8th La Biennale Di Venezia ‧ Next Exit_Exhibition_Projects | KRIS YAO｜ARTECH

In 2002, Artech was chosen to represent Taiwan in the Venice Biennale with the Taiwan High Speed Rail Hsinchu Station Project. Installed in the Palazzo delle Prigioni, the exhibition was titled “NEXIT” (NEXT EXIT), offering a dual meaning with its typography and abstract symbolism.

The exhibition utilizes the existing chambers to create three major exhibition spaces: the “Platform Theater”, “Station Architecture” and “Design Concept.” The High Speed Rail Station is presented as a stage, assembling a group of traveling strangers together to share a fleeting, collective experience. The intention is to make use of the impermanent nature of space and time associated with the station, to create the central theme of the entire exhibition.

The exhibition opens with two parallel platforms separated by a translucent white screen set under the vaulted roof, designed to create a spatial reality for the station. Photographs of life-size travelers on the platform are hung on one side of the walls, with images of the visitors also projected onto these photographs. On the other side, abstract silhouettes of more travelers are set to stand on a surreal platform. Movies of moving trains and travelers were projected to the screen in between, while music filled the vaulted space. As viewers pass through these installations, the virtual line separating reality from imagination blurs. The exhibition ends at the platforms where one begins their journey, signifying the countless stories of impermanence written between the transitory travelers at the station.