A giant transformer robot called "Twisted DNA" has been placed in Wanhua Plaza No. 406, near the intersection of Zhonghua Road Section 1 and Changsha Street in Taipei City, to help revive the area.
The plaza is home to the ruins of the Xibenyuan Temple, built in 1929 by a Taiwanese branch of a Japanese Buddhist sect.
Among the remains are the residence of the head priest, the bell tower, and a few other historical structures. The site has long been ignored and suffers from a lack of lighting in the evening. Nearby residents even describe the area as looking like a heap of rubble in the daytime and a haunted house at night.
Help, however, is on the way. Plans have been laid out to renovate the area next year, but prior to that Taipei's Department of Cultural Affairs and the Museum of Contemporary Art have launched the area as a public exhibition space. They hope to inject some life into the plaza.
"Twisted DNA," which accompanied the popular local band Mayday on its world tour this year, does much to enliven the plaza.
Meanwhile, artistic drawings by Band 13 on the fence that surrounds the decrepit bell tower have helped to brighten up the spot. In addition, balloons of different colors have been placed inside the bell tower, replacing the huge prayer bell.
A piece of driftwood art by Wang Zhen-wei has also been installed, while Xu Yang-cong's plastic lampshades create a sea of colorful flowers. Chen Yi-zhang's glass and steel chairs resembling flower petals glitter in the evening hours. All of these artworks are helping bring people to the plaza at night.
The Museum of Contemporary Art said the exhibition will continue until the end of February, and on weekends the plaza will serve as a venue for small-scale concerts or painting activities. The greater amount of activity in the plaza will help it become a destination in itself and erase fears that the area is haunted, the museum said.
(This article originally appeared in The Liberty Times Nov. 11.)