL) and a PhD from the Institute of Art History at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest (“Holocaust and Trauma in Post-Socialist Europe: Contemporary Art from Hungary and Poland after 1989”), where he was a teaching assistant between 2014 and 2016. He has published on contemporary art from Central-Eastern Europe with a special focus on memory, trauma, and Holocaust.
Between 2015 and 2018, he was a teaching and research associate in the Chair of East European Art History at Humboldt University of Berlin (DE). Regarding his recent curatorial activity, he co-curated “Slow Life. Radical Practices of the Everyday” (2021), “The Cuteness Factor” (2023), and “In a Field Well-Found – Artistic Practices from the Marcel Duchamp Prize’s 25 Years” at Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, where he has worked as a curator and art historian since 2018. He is a member of the Hungarian section of the International Association of Art Critics.
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