TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A weekend-long celebration featuring projections, light installations, and a five-minute fireworks display welcomed the New Taipei City Art Museum (NTCAM) on Saturday.
During the day, an outdoor market along Yingge Old Street offered local delicacies and creative products, organized by the New Taipei Cultural Affairs Department. Students from the nearby National Taiwan University of Arts led performances, including percussion, dance, and storytelling, per CNA.
The theme of the opening weekend was “Listening to Vitality.” The new art museum was designed as a "living organism" that will communicate with the community through daily light shows, creating a dialogue between contemporary art and architecture.
The five-minute fireworks show featured pyrotechnics meant to represent starlight, with spiraling effects and waterfall-type fireworks in gold and silver. The fireworks were meant to signal a journey of rebirth for the museum.
Inaugural exhibitions include “Reimagining Radical Cities,” showcasing the works of 23 local and international artists and artist groups. Drawing on the rise of the modern city, the exhibition investigates changes in industry, labor migration, economic landscapes, and urban spatial politics that have emerged since the latter half of the twentieth century.
Another exhibition, “The Ongoing Nature,” features large-scale installations inspired by the interplay between natural landscapes and human-made environments. The exhibit reflects the museum’s ecological surroundings and encourages collective art-making.
Two artists present site-specific works. “Mind Map–River” by Kuo I-chen (郭奕臣) places aerial photos of the Tamsui River basin from the 1960s and early 2000s side by side. Visitors are invited to construct miniature buildings on the map, transforming it into a collaborative artwork blending reality and memory.
Meanwhile, “Shift Light Basin” by Xin Qi (辛綺) creates a landscape with vibrant fabric and mixed materials. The installation immerses visitors in a mystical forest, highlighting the dynamic interaction between humans and nature.
