A group of corporate sponsors, along with local businesses have joined hands to create a treasure hunt in Taipei's East District. What most people would have not imagined, though, is that it centers around exhibitions by more than 40 contemporary artists.
"This is a good opportunity for contemporary art to broaden its appeal and let people know what it is like," said Rita Chang (
The idea for the project came after Chang was riding in a taxi and mentioned a new fine arts museum opening in Taipei and the driver dismissively asked: "What do we need art for?" As one of the founding members of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and the Dimension Endowment for Art, Chang found inspiration in the driver's slight and hatched a plan to bring contemporary art into the public sphere in an accessible manner.
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING
Very Fun Park is the largest project she has ever presided over and has involved people from a wide range of fields.
More than 40 young contemporary artists, including illustrators and writers, computer graphic designers, photographers, painters, sculptors and installation artists are featured in the show. Some of the most recognizable names are the digital artist Lin Shu-min (
The project is intended to invite people to stroll through the 30 businesses that have offered exhibition space and look for some of the country's newest art.
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING
"I did not expect such a big response. Art has always been thought of as tailored to a smaller audience. But then people were saying they would love to join us as sponsors or display venues," says Chang.
The exhibition venues are in the area east of Tunhua South Road (敦化南路) and west of Chungshiao East Road's Alley 216 (忠孝東路216巷) between Civil Boulevard (市民大道) and Jenai Road (仁愛路). This area, typically referred to as the East District (東區), has been creatively renamed in Chinese by Chang for the project as "fen-le-ting" (粉樂町), playing on the English word "fun" and evocative of the teenager hangout Hsimenting (西門町).
People are likely to encounter installations from Very Fun Park in some obvious and some less-obvious spots in the area. Dog lover Peng Hung-chih's (
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING
Also at Eslite is Lee Ming-jong's (
The cartoonist, writer and illustrator known by the name Red Capsule (
With so many works of art dotting the landscape and storefronts for Very Fun Park, Chang hopes people will be inspired to slip on their walking shoes, slather on some high-SPF sun screen and head out to find some of Taiwan's most innovative art. As Chang said, it's a treasure hunt, so you never know what you'll find.
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
Very Fun Park will be inaugurated today with a ceremony taking place from 5pm to 7pm outside the Fubon Life Insurance Building at 108 Tunhwa S. Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei (
Where to find the art:
1) Fubon Finance Building
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING
2) World Chinese Commercial Bank
3) Eslite 2F
4) Eslite GF
5) Eslite B2
6) Dian Ching-pin (點睛品)
7) GEO ART
8) Mod for Hair
9) Cafe inn
10) PS (PS 自私著物)
11) C250 cafe
12) 好碧 DIY 手創館
13) Pacific Design Center
14) YAP!
15) Esprit
16) California Fitness Center
17) Buckaroo
18) Body Map (人體地圖)
19) Taipei Flower Shop (台北花菀)
20) Bird, Taipei (鳥台北)
21) Water Tower (水塔)
22) Tree Shade House (樹蔭宅院)
23) Second Floor Room (二樓房舍)
24) Ching-xiang Tsai (清香齋)
25) Yi-chun Pub (異塵Pub)
26) Yu-dien Music (育典音樂)
27) Hao-yang (好樣)
28) Empty Space (空地)
29) DV8
30) Fubon Life Insurance Building
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and