Turn Yuanshan After Dark into an Art Party: Three Taipei Festivals Meet
On October 31, Nuit Blanche brings music, light and discoveries to Yuanshan, alongside the Digital Art Festival and MAAGIC Yuanshan—from wandering performances to machine life inside a botanical garden.
Give art a little more of your Taipei weekend. From 2pm on October 31 to 2am on November 1, Taipei Nuit Blanche 2026 will illuminate Yuanshan with NIGHT KA SHI, linking parks, a university campus and neighbourhood streets with the Taipei Digital Art Festival and MAAGIC Yuanshan public art project. More than 30 artworks and 50 performances, machine life in a botanical garden and colourful flags offer several ways to rediscover the city on a single walk.
Follow nakashi and let the neighbourhood become a stage
Artistic director Huang Yen-Ying, visual director Chen Wei-Ching and performing arts director Cheng Yi-Wen draw on nakashi’s tradition of musicians moving among people and improvising freely. The programme connects Yuanshan Natural Landscape Park, the Yuanshan and Xinsheng areas of Taipei Expo Park, Minzu East Road and the streets around Qingguang Market. Tatung University will open its campus for Nuit Blanche for the first time, bringing historic architecture and cultural stories into the evening stroll.
Yao Chung-Han’s 《光電獸#51－午夜音樂盒》 weaves sound and light into the night, Chang Teng-Yuan brings 《鸚鵡模仿術－數綿羊》, and Yao Jui-Chung offers another vision of the city with 《巨神在哪裡？》. Theatre, dance, jazz and pop-up performances take turns animating familiar surroundings. Programmes include 《黑貓與那卡西之夜1972》 by 峸劇場 and 貪食德工作室, and 《寶島有爵士～台灣恰恰恰》 by Jazz Dance Theatre and Golden Autumn Big Band.
A first collaboration with CENTQUATRE-PARIS adds French creative perspectives, with its director Valérie Senghor serving as guest curator. Jann Gallois’s Block Party brings dance and crowd interaction together, while Stéphane Thidet will transform the EcoARK pavilion at Taipei Expo Park into a French pavilion featuring Tree and Sand and two video works. A visit can become an invitation to participate.
Official promotional photograph for Jann Gallois’s Block Party, showing its participatory approach to dance.
Meet machine life among the plants
The 21st Taipei Digital Art Festival, Gray Autonomous Entity, is curated by Wang Lien-Cheng and Lin Yen-Chu. Running October 31–November 15 at venues including the Taipei Collectible Botanical Garden in Expo Park’s Xinsheng area, it places artificial intelligence, data and algorithms within an environment shared by plants, soil, fungal networks and humans. Digital art opens a route into nature.
Jed Berk’s Belugas’ Sphere uses light-sensing systems to create machine-life installations capable of autonomous movement. C-LAB’s Future Vision Lab Dome Experimental Project offers immersive audiovisual experiences through Mini Dome. Lin Shu-Yu’s 《皓夜》 and Assocreation’s Solar Pink Pong also make light an artistic language, while an art-in-shops programme extends the exhibition into nearby businesses. On October 31, an opening audiovisual performance takes place from 8pm to 11pm in the ground-floor lobby of the Pavilion of Future Life.
Official image of Jed Berk’s Belugas’ Sphere, exploring the interaction between machine life, light and its surroundings.
MAAGIC Yuanshan brings city memories into everyday view
Already open since October 17 and continuing through November 8, MAAGIC Yuanshan is curated by Liu Chih-Hung. Its name combines MAAG, the abbreviation for the Military Assistance Advisory Group, with MAGIC. Drawing on Yuanshan’s historical American connections, the project invites visitors to notice how cultural exchanges remain embedded in ordinary streets.
Li Cheng-Liang’s 《巨人坐著整個月》 uses steel plates and recycled folding-seat frames from a baseball stadium to create a space visitors can enter, sit in and linger. Huang Kuan-Chieh’s 《亞美利加諾》 links images of Taiwanese places that evoke European and American settings. Liao Hsiao-Tzu’s 《客製化插旗》 brings street graffiti, subculture and collaborative creation to the flagpoles at Taipei Expo Dome. Materials and city outlines reward a daytime visit; sound and light bring another charm after dark.
Official photograph of Liao Hsiao-Tzu’s 《客製化插旗》, with vivid colours and graphic motifs meeting across the flags.
Make room for your favourites this weekend
Nuit Blanche runs October 31, 2pm–November 1, 2am, with free admission, across Yuanshan Natural Landscape Park, Expo Park’s Yuanshan area, Tatung University, Minzu East Road and Qingguang Market’s surroundings. The Taipei Digital Art Festival runs October 31–November 15, daily 9am–5pm, with October 31 extended until 2am the following morning; its main locations are the Taipei Collectible Botanical Garden at 16 Binjiang Street and participating shops. MAAGIC Yuanshan runs October 17–November 8 in Expo Park’s Yuanshan area. Choose a few stops from the official programme and leave time to enjoy a performance or linger with an artwork that catches your eye.
