Taiwan on Saturday launched a flora exposition in central Taiwan in a move aimed at boosting tourism to the island and raising its international profile.
The 2018 Taichung World Flora Exposition, attended by President Tsai Ing-wen, will be held at three venues for six months and is expected to host over 8 million domestic and international visitors.
Dozens of teams have participated in the expo's World Gardens Competition. The German Pavilion is designed and built by Magdeburg-based organization Kulturanker.
‘It's a huge honour for us as an association to be able to represent Germany in Taiwan,’ said Kulturanker chairman Karsten Steinmetz.
Surrounded by 600 fragrant Taiwanese herbs, the Bauhaus-style pavilion, titled ‘Floral Frame of Time,’ is constructed out of 233 Taiwanese bamboo poles, 20 tons of gravel and over 200 metres of power cables and an irrigation system over 1 kilometre in length.
Artistic director Stephan Murer told dpa in Taipei on Thursday about the mixing of cultures that can be seen in the project. Local materials were used to realize the German team's concept, he said.
The bamboo, a traditional building material in Taiwan, and native plants around the pavilion combine German and Asian elements. The exterior walls consist of large-scale works by contemporary painters.
‘The examination of the historic Bauhaus is for us a trip back to the blooming of Germany's cultural history,’ described Murer on Saturday.
Sixteen volunteers from Germany were working since September to get the pavilion ready in time. ‘All of them took time off work and toiled away here,’ said Steinmetz while praising the resulting work.
The design relates to the 100th jubilee of the founding of the Bauhaus design movement, which will be celebrated in 2019.
A mini pavilion has also been erected in Magdeburg to give those in Germany an impression of the larger installation in Taiwan.
The pavilion offers space for German and Taiwanese artists to present paintings, sculptures, murals, and poems, Steinmetz said in Taipei.