the art newspaper:

Grand plans for Guggenheim Taiwan
Will the Foundation’s fifth proposal for a museum in Asia come to fruition?
By Lisa Thompson

TAICHUNG. The Guggenheim Foundation and the mayor of Taichung, Jason Hu,
have unveiled a proposal for a new Guggenheim Museum in Taichung, Taiwan.

Plans for a spectacular new building have already been designed by the
world-renowned deconstructionist architect Zaha Hadid, who was present at
the unveiling of the project on Wednesday 16 July, together with Guggenheim
Foundation Director Thomas Krens and Mayor Jason Hu. According to reports by
the BBC, the museum would be part of a larger cultural complex to include an
opera house designed by Jean Nouvel, who designed the proposed Rio de
Janeiro Guggenheim, and a new Taichung City Hall to be designed by Frank
Gehry, architect of the Bilbao Guggenheim and the new proposed Guggenheim
for New York City.

The Guggenheim is famous for the crowd-pulling architecture of its new
museums, and the Taiwan proposal is perhaps the most astonishing of all.
Hadid’s design is characterized by its movability; the West Wing can be
placed into three different positions, and the East Gallery has the capacity
of moving between the first and second floor galleries. According to the
BBC, if the Taichung project is realized, which will not be announced until
September 2003, it will cost an estimated $170million (£106m). It is still
unclear how much of the funding will come from the Guggenheim and how much
from the Taiwan government.

This is the Guggenheim Foundation’s fifth attempt to open a museum in Asia,
four plans for Japan having failed, and is the latest of a series of
proposed Guggenheim’s throughout the world. Following the success of its
museum in Bilbao, Spain, the Foundation has proposed a museum for Rio de
Janeiro, opened and closed a branch in Las Vegas, and planned for a third
Guggenheim in New York City. Each expansion project has been met with
controversy. The Las Vegas branch was closed down in January of 2003. The
Rio de Janeiro project has been put on hold due to a legal dispute in the
Brazilian courts concerning the legality of the contract signed between the
mayor of Brazil and Mr Krens. The New York City project has been abandoned
because of financial difficulties. The question remains whether the Taichung
project will proceed, and if so what will guarantee its success?

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11255

____________________

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Digital Resources
Institute of Chinese Studies
University of Heidelberg
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Germany

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