TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — This year's Taiwan Lantern Festival was a resounding success and here are some highlights.
After 23 years, the Lantern Festival returned to Taipei. According to the press release from Taipei’s Department of Information and Tourism, on Feb. 11 over one million people visited the festival.
The eye-catching 22-meter-high main “Brilliant Light of the Jade Hare” display is located at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Designed by artist Lee Ming-dao (李明道), also known as Akibo, the installation gives a three-minute performance every 30 minutes. Its facial animation featured Olympic weightlifting medalist Kuo Hsing-Chun’s (郭婞淳) facial expressions using motion capture technology.
The main display is located at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. (Taiwan News, Lyla Liu photo)
Meanwhile, on the plaza of the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, visitors can interact with the 3D installation “Taipei Together.” Created by Bito studio and B’in Live company, the installation has performances every 30 minutes between 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
According to the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, over half a million people have visited the venue since the festival started on Feb. 1. The number of visitors this month has also broken the previous monthly visitor record from 2019.
Turkish-based art collective Ouchhh also has a maze-like digital art piece facing Taipei 101. The venue will be the site of Taiwan’s first Four Seasons Hotel.
The work showcases real-time data, such as the number of people in metro stations, Ubike rental rates, and other data provided by their sponsor PX Mart. In addition to the animation, before the light show starts, the display turns red and a pray for Turkey message is shown due to the recent devastating earthquakes. To see the Turkish installation requires online booking.
The Lantern Festival will end on Feb. 19.
The digital artwork prays for Turkish people. (Taiwan News, Lyla Liu photo)
Ouchhh's work. (Facebook, PX Mart video)
