The elderly of Chaishan Island still fondly remember that its rugged coast – now only visited by the occasional ferry – was up to not long ago a thriving port, where arriving sailors were welcomed under the trees that stood at the entrance into the village. To save this image for posterity, the renovation of a defunct cargo pier has included installing a marquee with the skeletal anatomy of Theo Jansen’s kinetic ‘strandbeests,’ in which a wing of sorts flutters as it shades a lookout platform. Held up by a framework of galvanized steel treated to resist the saline atmosphere, and raised over a floor of railings that give a view of the pavilion’s anchorage to the rocks below, the roof is formed by thirty-six plastic ‘feathers’ reinforced with fiberglass, lightweight blades providing protection against ultraviolet radiation. Thanks to a system of counterweights and hinges, the mechanism is flexible, swaying gently in the sea breeze but having sufficient strength to withstand the inevitable storm, perhaps like a symbol of the headstrong memory that refuses to be blown away by the gales of time...[+]