/ Memory

The ALIEN Art Centre was formerly known as the Kin-Ma Military Hostel. It was built in 1967 as a transit station for the National Army soldiers to Kinmen and the Matsu Front Line. With the end of the Cold War, the hostel also ended business in the late 1990s. In 2016, ALIEN Art took over the new mission and carried out new construction and re-operation. The two-year architectural organization and cultural and historical work have restored the architectural style of eclecticism and preserved the period with meaningful history. The Kin-Ma Military Hostel was re-launched as a contemporary art museum at the end of 2018, integrating the natural landscape of Shoushan Forest, becoming the promise of contemporary art development in the city.


The History of ALIEN Art Centre

The year after the August 23 artillery battle (1959), the Kaohsiung city government began working on plans to build the Kin-Ma Military Hostel as a rest stop for military personnel on their way to the front lines. As the land was originally a fishpond, it would take some time to prepare the soil, a wait that ended up taking a decade. When the wait was finally over, two Kin-Ma Military Hostel, in Kaohsiung and Keelung, were completed in 1967. Those soldiers who drew assignments on Kinmen and Penghu arrived by bus from points all over Taiwan at the Kaohsiung Kin-Ma Military Hostel, where they waited for clear weather. Hearts filled with anxiety, they boarded military cruisers on wobbly legs for their distant destination, screwing up as much courage as possible no matter how deep their trepidation. The Kin-Ma Military Hostel were way stations for troops headed off to military duty, as well as the site of joyous reunions with family after successful completion of military service. Between 1967 and 1998, the Kin-Ma Military Hostel were where military servicemen prepared physically and mentally before heading off, during a time in which the military played a vital role in reassuring the hearts and minds of the people.

The Kin-Ma Military Hostel in Keelung having been demolished, this historical time is left to the Kaohsiung military hostel to keep alive. Following the end of the Cold War, in 1998 the Kaohsiung Kin-Ma Military Hostel was handed over to the Ministry of Transportation Railway Reconstruction Bureau, serving as the command center for the Kaohsiung railway underground construction project until the bureau’s relocation in 2012.

In 2016 the Kaohsiung Urban Development Bureau solicited open bids; ALIEN Art Co. Ltd undertook the rights to preserve the property, conducting the restoration work and operation. Following two years of preparation and restoration, the Kin-Ma Military Hostel was reborn as the ALIEN Art Centre.


Story behinds the architecture

Originally completed in 1967, the Kin-Ma Military Hostel is an icon of post-war architecture in Taiwan, incorporating the modern Western architectural minimalism whose development was accelerated by Taiwan’s rapid post-1965 economic growth, along with the quasi-classical style once popular in Taiwan during the Japanese period, as well as various symbols of classical Chinese architecture. Fluid horizontal and vertical lines outline large openings to let in light and circulate the air, while the circular design allows overlapping positive and negative space to bring out a sense of depth, orderly stairways and corridors fortify the building’s air of self-discipline, and the geometric variations reminiscent of Mies van der Rohe lend a spare, clean structure and an additional functionalist flavor. Building materials pick up on the polished stonework, washed rock faces and red brick matrices of the Japanese period, while modern concrete deliberately conveys the structural beauty of traditional wooden structures. Meanwhile, the proportion of 6-cm. ceramic tiles and patterned tiles on the outer wall capture various classical Chinese architectural elements.

The preservation and continuation of the Kin-Ma Military Hostel fuses traditional and new era architectural perspectives, drawing from the wisdom of contemporary functionalism, while endeavoring to preserve the flavor of historical artisanship. The Kin-Ma Military Hostel is protected by a complete wall, encircling a secret oasis unto its own. And further consideration to the fluidity of interior and exterior lines lends additional versatility to a diverse living venue.