The four-story building, with windows on alternate floors tinted gray and yellow stands at the corner of Tienchin St. (
There are about 300 art villages around the world, serving as guest homes to artists and writers. The establishment of the Taipei International Art Village (TIAV, 台北國際藝術村), slated to open in September, is an important step in building up Taiwan's international artists-in-residence program, which was inaugurated in 2000.
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
The director of the Taipei City government's cultural bureau, Lung Ying-tai (
PHOTO: COURTESY OF L'ORANGERIE INTERNATIONAL ART CONULTANTS
TIAV is part of the city government's strategy to turn Taipei into an international metropolis. The chief of the cultural bureau's international affairs section, Kuo Wan-li (
When complete, TIAV will be able to host ten guests, each provided with a studio apartment and a workshop with computer and Internet facilities. The first floor of the building will be accessible to the public, and will hold a gallery, an auditorium, a cafe, and an information center.
"Although we don't demand that our guests submit work during their stay, we want to offer them a venue if they choose to showcase their work or express their ideas," said Kuo.
TIAV also includes a darkroom and a multimedia workroom, but incorporation of other expensive specialized facilities is dependant on increased funding.
The village is expected to host 25 guests in the field of arts and culture every year. Guests will stay from ten days to three months. There are plans to allow for another 25 local artists from other cities in Taiwan. The ten first guests to stay in TIAV when it opens in September has already been scheduled. These include poets Erik Kindner from Holland, Ramakanta Rath from India, Dao Kim Hoa from Vietnam, Naowarat Pongpaiboon from Thailand, and Lim Swee Tin from Malaysia, who are visiting as part of the city government sponsored Taipei 2001 International Poetry Festival. Visual artists Aliza Olmert and Zvi Tolkovsky from Israel and Daniel Ulises Rivera from Honduras are also expected.
Although TIAV is the first art village of its kind to open, Taipei is not alone in seeking to bring together local and international arts talent. As early as in 1997, the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA, 文建會) decided to establishment an international art village in central Taiwan, but after construction was delayed by the 921 earthquake, in 1999, the whole project was shelved in favor of plans to reuse idle buildings for the creation of art villages.
In June last year, under the auspices of CCA's Taichung office, the first art village in the country, Stock 20 (
The private sector is also getting in on the act. The Bamboo Curtain Studio (竹圍工作室), operated by ceramic artist and art researcher Margaret Hsiao (蕭麗紅), is undergoing renovation. Hsiao is hoping to turn her huge 1,500 square meter compound, which now consists of a ceramic workshop and some exhibition halls, into an art village for contemporary artists so they can have enough space to work on larger projects. Hsiao has already been contacted by overseas foundations for artist placement or exchange programs even though the renovation project will not be complete before the end of this year.
Part of the impetus for the quick execution of the TIAV project was the pressing need to provide suitable accommodation for visitors coming to Taiwan as part of the international artists-in-residence program. According to Kuo, guests like Australian writer Bernard Cohen and French Chinese writer, also Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian (高行健), were put up in hotels during their recent visits.
"The city government wants guests to stay longer without being isolated, and to extend its list to visual and performing artists that demand larger space for their artistic creations. Hotels are obviously not an ideal option," Kuo said.
TIAV cost NT$40 million to build, with half the funds donated to the city by art connoisseur Lin Bai-li (
"I grew up in a place [Hong Kong] that takes in a lot of foreign influences in its cultural formation and I saw how foreigners get to know about Chinese culture in Hong Kong," said Lin in February.
"Art does not mean blind adoration for advanced cultures," he added. "Cultural exchange helps us see where we are and what we are like."
While there is still a long way to go, Wu Ma-li (
For artists from outside Taipei, where there is little access to international art, TIAV will be a window onto the world. Sandra Tsai (蔡金洋), executive of Hsinchu-based Accton Art Foundation (智邦藝術基金會), said she appreciated that the city government had taken artists from outside Taipei into consideration. "The village should not just host foreign artists. It has to be from both sides," she said. "I think it is an indispensable part of the plan that artists are able to exchange their cultural seeds and foster international perspective in their vision."
The city government, however, will have to work hard to keep TIAV on the world's cultural map. Kuo estimates that it will take at least NT$1 million per month to maintain the home for cultural guests. Financing is expected to be tight in the current economic climate, but TIAV has received a donation of furniture from the Ritz Landis Hotel, and organizers say that fund-raising will continue in earnest.
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