Written/Compiled and Reported by Chen Guanxin, MOOK Travel Life Network
The much-visited public art exhibition "1600 Pandas World Tour—Taipei" has wrapped up its display at Taipei City Hall Plaza and will relocate to the National Theater & Concert Hall on March 14. The exhibition's most popular interactive photo area sees long queues every day. To ensure these "on-duty" pandas look their best when they reunite with the public at the National Theater & Concert Hall, the organizers invited Zheng Feiwen, Design Director of Rainy International, to demonstrate the process of restoring the paper pandas. Zheng explained that the restoration process begins with sanding down any uneven or damaged areas on the paper pandas using abrasive paper. Next, a special "panda hyaluronic acid" mixture of filler and glue is applied to smooth over the wounds. After another round of sanding, an eco-friendly waterproof paint is applied—akin to giving the pandas a dose of Botox—to restore the faded and chipped pandas to their former glory.
The exhibition of 1600 paper pandas will be held at the National Theater & Concert Hall starting March 14. (Photo provided by Taipei City Government Department of Information and Tourism)
The Department of Information and Tourism stated that the pandas’ exhibition at Taipei City Hall was a resounding success, attracting over one million visitors. The second phase of the exhibition will run from March 14 to March 30 at the National Theater & Concert Hall’s Arts and Cultural Plaza. From 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM daily, the plaza will also feature paper Taiwanese black bears. The curators have also planned various surprise elements to make the "panda bear summit" even more exciting.
A damaged paper panda is being repaired with a mixture of filler and glue known as "panda hyaluronic acid." (Photo provided by Taipei City Government Department of Information and Tourism)
This exhibition specially invited artist Paulo Grangeon to create representations of Taiwan’s most iconic conservation species—the Formosan black bear. With 200 paper-carved black bears on display, the aim is to raise public awareness about local conservation issues. After the exhibition, these paper pandas and black bears will be auctioned off for charity, with proceeds donated to animal protection and ecological conservation organizations.
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1600 Paper Pandas Set to Go on Display – A Cute Flash Mob Recap of Taipei City
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