Kaohsiung’s past, with its industrial sector, has become the base for the Pier-2 Art Center that is driving the regional art scene in Taiwan’s south.
The sculptures with their hands on their waists marked the outdoor area of the Pier-2 Art Center. In front of me were artists participating in the art center’s weekend bazaar. One of the artists, originally from Taitung on Taiwan’s east coast, put her T-shirts and handmade accessories on display. She told me this place has similarities with the Huashan 1914 Creative Park—a cultural spot with exhibition spaces—in the capital Taipei. Further on, another woman was selling her illustrated cards and stickers.
Located in Kaohsiung, the Pier-2 Art Center comprises of warehouses, which were initially built to store sugar and fishmeal when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. The warehouses were later neglected because of a shift from the industry-based to a service-based economy.
Situated beside the Kaohsiung Harbor, Taiwan’s biggest port, local artists set up an artistic association in 2001 after the art center was rediscovered a year earlier for Taiwan’s National Day fireworks celebration. The Pier-2 Art Center now serves as a hub for artistic development in southern Taiwan. It also houses performing arts, such as the Kaohsiung Experimental Theater.
“Sometimes there are film exhibitions,” said Guo Wen-xiu, an artist who took part in the bazaar. She added that anyone could come to watch the movies.
I spotted a wall mural with the Pier-2 Art Center name before walking straight to M-ZONE, a maker space that promotes an ecosystem for the rooted makers with activities, classes, and lectures. Jointly established last year by the Economic Development Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government and a Taiwanese maker movement, the local authorities aim is that the people of Taiwan may actualize their ideas with their hands at the maker space.
I saw a man working on a handmade men’s zipper wallet with various tools on his table. Still in the same location, I came across a boy focusing on his laptop with 3D printers beside him.
I walked for a few minutes from M-ZONE to get to the railway track with an abandoned locomotive on the open field, “a locomotive for bringing imported materials,” said guide Jeffrey Chen. He explained that a locomotive carried those materials—namely steel, sand, and plastic—for production in Kaohsiung. Once processed, the finished goods were shipped overseas. The locomotive back then, around 1970s to 1980s, made use of wood to fuel the engine. In contrast, Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s largest industrial city today.
Jeffrey said that the warehouses at the Pier-2 Art Center were once considered storage for produced items. Those warehouses were still in operation after the Japanese occupation in Taiwan ended in 1945. The ships later exported those products in small containers. Sugar and bananas were the most important commodities to be exported back then.
The empty properties—25 of them—had already been transformed into small exhibition spaces, studios, a creation space for resident artists, shops that sell design products, among others.
Near the train track, there is another warehouse remodeled into a venue called ‘In Our Time’. It combines diner, an art gallery, and live music, as well as a web radio station, all under one roof. Family and friends spend their afternoons hanging out together here. In Kaohsiung, artists hailing from Taiwan and elsewhere have a place and a community that welcomes all kinds of creativity.
TRAVEL POINTERS
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How to Get There:
EVA Air, Taiwan’s first private airline, operates a daily flight from Jakarta and Denpasar to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with the scheduled flight time of 5 hours and 25 minutes and 5 hours and 20 minutes. The airline also runs two flights from Singapore to the same airport every day, which is expected to take around 4.5 hours. There is no direct flight from those three cities to Kaohsiung yet.
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Getting to Kaohsiung:
From Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, consider the Taoyuan Metro’s express train that goes from the Airport Terminal 2 Station to Taipei Main Station, as Taoyuan and Taipei are two different cities. The ride costs NT$160 and takes 37 minutes.
Taiwan High Speed Rail takes passengers from the Taipei Main Station to THSR Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung. The ride varies from 1 hour and 34 minutes to 2 hours and 14 minutes in duration. There are several high-speed trains every hour. As of October 12, 2017, the last train departs from Taipei to Kaohsiung at 10:16 p.m. Online booking is possible. NT$1490 for a standard reserved seat; NT$2195 for a business seat.
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Getting to the Art Center:
From Zuoying Station, get on the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit to Yanchengpu Station on the Orange Line of the MRT. A one-way ticket is a 21-minute journey and costs NT$30. Once at Yanchengpu Station, head to Exit 1 and walk for around five minutes to reach the Pier-2 Art Center. Find the signs that give the directions to the art center.
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The Pier-2 Pass:
The Pier-2 Pass costs NT$149 for an adult and it gives unlimited access to the Pier-2 tower, Contemporary Art in Pier-2, and The Memories of Pier-2 WAREHOUSE for one day. The pass holder may also take the electric train of Hamasen Pier-2 Line once.
The Pier-2 Art Center opens from Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.