The Entrance Plaza and Outdoor Sculpture
1994 onward
The museum is approached across a great sweep of pale paving, curving around lawns and clumps of trees, with the brick facade at one end and the paths into the park at the other. Sculptures stand on the grass at the edges, a boulder-like stone form here, a bronze figure there, so that the plaza is the first gallery you enter. It is where school groups gather, where the light rail crowds arrive on weekend afternoons, and where, in the evening, the locals walk their dogs and practise dance routines under the lights.
The plaza was rebuilt when the park was developed in the two thousands, and it connects the museum to the sculpture park that spreads across the lawns toward the station. The museum's own count is about forty outdoor works of sculpture and installation in the park, many made by Taiwanese and international artists in stone, steel and bronze, and set among the trees so that you come on them unexpectedly. Look for the pieces closest to the building first, and then let the paths lead you outward. The works are not labelled in a single guide, so ask at the desk for the current map.
The open expanse can be fierce in the midday heat, but it is also where the building looks best, with the flags moving and the mountains of Shoushan behind. The plaza is the meeting point of the whole park, and the museum's outdoor events, from night markets to film screenings, take place here. If you want the sculptures to yourself, come early on a weekday morning before the tour groups arrive.
Did You Know? The park contains about forty outdoor sculptures and installations, so the plaza is the first gallery you enter before you reach the door.
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