By the MOOK Scenic Spots Editorial Team
The Taoyuan Land Art Festival is held from September 9 to September 25 in the Xinwu and Bade districts, offering a lively array of activities. With stone weirs, irrigation ponds, coastlines, and natural ecosystems—distinctive local landscapes—as the core of its planning, the festival is a promising highlight of Taoyuan’s tourism. Built on three main themes—local awakening, community engagement, and artistic foundation—and guided by four core values—community participation, local identity, environmental sustainability, and circular economy—it establishes a branded local art event.
The soon-to-be-completed highlight artwork
The land art festival takes visitors along the coastline to explore the scenery and installations in Xinwu, invites them into communities to experience daily life, and hosts artists in residence at factories for on-site creations. From solo works to collective projects with locals, it delivers a rich sensory experience, forming an open-air art museum. The full program includes 37 art installations, 8 themed events, and 6 irrigation pond concerts, integrating artists and tourist factories to offer audiences diverse and immersive experiences.
Creating
The Xinwu exhibition area has invited twelve international masters, including Lin Shunlong, Fan Jiangmingdao, and Xu... among others. Along a route from Xinwu’s Yong’an Fishing Harbor through the Green Corridor to the Driftwood Park, 16 art installations are displayed. Amid the sound of waves and sea breezes, visitors can enjoy a unique art festival. Through artist residencies and collaborative works with residents, the festival resonates with landscapes such as communities, schools, commercial areas, libraries, irrigation channels, cultural sites, historic buildings, and fishing harbors. Exhibition venues include the Fan Jiang Ancestral Houses, the Rice Story Museum, the Hakka Cultural Library, the Water Lane Secret Garden, schools, and community spaces.
Additionally, the site offers other activities, including: Beach Clean-Up—encouraging participants to clean the shore and create art using recycled materials together; Thousand-People Stone Weir Building—led by experts, this experience revives the nearly lost traditional technique of building stone weirs and awakens memories of the past fishing lifestyle; Air Raid Fun Run—a “themed fun run” along the coastal area and among art installations, spanning about 1.7 kilometers; and Defend the Weirs—Xinwu—featuring a miniature water pool to demonstrate the principles of stone weir construction, plus hourly storytelling sessions with the children’s picture book