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Introduction

As one of the most spectacular festivals of the Chinese New Year, the Lantern Festival also marks the grand finale of the New Year festivities. For thousands of years, traditional activities such as appreciating lanterns, carrying lanterns and solving riddles are still well preserved to this day. In modern day lantern festivals, fashion, technology and traditional elements are integrated to these ancient practices. By paying homage to tradition through the renditions brought by technology, viewers are now able to experience innovative forms of art that breathe new life into tradition.

The National Palace Museum (NPM) is invited to present a special exhibition at the Taiwan Lantern Festival for the very first time this year at the invitation of the Chiayi County Government. The exhibition will pivot around the theme of the Chinese New Year and the imagery of nature thriving in spring. As the Chinese aphorism goes, "the whole year's plan is made in spring." The exhibition integrates lanterns for the year of the dog with floral designs to highlight the theme. Aside from large-scaled projections of “Painting Animation," presenting the vigorous long scroll paintings from the museum's collection, the exhibition will display A Tour of the Imperial Garden and Spring Birth, two digital artworks inspired by Giuseppe Castiglione's Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring, and also the interactive installation "Tree of Colors", echoing the vibrant Taiwan Lantern Festival with beautiful and dazzling displays.

For this exhibition, the NPM reinterprets the brilliance and exuberance of the museum's collection through technology and presents a lantern-shaped exhibition venue that radiates in the night. The exhibition conveys the complementary relationship between conventional artworks and innovative technology, hoping to render national treasures in a new light and to celebrate the ending of the New Year festivities in a joyous atmosphere.

Gallery Plan

A Promenade to Welcome Spring – Painting Animations

The exhibits use several high-resolution 1080 HD projectors to seamlessly unfold sceneries from classical long scroll paintings on the wall, allowing viewers to explore the exuberance and artistic conception of the paintings. In order to celebrate the New Year festivities, the exhibition will display animated reproductions of the popular long scroll paintings A Hundred Steeds and Up theRiver During Qingming and also the calligraphy animation Besotted by Flower Vapors.

Bouquets of Flowers and Piles of Brocades Ornament the Season

A Tour of the Imperial Garden

Animated elements were taken from Castiglione's Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring. As if one were entering an imperial garden in full bloom, this installation uses 3D animation to erect Castiglione’s perspective composition in three dimensional space. The images in the screen are arranged in one-point perspective and slowly zoom in towards the visitor to create the illusion of entering the picture plane. The shift between night and day in this exhibition reflects the popular trend of joining the traditional lantern festival with modern technology.

Bouquets of Flowers and Piles of Brocades Ornament the Season

Spring Birth

"Spring brings back all the verdure of the Earth;Blossoms burst forth on branches with their songs."
The images here of flowering crab apple, magnolia, peony, carnation, and peach blossom are representative of Giuseppe Castiglione's fine brushwork and use of bright colors. He renders the charming poses of the birds and delicate blossoms in a unique style influenced by both Chinese and Western painting methods. Combining voice-activated interactive technology and animation that brings the moving beauty of spring to life in the paintings, this installation is completed by audience participation. The voice activates the animation and creates the appearance of movement. As the birds and blossoms sway in the breeze, audiences may bask in their eternal charm and fall under the enchantment of Castiglione's spirited naturalism.
Artifact Inspiration：Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Springby Giuseppe Castiglione, Qing dynasty.

Bouquets of Flowers and Piles of Brocades Ornament the Season

Tree of Colors – Interactive Installation

The Tree of Colors uses kinect to detect the colors that people are wearing in a designated area and arranges the colors into a collage on the digital model of a flower vase, presenting ancient artifacts that are simultaneously rich in individualistic colors. The projection of flower vases and pots resembles a parade of individual fashion shows and celebrates the festive ambience of spring.

A Prosperous Beginning in the Year of the Dog

In 1715, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), a Jesuit missionary from Italy, came to China and became a court painter under the reign of the Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. He excelled at bird-and-flower themes, dogs, and horses. Ten Fine Hounds is a series of paintings depicting Qianlong Emperor's purebred European hunting dogs at the Southern Preserve and hunting grounds. In 2018, the Year of the Dog, the NPM's venue also features a special dog-themed exhibit at the festival where viewers are able to celebrate the New Year with the lifelike ten fine hounds painted by Castiglione. At the Ten Fine Hounds lantern exhibit, you will be able to welcome the arrival of the new spring with the adorable hounds and expect a prosperous beginning in the Year of the Dog.