International art village completed

After a year of renovation, the building that is to house Taiwan's first international art village was completed yesterday and will be open to the public on Sept. 30.

Inspecting the site, located at the intersection of Tienchin Street and Peiping East Road in downtown Taipei, director of Taipei City's Bureau of Cultural Affairs Lung Ying-tai (龍應台), said that she was happy to see the completion of the project.

"When I came here four years ago to see whether it was suitable to become the venue for the art village, it was an abandoned government office with a serious water leakage problem. Look now how the ugly duckling has become a beautiful swan and how a ghost house has turned out to be a shining piece of jewelry," she said.

Lung added that with the completion of the project, the city is seeking to provide a stage for local and international artists alike to interact with each other as well as the general public.

"Our goal is to start a network connecting art villages around the world, local private art groups and government art organizations," she said.

There are currently about 300 art villages around the globe.

The renovation of the 48-year-old, four-story office took about nine months and cost about NT$40 million. Half of the fund was donated to the city by Lin Bai-li (林百里), president of Quanta Computer, and the other half came from the mayor's supplementary fund.

Although the building is not scheduled to open officially until Sept. 30, two international artists, visual artist Aliza Olmert from Israel and poet Erik Lindner from Holland, moved into the facility yesterday.

They are two of the first group of international artists scheduled to stay in the village for between one week and three months.

While eight of those soon to arrive will visit as part of the city-sponsored Taipei 2001 International Poetry Festival, two are in the artists-in-residence program.

Since the city inaugurated the artists-in-residence program last year, about 20 international artists have visited Taiwan and eight local creative talents have visited three foreign countries.

Looking out from the window of his nearly-empty studio on the second floor, Lindner, a guest of the poetry festival, said that he is satisfied with his room.

"It feels like home, and the ceiling is high enough," said Lindner, who stands at 197cm.

Lindner said that his first impression of Taipei was that it was "hectic" and "multicultural."

"It's not much different from Amsterdam, which is also a dynamic and populated metropolis," said Lindner, who is scheduled to stay in the village for two months.

The building has nine other rooms like Lindner's. The city hopes to furnish them shortly. Most of the furniture will be donated by the Ritz Landis Hotel.

In addition to the 10 rooms, there is a workshop with computer and Internet facilities, a darkroom and a multimedia workroom. The first floor of the building will be accessible to the public, and holds a gallery, an auditorium, a cafe and an information center.

According to Kuo Wan-li (郭萬里), chief of the bureau's international affairs section and the supervisor of the renovation project, it will cost at least NT$20 million per year to maintain the home.

"Financing will be tight since we expect the city council to trim the budget proposed for next year substantially," he said. "We don't anticipate the offer of any more financial resources since he [Quanta Computer president Lin] has suggested that he's not the genie in the lamp."