Navigating the freshly opened Taichung Art Museum in central Taiwan feels like engaging with a living sculpture. Designed by the renowned Japanese architecture firm Sanaa, the complex unites eight playfully tilted buildings that effortlessly combine an art museum with a public library. Clad with shimmering, mesh-like silver walls, the interior boasts dramatically high roofs and meandering pathways.
Beyond the breezy lobby—a space that blurs boundaries—visitors amble along paths and ramps, suddenly transitioning in a library one moment and a top-tier art exhibition the next. A entry might unexpectedly lead a overhead passage offering vistas from a rooftop garden, providing sweeping panoramas of Taichung’s Central Park, or into a intimate teenage reading nook. Floating staircases cling on building exteriors, and floor levels are deliberately disparate, enhancing each space’s unique function and atmosphere rather than imposing a rigid, uniform layout.
“It is ‘a place designed for wandering’,” remarks Lan Yu-hua, an associate researcher at the museum, chuckling. But she argues that’s part of the intended experience: “We say that losing your way is positive.”
This civic undertaking stands as the latest in a series of prominent museums and performance venues unveiled across Taiwan over the past two decades.
A Visionary Collaboration
Led by 2010 Pritzker Prize laureates Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa—known for the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the Sydney Modern gallery—Sanaa worked alongside the Taiwanese firm Ricky Liu & Associates Architects+Planners on the multi-year build. The Taichung city government’s simple directive was for an art museum and a library on a single site.
The completed project has erased the lines between the two institutions. The design encourages visitors to slow down, easily picturing a day spent studying or creating in the library, broken up with leisurely walks through halls of art.
“We are truly delighted that we are with the library all together, because I think that can successfully bring in another layer of audiences for us,” states Yi-Hsin Lai, the museum’s director.
Opening Displays Spanning Cultures
The museum’s inaugural presentation feature new installations by renowned South Korean artist Haegue Yang and Taiwanese artist Michael Lin. Yang’s large-scale installation offers an abstract interpretation on the banyan trees and fireflies ubiquitous in Taiwan and Korea. Hanging from the 27-meter-high central atrium, it fuses her signature venetian blinds with lights and steel frames. At night, the glowing light from her work is visible through the exterior mesh from a kilometer away.
The larger opening exhibition, titled A Call of All Beings, is an eclectic but coherent mix of specially made and freshly collected art by artists from 20 countries. Organized by an international team, it places side-by-side master painters from mid-20th century Taiwan alongside postmodern video works. In a significant achievement, the curators also obtained original early sketches from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince and archival photographs of Helen Keller.
The exhibition highlights Taiwanese artists, with a focus on those from Taichung. There is also a conscious emphasis on including artists with disabilities—a timely initiative.
Raising the Global Art Scene’s Awareness
For Taiwan’s art sector, this new museum represents a significant opportunity to increase international recognition in the global art scene and further “decentralize” cultural focus from the capital, Taipei. Taichung, the island’s biggest metropolitan area outside Taipei, is a short, easy trip from Taipei and already hosts a respected Museum of Fine Arts and a growing sector of private galleries. However, it has historically struggled to attract international art tourists.
“It’s quite dynamic and vibrant now. We hope that in a few years Taichung can be an artistic landmark Asian city,” expresses Director Lai.
Claudia Chen, chair of a major Taiwanese art association, describes the new museum as a potential “gamechanger” for the country, “redirecting attention from the north to south.”
“While Taichung and southern Taiwan have had many arts and cultural events in the past, none have reached the magnitude and significance of Taipei,” Chen notes.
Another arts foundation executive, Jenny Yeh, points out that Sanaa’s involvement has attracted worldwide notice and amplified Taiwan’s existing artistic momentum. “This will encourage more international visitors to explore beyond Taipei and experience a broader view of Taiwan’s cultural landscape. Overall, it will be a significant lift to Taiwan’s visibility on the global stage.”
The museum welcomes the general public in mid-December, preparing for a mostly regional audience, at least initially, alongside visiting international press and museum professionals.
