"What I have seen through the years is the challenges with which it [IT Park] has presented the public. Sometimes it not only challenges, but threatens them. I've seen people feel frustrated because the way they access a work of art didn't work and their definition of art was muted. The works here have not been the eye-pleasing paintings which which they were accustomed. Many have not known what to make of it," Tsong said.
"In IT Park's second year, there was an exhibition by Chen Chian-pei called `Tou Chi' (the Taiwanese folk religion ceremony in which the ghost of a deceased relative is believed to have come back to his or her house for a last look at the human world). As viewers came up to the white-draped second and third floors, they saw mourning crowds and funeral paraphernalia. Thinking that they'd seen not an exhibition but a real funeral, they left in bewilderment," Tsong said.
"Similar things happened at Wang Teh-yu's exhibition of inflated plastic membranes. When they were exhibited here, people couldn't believe they were looking at works of art. Their sense of complacence was challenged," Tsong continued.
It may sound a bit sectarian, but according to the artists here, you either like IT Park or you don't. There's a kind of tacit understanding which binds artists and viewers together.
"When you walk into this space, your intuition begins to interact with the peculiar setting. The new interpretation of the space that goes with each different exhibition -- and the interaction many of the exhibits require -- is seen as an affront to some viewers and even critics. Once they find that their previous knowledge fails to help them comprehend the works, they never want to step into this place again," Ku said.
Those who did come back were often seen engaged in casual conversation with the artists at the bar.
Until last April, the bar was on the third floor providing no-frills drinks to exhibition-goers. Its limited menu showed that, unlike other alternative spaces, such as Front, Tutto and Mi-zang, the bar was subordinate to the gallery, instead of the other way around.
However, the bar began to do more harm than good to the interaction between viewers and artists. "Many people passed by the works without giving them their due. Some did not even know there were works on exhibit. They just wanted to have fun at a bar," Chen Huei-chiao said.
That's why they decided to tear down the bar last April, thereby transforming IT Park into a pure art space.
Contrary to what IT Park artists expected, the renovated space attracted more visitors than before.
"We were surprised, but now we can be sure that when people come here, it's for the exhibitions. That's a positive change," Chen said.
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