For the first time, Numen/For Use has been granted the opportunity to realise two immersive, walk-in installations within a single exhibition. Net Taichung and String Taichung were meticulously conceived and custom-tailored to to fit precisely into the newly inaugurated exhibition space of CMP Inspiration Taichung, designed by Kengo Kuma
Both installations employ an innovative construction principle: each volume is inflated until the outer membrane reaches the exact tension required to stretch the nets or ropes. This approach eliminates the need for any supplementary supporting structures, resulting in a remarkably pure and self-contained spatial entity.
Linked by interconnecting corridors, the two installations create a continuous journey. Net Taichung invites visitors to physically engage with the space—climbing, balancing, exploring—while String Taichung, with its immaculate three-dimensional rope grid, evokes stillness and contemplative introspection. The thin white membrane of the outer skin functions as a vast “soft box,” diffusing external light to bathe the interior in an ethereal glow, heightening the artificiality of the environment. This deliberate ambiguity of scale and orientation induces a paradoxical sensation: a simultaneous awareness of boundless expanse and spatial nonexistence.
Once deflated, the nets and ropes collapse gently to the ground, allowing the installations to compress to an astonishingly minimal volume for transport and storage. Upon reinflation, they regain full tension, robust enough to support the weight of visitors, transforming once again into expansive, inhabitable worlds.
Net Taichung
Making of
