Go treasure hunting

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 (張元茜), the curator behind the project titled Very Fun Park (粉樂町).

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.

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 (林書民) and folk artist Liu Shih-tong (劉時棟). But most of the participants are relatively unknown and average under 30 years old.

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.

"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 (彭弘智) Little Danny -- a giant sculpture of a Dalmatian -- can be seen peering through the picture window of the United World Chinese Commercial Bank (世華銀行), while folk artist Liu Shih-tung's (劉時棟) humorous tiger is placed on the B2 level of Eslite Bookstore. Liu's tiger wears inline skates and has video cameras for eyes. The images from the cameras can be seen on two video screens on its body.

Also at Eslite is Lee Ming-jong's (李民中) large, colorful graffiti-like painting An Evening After the Rain, in which Lee shows an imaginative world with a dog stretching out his tongue to tease a strange-looking fish, a dragonfly and a sword-wielding girl fighter sporting a fur coat.

The cartoonist, writer and illustrator known by the name Red Capsule (紅膠囊) has installed an interesting piece of stuffed dolls resting in the comfortable sofas of the store window of the Pacific Design Center. The piece, titled Wonderful Taiwan (美好台灣), is a satirical and thought-provoking comment on politics, media and society in contemporary Taiwan.