MOCA Taipei and Jian Cheng Junior High School Era
In 1994, when the Taipei City Government
moved to its new address on Shifu Rd. In the Hsin-yi
District, there was some controversy over the issue
of what to do with the old elementary school building-whether
to tear it down or preserve it, and how the space
would be reused. There were even protests by students,
parents and teachers. The land on which the building
was built was first owned by the Ministry of Transportation
and Communications (MOTC), and in 1992, in line
with a Taipei City urban development plan, the
MOTC issued a plan to make it the site of a subway
station. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education
was planning to move Jian Cheng Junior High School
to the old City Hall as well. However, at the
end of 1994, the mayor of Taipei City, Chen Shui-bian,
decided to preserve the building intact in light
of its historical value. From the time that the
preservation plan was first raised to the time
it was finalized, the situation was unsettled,
since another proposal-to eliminate Jian Cheng
Junior High School-was also briefly circulated.
At that, parents and students took the streets
in protest.
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| MOCA Taipei is unique
among art museums in that it is designed to
“ share a single building” with
Jian Chen Junior High School. |
| ( Photo
by Lin Young-Xian ) |
After much discussion and negotiation among all
sides, a consensus satisfactory to the government
agencies and concerned citizens was finally reached:
“The main, frontal building of City Hall shall
be used for an art museum, the flanking structures
on the east and west shall become Jian Cheng Junior
High School buildings, and the remainder shall be
demolished for the construction of a new school
building.”
The protests to preserve the school were a very
sad chapter in that school’s history and led
to student flight elsewhere and a gradual reduction
in the number of classrooms. However, the unprecedented
protests also generated a very powerful cohesiveness
and sense of identity among the school’s faculty
and the student’s parents. After the protests,
Jian Cheng Junior High School’s interaction
with the local community was much warmer and more
intensive than that of other schools, and the residents
of the surrounding area become closer to one another
than ever.
After the protests, the community not only had a
new sense of identity but also acquired a friendly
new neighbor-the “Second Taipei Fine Arts
Museum.” The “Second Taipei Fine Arts
Museum” was originally going to be part of
Taipei City’s “Great Fine Arts Museum”
plan. The internal facilities throughout the building
were to be designed to meet the needs and standards
of “digital art,” and it would become
a branch of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM).
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