The Remains of the 13 Levels located besides the Yinyang Sea along Northeast Coast was once the largest washery 'ShueiNanDong Smelter' at Jinguashi, Ruifang. Taipower took over its management in late 1980s as mining declined. Although it has been listed as 'historic buildings' by New Taipei City and an architectural heritage of potential value for world cultural heritage, yet it has been covered with dust for more than 30 years as being a land with residue and listed as an area under contamination control. Now Taipower promoted the activation of the cultural heritage of Remains of the 13 Levels through public arts, which is an initiation of a new mode that reuses contaminated land in an alternative way. An agreement was signed with collaborative artists today (June 14th).Taipower said that the Taiwan version of 'Castle in the Sky' project was jointly carried out by the world-renowned lighting master Lien Chou—the lighting designer for Statue of Liberty in the United States, artist Joyce Ho and U-theatre, by which a promise was made to light up Remains of the 13 Levels at Moon Festival night on September 13th .
Taipower explained that the land of Remains of the 13 Levels had not been properly used since it was taken over by Taipower as being a contaminated land for remediation. Taipower has been trying every means to find a way out to create a win-win strategy by which development of local tourism and cultural heritage conservation could be realized. The 'Light up Remains of the 13 Levels' public arts project has been planned since 2017, which, with the support from related units and departments, has obtained approvals from Environmental Protection Administration and New Taipei City Public Arts & Cultural Heritage Review Committee. The above mentioned support had made it possible to carry out the activation of contaminated land through the combination of public arts and cultural heritage. This is the first example realized in Taiwan.
The world-renowned lighting master Lien Chou— the once president of the largest architectural lighting designing company BPI in the United States and was the lighting designer for many well-known buildings such as Statue of Liberty in the United States, Summer Palace—an Imperial Garden in China, Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia and Chimei Musem and Beigang Chao-Tian Temple in Taiwan, was invited by Taipower to collaboratively carry out this project. Mr. Chou Lien shall lead lighting designing teams in Taiwan to design out soft amber lights of different illuminance based on the characteristics of Remains of the 13 Levels, which shall be regularly lit up from 6pm to 9pm in the future. Mr. Chou Lien said that the mining in Jinguashi was a witness of Taiwan's human and cultural development. He hoped that a tourist attraction with a combination of culture and tourism could be created by this project.
Moreover, artist Joyce Ho shall install four white 'Ｉ' shaped artworks in the surroundings of Remains of the 13 Levels. Joyce Ho explained that these sculptures, when finished, shall attract people's attention to notice the existence of Remains of the 13 Levels at daytime, while at nighttime they shall become door gaps after being lit up that lead people to travel through time to see and experience the past glory of gold mining at Remains of the 13 Levels.
U-theatre is a world-famous performing arts group, which is now building Taiwan's first mining-site outdoor theater at Jinguashih Geographic Park. They shall cooperate with Taipower to present live outdoor performances at Moon Festival night at Remains of the 13 Levels. Mr. Wang Tengchong, Executive Director of U-theatre said that the 'Light up Remains of the 13 Levels' project could be deemed as the largest public artwork and cultural construction in Taiwan, and was the first example that activated the cultural heritage in contamination controlled areas through public arts, which had both art value and an environmental and educational significance.
