On Feb 28 afternoon, Jia Zhangke will come back to Beijing Modern Angle Art to join the second installment of Shao Foundaiton’s serial talk events — CROSSTALK Beijing.

The entrance of Beijing Angle Modern Art

Part of the exhibits

Roaming Glimpse—Carved Memory by Jia Zhangke and Yu Lik-Wai

The exhibition site

Director Jia Zhangke

Zhao Tao, one of the three lead actresses of 24 City

Media veteran Li Mengxia (middle)

Designer Zara Arshad

Ou Ning, director of Shao Foundation, with Susanna Tsai, general manager (Beijing) of Modern Media Group

Jia Zhangke delivers opening speech

Jia Zhangke with Ou Ning

Ou Ning with Li Hongqi, poet, writer and film director

Singer Tan Jing

Susanna Tsai with Lawrence Li, curator of Shao Foundation

Dancer and actress Wang Yabin

Zhao Tao

Artist Wang Jianwei

Ou Ning with poet Ouyang Jianghe

Zhai Yongming, poet and playwright of 24 City (left) with Ouyang Jianghe (right)

Famous lyricist Liang Heping (right)

From left to right, Jia Zhangke, Eva Lam (project manager of X stream) and Susanna Tsai

All photos by Sun Xiaoxi
* The text is originally written by Sun Xiaoxi in Chinese and translated by April Zhang

The exhibition design started from a self reflection of the existing gallery space. Unlike most galleries, BAMA is the opposite of a ‘white cube’. It’s situated on the fourth floor of a modern commercial office building in Sanlitun, consisting a reading area, a bar, and exhibition space which is surrounded by glass curtain walls. BAMA has been used for exhibitions, talk shows, interviews, photo shoots, and dinner parties — a truely multi-functional space!

After a couple of site visits to BAMA, it became apparent that rather than trying to ‘turn-off’ the inherent spatial attributes of the gallery to accommodate the exhibition, we should make use of them strategically. The diagram below is a contextual analysis of the gallery.

Subsequently, a 3D model was made to understand the basic parameters of the gallery, things like floor area, floor to ceiling height and so on.

The exhibition traverses various mediums including; photo collages, short films, found objects and props from the making of 24 City. The exhibition can be considered as an extension of the film, with conceptual subjects in the film having the opportunity to be experienced spatially within a gallery setting.

For example, one of the focuses in 24 City is the rapid urban renewal that is represented by the relocation of a state-owned military factory in central Chengdu city. Standing in the BAMA gallery you can see demolition and construction happening nearby which has probably been taken for granted.

Taking advantage of the gallery’s spatial attributes, the exhibition displays both the exhibition environment and the exhibits.

As a result, one actualisation (above) is a video installation combining unused footage of workers interviews and the construction sites outside the gallery window.

Above is an early iteration of the exhibition layout. Below is a very cruel way of displaying the photo collage on ladder, which has since been improved.

Ladders, red white blue strip plastic fabric, and the green wall finishing (a typical architectural element in the 1980s) are integrated into the exhibition to contribute to the overall theatrical quality of the space.

Well, that’s enough insider information for now. Don’t miss ‘Jia Zhangke: 24 City’ exhibition and CROSSTALK Beijing #2, we will keep you posted with more details about these two events.