The Law of Beliefs installation at Creative Expo Taiwan 2021

Creative Expo Taiwan is a very important cultural event on the creative scene in Taiwan, an exhibition of new developments. The theme of the 2021 edition, which, like the edition held two years ago, is curated by Taiwanese interdisciplinary artist Lin Kun Ying, is Supermicros, or "Shujumiao" in Mandarin Chinese, meaning "Temple of data". The main exhibition, entitled The Law of Beliefs, is an investigation of the transformative power of thought. As the curator explains: “ My point of entry is to accept the truth that if all of us believe in a concept at the same time, then we will turn it into an action, and the action will create cultural progression.”
The Law of Beliefs is divided over three spaces. Visitors entering the exhibition can scan a QR code to open a Facebook Messenger chatbot which asks them questions and uses the data from their answers to provide customised information, enriching each person’s exhibition experience on the basis of their answers.
The first exhibition space has two sides, Ritual Hall, where faith is defined, and Belief Palace, which proposes a formula for dreaming. Visitors entering the Ritual Hall find themselves before a giant eye, a well-known symbol of data and of beliefs. A performer in the entrance, like a gatekeeper, mimes rituals of everyday life, such as folding clothes, while the chatbot asks a number of questions, which the visitor may choose whether or not to answer.
The second exhibition space, Co-creation Palace, is about the juxtaposition of rational and emotional experience and the process people use to decide whether or not to believe in something. In the middle of the space, visitors can choose from a number of chairs representing different stages in life, from infancy to old age. Four stages around the perimeter of the space offer experimental performances about the rational-emotional juxtaposition, in a sequence lasting about thirty minutes. When all four performances have been completed, a lighting device in the centre shows the weight of the decisions a person makes in the course of a lifetime.
The third and final exhibition space, entitled Light Palace, is a modern version of the traditional lantern halls found in Taoist or Buddhist temples all over Taiwan, which represent good fortune. The data collected by the Facebook Messenger chatbot during the exhibition are analysed to generate a QR code which visitors can scan on a stand in the middle of the space. This sets off a beam of light, followed by a chain of LEDs, which lead the visitor to a table of offerings. This final part of the exhibition is different every time, depending on the individual responses identified. Thus visitors actively model their experience to create an ever-changing exhibition combining data with creativity, in line with the purpose of Creative Expo Taiwan. 
The visual documentation was created by Daniel Cummingham with Alek Vategin and Yana Zhezhela of T-Media Productions, two of Taiwan’s best architecture photographers, to produce a video about the main exhibition (The Law of Beliefs) and photographs of the whole fair. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, only a limited number of international visitors and residents were able to participate in 2021 Creative Expo Taiwan. On the basis of their philosophy centring around realism, Alek and Yana sought to capture and reflect the true experience of visiting the exhibition, as we can see in their photographs and in the video:

Christian Bürklein

The Law of Beliefs, curated by Lin Kun Ying
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Dates: April 16 through 25, 2021
Images: Alek Vategin and Yana Zhezhela
More information: https://creativexpo.tw/en