‘Taipei’s hosting of Nuit Blanche seems like a half-hearted, commercialized attempt to make Taipei look like an artistic city when the actual creative centers of the city are at risk.’

The News Lens
Date: 2016/10/09
By: Brian Hioe

Taipei’s much vaunted Nuit Blanche arts festival took place on Oct. 1 to mixed reactions. Nuit Blanche

is an arts festival which is held yearly in cities across the world. This was Taipei’s first time holding the event, making it the second Asian city to do so, with the first being Kyoto in 2015.

However, the event was, overall, a half-hearted one. Despite Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) advertising the event as an all-night arts party which would go until 6 am, seeing as the motto of Nuit Blanche is “No one sleeps tonight,” most events ended before midnight. The event was also marred by poor crowd control, with a notable lack of sufficient traffic police for the large crowds it drew. With no roads closed off for the event, crowds massed on the sidewalks, with 7/11s becoming a particular traffic hazard because of the swarms of individuals gathered around them.

Neither was the event as large-scale an arts event as was advertised. Given that the event consisted largely of light projections onto the Beimen gate and Dadaocheng buildings, some installation art, and scattered performances, the area designated for the event did not need to be so large, encompassing the north half of the 228 Memorial Park and running the length of Chongqing South Road up to Beimen. The event felt somewhat like a badly designed scavenger hunt as participants wandered across this vast amount of space looking for the next installation.     [FULL  STORY]