Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

World Design Capital ® (WDC) officially begins in Taipei as the clock strikes midnight into the 2016 New Year's Day! This means an array of design related exhibitions, events, and projects will be unfolding in Taipei throughout the year for the world to see, with the Adaptive City Taipei on a continual stride to elevate itself. The mission and purpose of WDC is to encourage the application of innovative designs in the city’s economic, social, cultural, and environmental developments, and to use innovative “design-based thinking” to solve different social and everyday problems. By transcending beyond dividing barriers between government and nongovernmental sectors, professional and amateurs, institutions and individuals and by constructing a consistent, intensive, two-way, interactive, and communicative network, these factors are bound to be critical points as Taipei transforms into a design capital. The word “cross” holds multiple and contrasting meanings; For example, it can be used to mean the crucifix or an intersection, crossroad, with the former representing an absolute form of faith, which is quite centripetal;However, the latter indicates paths of four different directions, which holds centrifugal dynamics. “Cross” can also be used to represent conceptual and action-based interactions and dialogues, but at the same time, it can also indicate parallel and aligned arrangements like a symphonic musical composition. The word is also frequently used today to convey thoughts that transcends beyond the Self and the original position, with actions initiated that cross over conventions and boarders, extending to include developmental projects and actions through assertive cross-domain explorations and cross­-disciplinary integrations. Today’s society is very diverse and complex, and many different communities are rising to prominence in the contemporary era, with many driven by their determination to assertively care for our society and to come together to think of solutions for problems we are facing. Members in these communities come from different familial, educational, and social backgrounds, and they all seem to be thinking about the same thing: “What do we, those living in this generation-crossing era, have, and how should we face what’s in front of us and also think about the future?” The overarching theme of this exhibition is CROSS-Design+ X Art+, and the objective is to present artists from different contemporary disciplines and for them to transcend beyond themselves and to be involved in different communities, with their endeavors resulting in different social practices. When artists and designers’ ideas are transformed into social practices engaging in people, between people and society, or evoking thoughts in individuals or collective groups, they then have the potential to become forces that can alter history and transform reality! The contributing artists for this exhibition include: Yu-Chih HSIAO, Apex Lin,Pang-Soong, Beautiful Taiwan Care Association + Chang Chia-Ju, Jeffrey Wang x BLANQ, justfont, DHH studio, Tzu-Han HSIAO, active creative design, Ren-Jye WANG x Chiu-I HSU, Pei-Chen YANG, Chien Hsueh-Yi + syncu's + Chien Architects & Associates+VERY MAINSTREAM STUDIO, National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Design, and MOCA, Taipei Fun Street, Street Fun curatorial team. A participatory process is embodied by society, and through design and exhibition, beautiful imaginations and experiences created by artists are able to be shared. We hope that this exhibition can offer to our audience diverse experiences with cross-disciplinary contemporary art, and for the cross-community interactions to spark splendid reactions.