On April 8, 2009, the first Beijing brainstorming meeting of the 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Architecture \ Urbanism was held at Beijing Angle Modern Art Gallery. It gathered together many architects, critics, artists and architectural journalists from Beijing. The meeting had two parts: one included Kong Yan’s introduction of the organizational structure of the Biennale, chief curator Ou Ning’s presentation of the theme ‘City Mobilization’, and architect Liang Jingyu’s explanation of the main exhibition sites for Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The second part was brainstorming and discussion.
Biennale’s Beijing brainstorming meeting
Diagraming 24 City
As an intern of Shao Foundation, I contributed to the exhibition design of Jia Zhangke: 24 City by working together with Xu Yijing, the Exhibiton Designer of Shao Foundation. After the exhibition ended a month ago, I started to reorganise the sketches, plans and photos taken during the exhibition. Diagraming 24 City is my attempt at representing the realisation process of all the initial ideas. It’s originally published on my own blog, and I’m reposting it here by Ou Ning’s request.
Chutzpah! (spring issue, 2009) PDF download
We’ve finally put it together! This is _not_ the PDF file we sent to the printer, but a new version optimised for screen reading. Each article title on the Table of Content page is a link to the article itself, and you can use the ‘Back to Menu’ link at the bottom-left of every page to jump back to the ToC.
Content-wise, the PDF version features one article that’s not published in the physical book: The Politics of Living Space in Hong Kong, by activist and journalist Chu Hoidick.
Click here to download the PDF, the file size is about 18 MB. Big thanks to our designer Sun Xiaoxi for his hard work, even during sickness!
(Chutzpah! spring 2009 is currently in Chinese only.)
Audio recording of CROSSTALK Beijing #3
For those who understand Chinese, here’s the live recording of CROSSTALK Beijing #3: Social Space and the Post-1980s Generation. We are working on the Chinese transcription. The English version will come, but at a later date.
If you are suffering from slow connection, click here to download the MP3 file. (84 MB)
Photo log: La Commune (Paris, 1871) China premiere
Here are some photos from La Commune (Paris, 1871)’s mainland China premiere on March 26 at the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, followed by a discussion about the film with guest speakers Dick Chu and Deng Siu Wah from Hong Kong, Andrew Yu from Beijing, and Tang Shui’en from Wuhan. We’d like to express our gratitude to UCCA, the event’s co-organiser for all their support.
Our posters at the front entrance of UCCA auditorium.
Photo log: CROSSTALK Beijing #3
We are a bit late with the English posts lately, but here’s the photo log of CROSSTALK Beijing #3: Social Space and the Post-1980s Generation. The event was a blast, largely due to the presence of Leung Man Tao, an outspoken and well-respected columnist and TV commentator based in Hong Kong. (Although his writings are often published on mainland Chinese publications in recent years.) Three Hong Kong activists and writers shared the stage with a social entrepreneur, a post-1980s writer and a punk musician / anarchist from the mainland China. We’ve already uploaded the audio recording of the whole event, you can go and listen to it here. (Chinese only.) An English report on the event is coming soon.
From the left: Leung Man Tao (moderator), Tang Shui’en, Deng Siu Wah, Zhang Yueran, Cheng Kin-Yip, Andrew Yu, Chu Hoidick.
Panel discussion: does China have an image problem?
This afternoon, a panel discussion on the topic ‘Does China have an image problem?’ took place in Beijing Angle Modern Art Gallery (BAMA). As an emerging power, China feels it has an image problem which does not commensurate with its rising status in the world. The incidents such as Olympic Torch Relay, Violence in Lhasa. Successful 2008 Olympic reports were mixed with China’s lack of openness by not approving any peaceful demonstration. These incidents plus the powerful Sichuan earthquake have effected a series of discussion and introspection by the domestic intellectual and political class. These are now press reports (SCMP, People’s Daily) which claimed that the Central Government may soon approve a budget as much as 45 billon RMB (6.6 billon U.S.) to boost its state-owned media outlets: CCTV, Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily. The new funding may be used to launch a CNN-like Chinese television news channel, expanding existing Xinhua News Agency overseas bureaus, and publishing Global Times in English. The panel discussion was moderated by Liu Heung Shing, who is editorial director of Modern Weekly. Several authors of great reputation such as James Fallows, Jasper Becker and Glenn Mott were invited as international panelists. Some Chinese artists and scholars e.g. Chen Danqing, Shi Yinhong, Li Kun, participated the discussion of image problem with which China is confronted in the course of rising period.
Liu Heung Shing, editorial director of Modern Weekly and Australian scholar Geremie Barme
Notes from the March 2 knowledge sharing meeting
This week we brought Shao Foundation’s knowledge sharing meeting to the studio of Approach Architecture, which was recently relocated to Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid. The entire SF team, members of Approach Architecture, Huang Wenjing from O.P.E.N. Architecture, Zhao Xiaoli from Beijing Youth Daily, photographer Hotzing Tone, and Elevation Workshop had the opportunity to exchange with each other some interesting ideas and information.
Viewing northwest from the studio of Approach Architecture at Linked Hybrid, designed by Steven Holl Architects.