'THE GOAL OF the exhibition is to give a message that war is worthless and peace is priceless.' With these words Lee Juhfeng, commissioner of Kinmen County in Taiwan, inaugurated the island's new Bunker Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA).
Organisers scheduled the opening for September 11 on land that is no stranger to bombardment. During the Hot and Cold war between Taiwan and mainland China, the island of Kinmen - about a kilometre off the coast of the mainland's Xiamen City - became the pawn in a cross-strait chess match. During the most grisly battle, on August 23, 1958, Kinmen suffered 10,000 dead. Lee says almost 1.5 million bombs have been dropped on the island.
In response, the Taiwanese military constructed an intricate network of defences, including a system of landmines, a subterranean river, and the numerous bunkers that form the stage for BMoCA's exhibition.
'Against the backdrop of recent terrorist activities in Russia, turning this former battlefield into a place of art carries special significance,' says curator and artist Cai Guoqiang. 'We're not just making an exhibit - we're also working on something that's building a new culture.'
Fujian-born and New York-based, Cai's list of achievements include the 48th Venice Art Biennial's Golden Lion Prize. He's probably best known for his pyrotechnical fetes, such as the 2001 display that opened the Apec summit in Shanghai. Cai chose the bunkers as part of his 'Everything is a Museum' series, in which artists turn alternative spaces or remote communities into unconventional exhibition sites. He says the BMoCA project is receiving equal support from Taiwan and mainland China. 'I've talked to [mainland] Chinese officials and they said that it's OK to cover this in Chinese media - that they have no problem with it.'
But the spirit of co-operation hasn't reached all levels. Two mainland artists whose work appears at BMoCA were refused visas by Taiwan to attend the opening. Nonetheless, there's hope that BMoCA and similar overtures towards peace will serve to improve cross-strait relations.