Taipei City Government

The public art installation at MRT Circular Line Banqiao Station has been completed, turning Banqiao Station into the icon of artistic train stations in the country. In particular, the artwork is created by the internationally acclaimed radicalism artist Daniel Buren from France. In Between Reflections is the second permanent large-scale art installation that he has designed for MRT stations since the Tottenham Court Road Station in London in 2017. He is famed for creating art by employing changing colors and motifs.

The station building incorporates an MRT station and a bus station, but the artist has perceived the 2 spaces as an integrated entity. In Between Reflections consists of blocks of colors measuring 8.7cm by 8.7cm displayed across 5 locations. The first location is the wall and ceiling by the station’s exit and entrance, featuring geometric motifs that extend upwards from both sides of the stairs inside the station to the center of the ceiling, where they converge to form a virtual mirrored space. As passengers walk up or down the stairs, they are greeted by a visual space with black, white, and colorful hues.

The second location is the mammoth black and white wave motif on the east-side exterior wall of the building; the free-flowing lines are part of the art installation entitled Like the Clouds’ Swift Passage - The Dragon Travels Thousands of Miles, which can be found in 14 MRT stations across 4 regions including Xindian, Zhonghe, Banqiao, and Xinzhuang. The design echoes with phase one of the Circular Line, measuring 15.4km long. The art installations serve to endow the raised steel beams with a consistent imagery and theme. The third location features stripes at the platform doors measuring 8.7cm and rainbow-colored columns. The fourth location is situated above the platform level, where passengers will be able to appreciate the rainbow-like visual effect streaking across the top of the station. As the 2 rainbow-colored light bands that flash forwards and backwards complement the moving train to create a symphony of visual extravaganza, it leaves the passengers with an impressive, fantastic memory.

The fifth location is below the station, where colorful geometric motifs are applied to decorate the massive columns to make the station appear to be so light that it is floating in the air, thereby forming a new visual focus in the urban landscape.

The master designer specializes in capitalizing on the materials’ characteristics to generate rich variations and dialogues between the artworks and space in different locations. Consequently, besides enhancing the aesthetics of the environment, the station’s public art installations also offer the function of directing pedestrian traffic. In other words, in the highly complex space with a high level of pedestrian flow, the artworks’ design enables the travelers to quickly reach their destinations while being surrounded by an immersive, artsy vibe.