With an opening ceremony inaugurated by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and other officials as well as international city representatives, there could not have been a higher-profile commencement to the International Design House Exhibition, which is sort of a climax to two years of World Design Capital Taipei activities.
To check out whether the hardware lives up to the hype, the Taipei Times visited the exhibit this weekend, which is housed in six pavilions at Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and focuses on how to use design to improve a city.
Before even reaching the exhibition, however, the hype is at risk of falling flat because there is no significant signage around the entrances that could attract passersby into the venue.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
Once you enter, however, the brightly-colored wayfinding system makes the exhibit easily navigable. Each pavilion is put together by a different curator, making them quite different in atmosphere, content and organization.
THE PAVILIONS
The Power of Taiwan Design, the first pavilion, has as its theme “breakthrough,” displaying eight Taiwanese enterprises as well as a Taiwan-Japan collaboration display.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
The hall has a splashy entrance with various design products on metal rod and glass displays surrounded by giant color-changing inflatable spheres. Walk further into the hall, though, and things start feeling too much like a trade show rather than a design exhibit as you walk through sections displaying the products, history and philosophy of each company.
Some of the displays are interesting — such as longtime meat company T-Ham’s (台畜) screen prints of various meat packages hanging on actual meat hooks — but you can’t shake the feeling that this is actually the Creative Expo, which took place in the same space earlier this year.
The second pavilion, Visual Taipei, is curated by Page Tsou (鄒駿昇), founder of Taipei-based Auspicious Design, is a joy to walk through. More than 300 works by 60 visual artists, graphic designers, animators and illustrators from around the world are featured in a maze-like network of colorful miniature houses.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
The work is diverse and refreshing and visual stimulation abounds. There are also special projects for this exhibit — 20 posters created by local and international artists under the theme of “Taipei Life,” and 15 illustrated Eames chairs. There will be artist talks throughout the duration of the exhibit and renowned chef Andre Chiang (江振誠) will make special Taiwanese drinks for visitors.
It is not clear why the third pavilion goes before the fourth one, as both contain exhibits focusing on urban innovation from various cities around the world.
The fourth pavilion contains the visual introduction and much richer material than the third, which is relatively empty and uninspiring. The exhibits take on a variety of approaches — some only showcase their products, some are information-heavy, while others present concepts that facilitate interaction.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
New School Helsinki’s space quickly became a playground for adults and children. Visitors tie colored strings onto metal frames, a project that will keep growing until the exhibit’s last day. A staff member explains that the green strings represent trees, white the buildings and orange the metro system, but it is the people that tie them together to make a city. Eindhoven’s display is a simple virtual reality portal that connects the Dutch city with Taipei.
The bright lights turn dim in the fifth pavilion, From Ink to Apparel, which showcases collaborations between contemporary calligrapher Tong Yang-tze (董陽孜) and a number of fashion designers. Designed by architect Liu Kuo-chang (劉國滄), the exhibition is elegant and atmospheric, encapsulating Yang’s bold and vigorous brush strokes through motifs apparent throughout the entire space. This one truly feels like a cohesive museum exhibit, closer to what may be expected from such a prestigious design show.
The sixth pavilion, Taipei Issuuuue, is the literal application of the theme of improving a city. It contains various projects and concepts aimed at making Taipei a better place to live through sustainable design. It also features the results of the work by this year’s Designer in Residence exchange program. Many intriguing ideas can be found here, including a “cloud fridge” that allows people to divide their food delivery into several installments to ensure freshness and reduce food waste, and a “re-create Taipei” project that aims to add some creativity to Taipei’s parks and public spaces through the use of waste material.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
The pavilions mostly serve to showcase existing ventures which may be nice to look at and think about, but this one is exciting because of its concrete possibilities to our immediate surroundings.
Despite the unifying theme, the exhibition as a whole is quite uneven and somewhat incoherent — but it is still worth visiting as there will probably be something that will catch your eye. And don’t forget, it’s free.
There are also three satellite areas and various events and talks — check the event Web site for more information.
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