2B205, 2023, mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist. Commissioned by Taipei Biennial 2023.
Lai Chih-Sheng produces spatial interventions that create an uncanny experience of architecture. With minimal alterations, he enhances easily neglected aspects of a space and subtly reconfigures the relationship between the viewers’ bodies and their surroundings.
Room 205 is an unusual hybrid space on the second floor of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. It is a gallery where people can view art, but it is also a corridor where museum facilities are located. There is a large cargo elevator, an emergency exit, an electrical box, public toilets, and a water dispenser.
The various uses and disparate temporalities of room 205 make it the perfect setting for Lai. His commissioned work, 2B205 (2023), transforms the room into a comfortable and spacious restroom waiting area. Lai capitalizes on room 205’s pre-existing features, emphasizing their presence and seamlessly integrating them into an arrangement that feels natural and familiar, as if it had always been in place. For the Taipei Biennial 2023, the purpose of room 205 will no longer be ambiguous, as Lai puts it “I imagine people coming to room 205, and even if they don’t really see any artworks, they can still stay for a while. Gradually, these seemingly continuous disturbances will transform into something palpable, yielding some new sense of normality for the space.”
