However, the onset of an urbanization boom changed everything, gradually pushing young people to seek opportunities outside the village. Meanwhile, the internet era began overshadowing the need for physical markets, leading to a slow abandonment of the formerly buzzing fair. On the side of Taiping’s deserted streets, concrete houses occasionally interspersed with old brick buildings emerge. There, a couple of elderly residents sit at their doorsteps and chat, painting a picture of a prosperous era that has now gone into decay.
“I see many plants growing towards the sun from the gaps of the abandoned building. We hope to create a sense of vitality and rebirth from the ruins so that people can feel new energy and perception from the old structure, as well as a new understanding of time to this whole area.”
Ma Yansong
Timeless Beacon by Ma Yansong. Photograph by MAD.A three-story building is wrapped in reflective film, a new material that blurrily mirrors the surrounding old streets through the building’s façade and inner space, respectively. At the top, a towering multimedia light device is enveloped in colourfully delicate pieces of cloth, fluttering in the wind romantically. At night, it transforms into a new “lighthouse” of the village, creating a dreamy aura along the bankside.
Timeless beacon, the art installation will be on show until the summer of 2024.
