MoCA Taipei Directors Speak Out On Artist Dispute

Following artist Jun Yang’s revelations about his contractual dispute with the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MoCA) over a nearly canceled show, which spurred debate in the local art community over the behavior and authority of high-level museum officials, both ex-director Yuki Pan and her successor, Li-Chen Loh, have spoken out on the case.

On August 24, Pan posted a statement on her Facebook, clarifying the incident from her perspective. After analyzing Yang’s complaints against Loh and MoCA in his Facebook post, titled “A director unfit for her position,” Pan expressed that as the former director, she feels responsible for responding to the confusion over the status of Yang’s proposed exhibition following her departure from MoCA in October 2019. According to Pan, there are two types of applications for exhibitions at MoCA, namely “Open Call” and “Thematic Curation.” When Yang officially approached MoCA on June 7, 2019, Pan approved his idea for a multi-part show titled “The Artist, His Collaborators, Their Exhibition, and Three Venues”—split between MoCA, the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, and TKG+ Projects—under “Thematic Curation.” Based on Pan’s preliminary approval, Yang and two MoCA curators moved forward with their planning. Since the exhibition was tentatively scheduled for 2021, Yang’s team and MoCA’s staff were supposed to file the proposal to the museum’s advisory committee at their next meeting, in April 2020. However, before they could formally submit their proposal, Pan resigned, and Loh attempted to cancel the exhibition shortly after taking over the position in November 2019.

According to Pan, Loh felt that she had to prioritize MoCA’s 20th anniversary program. As Yang’s exhibition had not yet been discussed by the advisory committee and there was no memorandum of understanding (MOU) on its preparations, Loh ultimately saw fit to cancel the project. At the time, she discussed the clash in MoCA’s programming with Pan via Line messenger; the ex-director said that she fully respected Loh’s decision, but persuaded her to negotiate with the artist first. In her Facebook statement, Pan noted that when she first joined MoCA, she also had to renegotiate several exhibitions that had been handed over to her by the preceding director, Shih Jui-Jen. Pan expressed sadness at the news that the two curators who had started working with Yang on the proposed project under her leadership were later punished in the wake of the dispute.

In response to Pan, Loh posted a statement on her own Facebook that same day along with screenshots of her chat history with the former director. In the post, Loh stated that her handover notes from October 30, 2019, only included four confirmed 2020 shows, although she learned that her predecessor had also “decided that preparations for the museum’s 2021 renovation and 20th anniversary program were to commence [in late 2019] once the 2020 shows were fully confirmed.” Loh reiterated that she was not notified about Yang’s show until a colleague mentioned it to her when the MoCA team started working on their 2021 tasks. Confused to learn of Yang’s exhibition, which was at the time scheduled for early 2021 and would thus conflict with the 20th anniversary program, Loh went through the museum’s documents, including meeting notes, committee records, MOU, and contracts. The director claimed that she found nothing pertaining to Yang’s proposal, so she decided to move forward with the 20th anniversary program and cancel Yang’s project. She let Pan know about her decision via Line message, saying “[the curator] told me about the Jun Yang show scheduled for March to April 2021, which was suggested by you and [Kuandu Museum director Huang] Chien-Hung. The museum is going to be renovated after [the final 2020 show] and the year of 2021 will be focused on the 20th anniversary. Plus I didn’t see Yang’s show being discussed at the advisory committee, so this exhibition is not happening. I’ve asked [the curator] to talk to Yang and ask him to find another venue. Chien-Hung also said there’s no MOU and final decision [for Yang’s show], so he fully respects my decision. I’m letting you know and I hope that you can visit us for the 20th anniversary celebration.” At the time, her predecessor replied, “Don’t worry about this; just go with your way.” On December 11, when Yang threatened legal action over the cancellation, Pan then asked Loh to negotiate with the artist, which led to Loh’s first meeting with Yang at the museum. Following Yang’s public accusations over her handling of the situation, Loh reached out again to Pan on August 3 suggesting that they release a joint statement, but Pan refused and asked her not to post their Line messages.

Loh emphasized that it was not just Yang’s show that had to limit its run; all of the events in the 20th anniversary program had shorter durations as a result of his project’s inclusion. The director also revealed MoCA’s NTD 2,500,000 (USD 89,533) expenditure on Yang’s exhibition, one of the highest amounts during her tenure thus far, so she felt that the artist “had earned enough respect.” As for her private Facebook post in which she complained about “fake foreigners” who “come to Taiwan and take all the resources,” Loh pointed out that no specific person was named in the text, so she was uncertain why Yang suggested her remark was directed at him.

The Taipei Culture Foundation, which oversees MoCA Taipei, has remained silent on the controversy.

Pamela Wong is ArtAsiaPacific’s assistant editor.

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