He also launched a user-friendly Web site and a new logo.
“We were fortunate to find sponsors who helped — Mercedes when it was still called DaimlerChrysler, which financed our new Web site and leased us a SmartforTwo which I drove for more than a year with our new logo splashed all over it and underneath ‘We are Smart!’” he said.
“Later there were Opel and Continental Engineering, who supported us in organizing nationwide green projects,” he said.
There were inevitably a few irritants. One of the artists the center exhibited obviously had problems with certain individuals, who called day and night threatening to break in and remove the objects on display as security for outstanding debts, even though most of these were large stone sculptures. The heaviest was a 6 tonne piece at the entrance to the building, which had to be lifted into place by a special crane. The threats died away after staff members explained what the callers’ proposed scheme would actually involve.
“Again, early on I had a run-in with the press,” Gerbig said, “over a grossly distorted article which claimed I’d said the areas around the train station and the airport looked like Palestine! Not only had I never said that, but I’d also never met the journalist who wrote it. The ensuing war of words was never unambiguously terminated — there was only a half-hearted comment in the newspaper, far short of a correction. Ever since I’ve been rather wary of the press — with notable exceptions, of course.”
But Gerbig has nothing but praise for Taiwan’s artists, as well as the official bodies who’ve proved so helpful over the years. And it’s a singular tribute to Taiwan that, along with his Shanghainese wife, he’ll continue to live here, in Tianmu (天母), after his retirement and will no doubt remain a familiar face at local arts events.
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