All tomorrow's parties will be held here

The Museum of Tomorrow takes the commercialization of art to its furthest extreme and is an entertaining experience. PHOTOS: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES

The Museum of Tomorrow looks like a giant gift shop. It offers fresh air, sweet dreams and good vibes. It sells nothing but ideas.

It can be found on Taipei's Civic Boulevard. Fittingly, the outside is a facade. White PVC cladding covers the warehouse space and beneath the title "Museum of Tomorrow" is the catchphrase "A better tomorrow."

A 24-hour neon sign indicates the museum is open all day and night, while a digital readout signals how many days the exhibition has been running.

If the museum of the future has indeed arrived it is like a book by William Gibson, with a soundtrack from David Sylvian, played on a Bose CD player.

Enter there is an orange-colored wall. To the right is a display containing plain sheets of paper. There is nothing to the main warehouse space of whitewashed joists, except lilac-colored PVC walls, large signs introducing the "FLOWmarket?" and cube-shaped seating.

In the center of the gallery is an open-plan coffee shop selling refreshments such as a cup of espresso for NT$40, mineral water for NT$60 and cookies at NT$10.

Behind white curtains is the FLOWmarkettm where the future museum conducts its business. On steel racks are tubes and cartons, containers, bottles, hypodermics and tins.

The store appears to mimic Muji, the Japanese "no brand quality goods" company founded in 1980 that has a simple design aesthetic.

But it sells nothing, literally.

The tub named "universe.earth.us." contains only air, as do the bottles labeled "clean tap water" and "beautiful rivers." There are tins of "green knowledge," tetrapaks of "clean air" and plastic medicine bottles of "symptom removers."

Student Leo Lin holds a "you are beautiful" bottle.

Typical the wares on display is a transparent plastic bottle with the clear, white label "you are beautiful," which is repeated in smaller type in Chinese (你很美). It costs NT$75.

Industrial student Leo Lin (林鴻) and civil engineering student Jimmy Liu (劉峻銘)said they had heard of the museum from an article in the Liberty Times, our sister paper.

Leo he wanted to buy the "you are beautiful" bottle for his girlfriend because it was humorous and unusual.

"This place is cool. I don't know whether it's a museum or a shop, but I guess it's a combination of the two. I like the idea of it being free and open 24 hours," Lin said.

Pretty Yuen (雲平), 26, was taking pictures with her sister Yuen Fang (袁方) and said she often went to art galleries and museums but this was a bit different, more like a building dedicated to advertising.

"I don't think the items are expensive because you're buying an idea. But that's also why I haven't bought anything." Instead she photographed the goods on display, using her sister as a model.

Another near the exit is more conventional in appearance and sells E-Project books for NT$1,400 that feature "cool Web sites," cards, glacier water and T-shirts. A rack selling magazines prominently features the publication PPaper.

The biweekly is sold in 7-Elevens everywhere and is one of the few clues as to the company behind Museum of Tomorrow.

Pao Paws is a creative agency based in Taipei. Founded by Imin Pao (包益民) and Ivee Hu (胡至宜) in 1998, it has outlets in London, New York and Tokyo.

It has acted as an advertising agency for blue-chip clients such as Nike, Motorola and Sony, but has also been innovative in the areas of book design, talent spotting and even maternity clothing.

Pao Paws business director Karen Chiu (邱文君) said Danish designer Mads Hagstrom's FLOWmarket idea of combining art and grocery shopping had been adapted for the Taiwan market.

"The overall concept was created by ourselves [and Justify Union Technology Art Foundation]. We thought we needed more cultural things for people who live in Taipei. Considering the political situation we thought people deserved a better tomorrow," Chiu said.

She said the museum space had been provided by a vehicle dealer and would be adapted for another show starting in March, called Happy Living, that would include works from five international artists.

As for the current exhibition, Chiu said it was also intended to "inspire consumers to think, live and consume more holistically."

There are placards with facts such as, "The air inside the typical home is two to five times more polluted than the air outside — largely because of pesticides and household cleaners. Most people spend 90 percent of their time indoors."

It is ironic that advertisers who have commoditized everything are now telling us how to live naturally.

The commercialization of art, in a way, has reached its zenith. The traditional museum has been turned inside out. The gift shop becomes the gallery space and instead of not being able to buy anything, you can buy everything.

The idea is all and the objects cost nothing since most of them are recycled. It is the triumph of design over content.

It is simple but cost effective and quite entertaining.

The Museum of Tomorrow is open 24 hours a day at 180 Civic Boulevard Sec 3, Taipei (台北市市民大道三段180號). Until Feb. 28, with a new exhibition planned for March 22 to May 17. Visit www.museum-of-tomorrow.com. Entrance is free.