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‘I just want to know what a big tree – which is four or five meters long – with a speed
of more than one hundred km per hour looks like.’ Shi Jinsong


Shi Jinsong’s work is currently part of ‘china – contemporary revival’, an exhibition at The Palazzo Reale, milan, italy.
On display is a selection of more than 180 art works including paintings, sculptures,installations and videos by 50 contemporary Chinese artists. On show from december 11, 2009 to february 7, 2010.
The Palazzo Reale

I find it difficult to travel through China’s central cities without an unerring sense on humility and guilt. Everywhere there is an unquestioning “getting on with it” attitude to life, work and problems.

It’s difficult to tell as a visitor if it really is poverty or should I say lack of income, or just a cultural acceptance and belief in pragmatism. That’s why I captured these images of the bikes. They are not rare, they are commonplace.

Ingenious, balanced, brave and just wonderfully practical people going about their daily lives. The wicker child seat is my favourite as I suspect it was made by a grandfather.

Judgegill.co.uk

City As Playground Wednesday 28th October
Danish super-architect Bjarke Ingels, Parisian artist Didier Fiuiza Faustino and Brussels-designer Arne Quinze will discuss how working in Shenzhen, an experimental Chinese city that is just 30 years old, can be used to explore different interpretations and experiences of space and the city. Chaired by Beatrice Galilee, Curator, SZHK Biennale.

Danish super-architect Bjarke Ingels, Parisian artist Didier Fiuiza Faustino and Brussels-designer Arne Quinze will discuss how working in Shenzhen, an experimental Chinese city that is just 30 years old, can be used to explore different interpretations and experiences of space and the city. Chaired by Beatrice Galilee, Curator, SZHK Biennale.

Itinerant Architecture – How to Subvert an Architecture Biennale: Thursday 29 October
If you thought the biennale format is getting old, in Shenzhen a new generation of architects – Austria’s feld72, London’s Aberrant and Rotterdam’s Alexander Sverdlov are all taking conventional practice and turning it upside down. Chaired by Kieran Long, Editor-in-Chief, Architects’ Journal / The Architectural Review.

The Architecture Foundation

The Italian architect behind the pioneering design, which was chosen after an international competition, said that he wanted to replicate the experience of a safari in an urban environment.

The plans are also rooted in East Asian culture, with the car park’s sharply angled planes based on styles borrowed from origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The inclined ramps will hold some of the museum’s vehicle exhibits.
The museum is being sponsored in part by the local government in Nanjing – the capital of Jiangsu province in the east of the country – and is intended to be a showcase of the region’s manufacturing achievements.

It was due to be opened later this year but the completion date has been pushed back due to the global economic slowdown.
“You visit the first external ramp of the museum with your own private car, like a SAFARI, you park your car on the roof and visit by foot the internal ramp going down,” said Francesco Gatti of 3Gatti, the architecture studio which won the commission.

“The building could seem to appear as an urban car exhibitor, with its corners and angles filled with tempting shining exposed automobiles.”
The 15,000 square metre museum will include some displays that can be viewed through visitors’ car windows, although the central exhibitions and facilities must be accessed on foot.3Gatti
Via:(Daily Telegraph)

Tomorrow 100% Design Shanghai and International Home Decor and Design  will unveil yet another inspirational installation made with CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements to welcome the gathering of international and local design leaders in Shanghai.  From October 15th to 17th, the who’s who of contemporary design and home accessories will gather at the Shanghai Exhibition Center to see the latest designs from established names like Christofle, Hastens, Kohler, Established and sons, Moooi, Poliform and Tom Dixon, just to name a few. Joining the leaders this year will be the 8 winning pieces by Chinese designers from the debut of the DESIGNED IN CHINA : The Rado Young Design Prize.

CRYSTALLIZED™ ¨ Swarovski Elements, the main sponsor for the 100% Design Shanghai 2009, will collaborate with the exhibition’s Creative Directors, Tobias Wong and Aric Chen, to transform the entrance hall with crystal matrix formed by Points of Light.  This concept builds upon last year’s inaugural installation ¨ an empty grid of bamboo scaffolding which serves as a metaphor for the emerging potential of contemporary Chinese design, a field that has yet to truly materialize but for which a framework has been laid.  The crystal matrix now imagines the void as the Points of Light by which contemporary Chinese design is beginning to materialize.

100% design provides a vibrant venue for CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swarovski Elements to present its comprehensive product assortment and application possibilities.  CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements is the product brand for the world’s finest loose cut crystals manufactured by Swarovski.  ( www.crystallized.com )

This year’s event will also see the awarding of the inaugural design competitionDESIGNED IN CHINA: The Rado Young Design Prize by Rado, the Swiss watchmaker and a design pioneer. The Rado Young Design Prize is conceived with the future of design in mind.   Rado will also launch its new exciting design community website www.radostar.com in China.

The competition was judged by an international panel of design industry professionals including: Giulio Cappellini, Creative Director, Cappellini (Milan); Alasdhair Willis, CEO of Established & Sons (London), Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, co-founders of Neri & Hu Design and Research Office and Design Republic; Yves B’har, principal of fuseproject (San Francisco and New York); Jiang Li, Associate Professor, School of Design, Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing); and Shaway Yeh, Editorial Director, Modern Media Group (Shanghai). The jurors selected these designs based on functionality and innovation.  The new products should also be understood and appreciated by an international audience, and showed promise for the Chinese market. 8 winners were selected from 250 entries and their innovative designs will be on display at the exhibition.

