Exotic Formosa. Contemporary Jewellery from Taiwan

Artist list

Weng Mong Ruan

While working as an instructor and lecturer in Taiwan, he was one of the first to introduce international contemporary jewellery to Taiwan, and contributed towards paving the way for the inspirational, top-level international exchange of ideas that is taking place there nowadays. The exhibition will be showcasing about 140 of his works in the genres of jewellery, sculpture and graphic art, created over a period of more than 40 years. This is the first time that contemporary Taiwanese-Japanese root jewellery and artistically created objects will be shown in Germany.

Ruan Weng Mong, born in Taipei in 1953, has been involved in art since early childhood: At the age of five, I became interested in Chinese calligraphy, drawing and comics as well as modelling with clay. I am still occupied with a wide range of artistic genres, he explains. This is reflected in the variety of his topics. They span an arc from ornament and pattern to animals and landscapes to ritual objects or the abstract. When he came to Swaziland in 1976, everyday life and lifestyle there were very formative for him - and became a further inspiration in addition to the polarity between Asia and the South Pacific and Germany. It goes without saying that it combines Asian elegance with German aesthetics, is how museum director Cornelie Holzach describes his approach. As a further aspect, dealing with your own roots resonates with all of this. It has led Ruan to see himself as a global citizen who travels between the worlds and practices his art everywhere. His free-thinking is paired with precise work that is easy for him to handle. There is no boundary between applied and visual art for him, rather he has the attitude of Je suis ce que je suis. When asked how he sees his works himself, he says: Exotic Formosa describes a beautiful world and gives the wonderful things that I find in my mind as in a garden of Eden.

Opening

26th of March, Thursday, 7 pm.