Mirage V : Disused Public Property in Taiwan

DURATION: 2016-05-21 ~ 2016-05-21
OPENING: 2016-05-21 00:15-AM
VENUE: Taipei Contemporary Art Center
ADDRESS: No. 11, Lane 49, Baoan Street, Taipei (MRT: Daqiaotou Station)
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Since the first volume of Mirage was published in 2010, the series has documented more than five hundred disused public properties in five volumes. More than half of the listed cases in the series refer to the so-called “mosquito pavilions” in Taiwan, namely those ill-maintained historical buildings, abandoned heritage sites, dysfunctional spaces emerged in the process of social structural changes, such as disused elementary schools, military facilities, inoperative markets, etc. There are more unused new buildings that are generated due to many excessively elevated campaign promises by politicians, optimistic development planning, ignorance about the urbanization shifts and certainly corruptions. Many cases have been reported by media and the Mirage series, and the government is alerted to start managing some of them. From the reaction, we can see the related government sectors are still not fully aware of their own properties and management responsibilities. Despite there are new administrative regulations to report and manage the local public properties and new allocation of budget and human resource to support operation systems, there are still quite many different problems occurred in these reactivation schemes. In a summarized analysis, the existing closed-door reactivation, superficial reactivation and passive reactivation approaches of developmentalism and market economy mind-set extend the questions to considerations for spatial transformation and land justice. The current Taiwanese society faces critical challenges of public debt, the aging society and the declining birth rate, and the minority and young generation are going to be further deprived in the coming years. All empty “mosquito pavilions” are going to be the most ironic gravestones that the government leaves for the powerless citizens.