Another highlight awaiting all visitors will be the display of five specially-commissioned, experimental designs by some of China’s most cutting-edge architects. Sponsored by Airises, this unprecedented effort is a collaboration between Reed Exhibitions and People’s Architecture Foundation, a Beijing and New York-based not-for-profit.  The display, named STEP 1, will seek to contribute to an emerging dialogue about the directions that furniture design in China might take. Given the infancy of contemporary design in China, the goal is to help build a foundation that emphasizes ideas over style by drawing upon the talents of architects who are at the forefront of design discourse in China.

A three-day conference program has been especially calibrated for the design audience that the exhibition attracts. This year’s program plans to highlight topics such as the evolution of design education and how it will change the professional marketplace in China; smart strategies that counter counterfeiting in China; as well as Bertjan Pot, the Dutch designer behind notable products from Moooi, and design duo BarberOsgerby, the red-hot British design team of Ed Barber and Jay Osgerby.

100% design shanghai

This October, the Portland Art Museum will present China Design Now, a multi-sensory experience reflecting the new Chinese urban environment and encapsulating the scale, speed, and energy of change in China today. Visitors will embark on a journey of discovery through China, focusing on the graphic design, fashion, interior design, and architecture emerging from three vibrant and rapidly evolving cities.Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, China Design Now reveals how designers, architects, filmmakers, and artists have transformed Chinese design from imitation to innovation, leading to the rise of a new design dynasty. The approximately 100 designers whose work is featured in this exhibition have, collectively, defined a new aesthetic that reinterprets traditional Chinese forms, is inspired by global youth culture, and responds to the dreams and desires of a rising middle class. Their entrepreneurial spirit is reflected in the runway trends, street posters, photography, interior design, architectural projects, advertising, and consumer products presented in the exhibition.

Portland-based and internationally-renowned Ziba Design worked with the Museum’s exhibition team to design the presentation of China Design Now for Portland. Through a series of meetings with the Museum’s director, curators, and educators, and reflecting upon their years work in mainland China and current research, an installation design has been devised that is grounded in historical Chinese space planning and that utilizes sound, video, lanterns, neon, and scroll like text panels to help guide visitors through the installation of more than 250 objects, and enhance the experience of China’s dynamic culture and urban life.

The exhibition begins on the first floor of the Museum’s main building with a 180 degree projection of an animated fly-through of Beijing. Home to the imperial palace and court since 1420, Beijing has also emerged as a symbol of China’s growing world presence. This dynamic presentation highlights the connection between China’s past, present, and future.

China Design Now is structured in three thematic sections, leading visitors on a journey from south to north along China’s coast: through Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing. Each city is a starting point for the exploration of different design fields – graphic design and visual culture in Shenzhen, fashion and lifestyle in Shanghai, and architecture and urban spaces in Beijing.

Shenzhen: Frontier City
Following China’s implementation of economic reform policy, Shenzhen became the world’s largest manufacturing center. This planned city distanced itself from the political propaganda of China’s past, attracting a generation of young design students and professionals influenced by contemporary Chinese culture. Shenzhen is now the city with the youngest population in China, with an average age of 27 among its 10 million inhabitants. These young designers produced posters, advertisements, books, zines, animation, and consumer products reflecting a diversity of expression in the new Chinese economy.

The exhibition includes work by designers such as Wang Xu and Wang Yuefei, pioneers of cutting-edge graphic design practices that have influenced graphics produced in other Chinese cities. The exhibition also includes Chen Shaohua’s iconic poster promoting the nation’s first graphic design exhibition in 1992, which depicts two legs intertwined – one clad in traditional Chinese dress, the other in a Western-style business suit. Also included in this section are products across various genres, aimed at China’s design-conscious youth, including album covers, books, CDs, skateboards, athletic shoes, toys, and t-shirts.

Shanghai: Dream City
Shangahi, long a center of finance and commerce, is now home to a growing urban middle class whose affluence supports a cultural renaissance in fashion and interior design. The exhibition showcases runway trends, interior design, and household furnishings along with works by artists who critique the new consumer culture.

Once known as the “Paris of the Orient,” Shanghai is the historic center for embroidery and silk production and has been considered China’s foremost international city since the 1840s. Since its economic transformation in the early 1990s, a new class of trendsetters, tastemakers, and designers has emerged. The exhibition spotlights the fashion and lifestyle that has defined the city’s cultural renaissance and examines the aspirations of middle-class homeowners that serve as a major design driver. Featured work includes haute couture by China’s leading designers Lu Kun and Ma Ke, glossy portraits of porcelain painted girls by Wing Shya and Chen Ma, a stool combining Chinese tradition with a modern shape by Fan Ming, and shapely tea sets by Lin Jing.

Beijing: Future City
The final section of the exhibition showcases Beijing architecture, including the iconic “bird’s nest” National Stadium designed by architects Herzog and de Meuron for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It is just one of the visionary buildings now springing up in this fast-growing city. Architectural models and images showcase the stadium as well as new skyscrapers, hotels, and residences. From the purely avant garde to structures influenced by traditional Chinese courtyard homes, Beijing’s architecture and infrastructure are reshaping the modern city.

During the last two decades, Beijing has emerged as a symbol of China’s growing world presence. The process of preparation for the Olympic Games led to the re-imagining of Beijing as a city for international consumption by a new generation of international architects and urban planners. A spectacular series of athletic facilities, cultural landmarks, business facilities, and commercial housing units demonstrate the transformation of Beijing’s cityscape and embodies China’s grand ambitions on the contemporary global stage. Featured works include the sleek information center Digital Beijing designed by Zhu Pei and the China Central Television headquarters by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren.

By focusing on the creative output of these three cities, China Design Now presents a vibrant snapshot of this extraordinary time in the development of Chinese design and a rapidly changing cultural landscape that is transforming China and our collective definition of urban life.