As the Lunar New Year begins, Taichug City Dadun Cultural Center presents a truly “weighty” artistic highlight. Renowned mosaic artist Professor Jian Yuan-Chung unveils Stillness in Flow, a major exhibition showcasing mosaic works that blend exquisite craftsmanship with profound reflections on life. At opening ceremony, Chen Chia-Chun, Director of the Taichung City Government Cultural Affairs Bureau, attended the event, accepted Jian’s donated work “Prayer—Peace and Auspiciousness,” and witnessed the first public unveiling of Jian’s monumental masterpiece “The Mother River—Mayuantou Stream.” Completed over five years using 2.5 million pieces of stone, colored glass, and glazed materials, the large-scale mosaic leaves a quiet yet enduring artistic imprint on the city’s land and sense of time.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau noted that art is a crystallization of time—recording an artist’s life journey while reflecting the cultural textures of different eras. Professor Jian has devoted himself to mosaic art since the 1970s and traveled to Europe to study classical mosaic techniques. Through rigorous and disciplined training, he developed a keen sensitivity to materials, structure, and rhythm, and went on to transform this ancient craft into a contemporary visual language. In 2021, he was honored as a Senior Distinguished Artist of Taichung City. He has also served repeatedly as a juror for the Dadun Fine Arts Exhibition and Dadun Craft Awards, participated in reviews of public art projects nationwide, and long dedicated himself to carrying forward the spirit of Taiwanese mosaic pioneer Yen Shui-Long, becoming a key figure in contemporary mosaic art in Taiwan.
Professor Jian recalled that his artistic foundation was shaped at the Venice Mosaic Art Institute, where he studied under craftsmen involved in the creation of monumental mosaics at St. Mark’s Basilica. There, he learned about classical mosaic materials, precise stone-cutting techniques, and the directional and layered arrangement of tesserae that give mosaic art its distinctive rhythm and multidirectional beauty. After returning to Taiwan to teach, he gradually developed the three major series featured in this exhibition: “Faithful to the Beginning,” echoing the spirit of classical mosaics; “Fashion Compositions,” infused with elements of popular culture; and “Stillness in Flow, “which embodies reflections on life and nature.
The Stillness in Flow series was inspired by Taiwan’s severe drought in 2021. When Mayor Lu Shiow-Yen prayed for rain at Dajia Jenn Lann Temple, the moment prompted Jian to turn his focus to the rivers flowing through Taichung. Through mosaic imagery, he sought to gently unfold stories of the land and the passage of time—allowing seemingly fragmented materials to converge into a quiet yet powerful current of life.
The Dadun Cultural Center further explained that Mayuantou Stream is part of Jian’s daily route between his home and studio, as well as an important site for rest and creative reflection. Originating in the hills between Tanzi and Fengyuan and flowing through the Taichung Basin, the stream carries the living memories of the Pingpu and Pazeh (PAZAEHE) Indigenous peoples and nurtured histories of agriculture, fishing, and coexistence between humans and nature. Jian regards it as Taichung’s “mother river.” Beginning in 2021, he spent five years conceptualizing, sketching, and collecting materials. Each fragment of colored glass, enamel, glaze, mirror, ceramic, marble, quartz, metal, shell, and other media was hand-cut and assembled through more than 2.5 million individual placements. Completed just one month before the exhibition, the 550-centimeter-long, physically weighty masterpiece “The Mother River—Mayuantou Stream” reveals layered light and flowing rhythms—at once grounded and dynamic—inviting viewers to pause and contemplate. For more information about the exhibition, please visit the Dadun Cultural Center website: www.dadun.culture.taichung.gov.tw