Up the River During Qingming – NPM

Co-organised with River City Bangkok, Up the River During Qingming—NPM New Media Art Exhibition is the National Palace Museum’s first large-scale new media art exhibition in Southeast Asia. In order to connect with the urban riverside terrain along the Chao Phraya River in Thailand, the exhibition centralises on the theme of ancient riverside cultures and lifestyles, and presents as its centrepiece the animated Qing court version of Up the River During Qingming, the timeless long scroll masterpiece from the museum’s extensive collection. Through the dynamic rendering of digital technology, this installation brings to life the vivid riverside scenery during the Qingming Festival in the original painting, and animates the vibrant urban lifestyles dotted along river, providing visitors with a modern view of the classic painting and a closer look into the everyday life of the ancient Chinese.

Facing the Chao Phraya River, the exhibition aims to create a “rainbow bridge” for cultural exchange and learning between Thailand and Taiwan, transporting visitors back in time to wander amid cultural landscapes along ancient rivers. Showcasing a diverse selection of interactive and immersive multimedia installations, visitors of all ages will be able to join the ancient Chinese literati in appreciating natural riverine sceneries, deepen their understanding of the museum’s collection and its profound cultural heritage, and in turn reexamine the local and personal experience of living along the banks of Southeast Asia.

The exhibits include new media art, interactive installations, virtual reality, multimedia films, and artefact reproductions. In the Roaming through Fantasy Land virtual reality device, visitors can walk into the landscape painting of Autumn Colours on the Qiao and Hua Mountains and leisurely ferry across the ancient Yellow River; through the high-definition films and replicas in Traveling through Brush and Ink, visitors are able to appreciate the aesthetics of classical Chinese painting and calligraphy, and explore the landscapes in which the ancient literati “amble, behold, wander, and abide.” Others include Summer Lotus, which allow the audience to experience an ancient lotus pond brimming with vitality, as well as Castiglione’s Magical Horses in which horses created by audience members merrily play along a riverbank. In addition, the exhibition will showcase the museum’s latest work, Marvels within the Sea Immersive Interactive Theater, enabling visitors to travel along the long and winding river of history, cross ancient waters and enjoy a cultural feast for the eyes!