2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture started the dismantling at the end of January, 2010. The exhibition stayed open until 31, Jan during the dismantling process.

For nearly two months since its opening on 6 Dec, 2009, the ‘09 SZHKB has received approximately 60,000 visitors. More than 2,000 people attended the opening ceremony. Almost 4,000 people attended the conferences, forums, lectures and film screenings.

There are 63 participant projects in total, contributed by participants from 27 countries and regions around the world, working in the fields of architcture, art, design, sociology, filmmaking, literature and so on. More than half are from outside China.

Nominated by the curators first, then selected by the Academic Committee, the Shenzhen Biennale Organizer Committee presented the following awards for the participant works: Organizer Committee Award, Literature Award, Innovation Award and Public Choice Award.

The Organizer Committee also issued Special Contribution Award and Best Participation Award to sponsors and co-organizers. Volunteer teams and individuals are awarded for their excellency also. What’s worth mentioning is that the prize for the winners is actually made of the participant project “Built to Wear”, packed in boxes made out of recycled paper.

The Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture Organizer Committee highly appreciate your support and participation. See you in 2011!

2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture
Winners List

Organizer Committee Award

Project: Under the Sun: A Retrospective of Architect Hsia Chang-shi
Participants: Feng jiang, Xiao Yiqiang, Song Gang/China

Documents Award

Project: Shenzhen: My City (photographs)
Participant: He Huangyou/China

Project: Shenzhen in 1980(photographs)
Participant: Leroy W. Demery, Jr./USA

Project: The Wharf (novel, as part of the special project Odyssey: Architecture and Literature)
Participant: Zhu Wen/China

Innovation Award

Project: 100 Days of Stories (performance, research, record)
Participant: Go West Project/China

Project: Pale Vessel (installation)
Participant: Polit-Sheer-Form Office/China

Project: Built to Wear (installation)
Participant: Ball Nogues/USA

Public Choice Award

Project: Snow Bull Station (sculpture and installation)
Participant: Rigo 23/USA

Special Contribution Award

China Resources (Holdings) Group Shenzhen Co., Ltd.
Galaxy Group
Shenzhen Yitian Group
Excellence Group
Shenzhen Kingkey Group
Fantasia Holdings Group Co. Ltd.
China Lvgem Co. Ltd.
Horoy Group

Best Participation Award

The Organizing Committee Office of Nanshan Commerce and Culture Center
The Youth League of Shenzhen Municipal Planning And Land Resource Commission
Zhubo Architectural & Engineering Design Co.,Ltd
Guan Shanyue Art Museum
Modern Media Group
China Mobile Group Shenzhen Co.Ltd.
Shenzhen OCT Real Estate Co.Ltd.

Best Volunteer Team Award

The Volunteer Association of the Youth League of the School of Art and Design of Shenzhen Polytechnic
Shenzhen Volunteer Alliance

Best Individual Volunteer Award

Li Meng, Li Tao, Huang Tianming, Liu Yushu, Liang Xiaoqian, Zhou Jiaqi, Wang Danchun, Wang Yile, Zheng Jiawei, Xu Xiaoguang, Li Ting, Zhu Wentong, Li Di, Yu Ping, Wan Lei, Luo Weixiong

The 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture will extend to 31, Jan, 2010. If you haven’t got time to see the biennale, you have one more week now. Hurry up!

Date: 22 Jan, 2010
Time: 2:00pm-4:00pm
Venue: Lecture room, Shenzhen Planning Bureau

“Our contemporary life as it is would be completely different if the 20th
century had happened without the cinema […] the moving image
changed our way of thinking, moving around and seeing things”

—–by Wim Wenders

Echoing the Urbanism\Architecture Film Festival, the ‘09 SZHKB will invite Dr. Francois Penz, who is an expert both on architecture and moving pictures to give a lecture on the evolving genre of the City Symphonies – learning from the filmic spaces of the past in order to better anticipate the present but also the future.

In the 1920s, City Symphonies changed the way we perceive cities – they
metaphorised the emergence of the modern metropolis by eliciting crucial
links on the screen – City Symphonies gave space to the urban space,
allowed the city to play and come forward, becoming both character and
subject and provided us with the perceptual equipment to grasp the
complexity of the urban phenomena.

While the golden age of the City Symphonies was the 1920s and 1930s, they
are still being made today and the genre has permeated the world of music
videos, art work, fictions as well as documentaries, as if every new City
Symphony was reinventing the genre.

The lecture will provide an understanding of City Symphonies by tracing their
historical evolution and highlight their value and relevance to contemporary
arts & cultures as well as urban design practices.

François Penz

Dr François Penz, an architect by training, teaches in the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art at the University of Cambridge where he is a Reader in Architecture and the Moving Image. He co-founded Cambridge University Moving Image Studio and more recently the Digital Studio for Research in Design, Visualization and Communication where he runs the PhD programme. He also contributes to the interdisciplinary University wide MPhil in Screen Media and Cultures. François is currently the Principal Investigator of a two-year research grant, Narrascape – Urban Environment as Narrative System in the
UK and China. He is a fellow of Darwin College and a founder of Screenspace.

Venue: Shenzhen Civic Square, Exhibition Space #7
Time: 10:00 am-12:00 pm, Jan. 23rd, 2010

Venue: Space E6, 2F, E6 Building, OCT LOFT, Nanshan District, Shenzhen
Time: 2:00 pm-4:00 pm, Jan 23rd, 2010

Organizer: URBANUS (Liu Xiaodu, Meng Yan), Li Shiqiao
Moderator: Li Shiqiao
Guests: Esther Lorenz, Ryan Bishop, John Phillips, Scott Lash and Andrew Benjamin

This panel discussion is organized by one of the SZHKB participants, URBANUS. Knowledge as Infrastructure is also the name of their participant project which gathers renowned architects and scholars to discuss the fundamental relationship between knowledge and the city through several conceptions of knowledge – its traditional methods of production and dissemination – which have become problematic for the contemporary city. Perhaps the most prominent symptom of the problematic relationship between knowledge and the city is the appearance of “university cities”. University cities are grounded in a classification of knowledge which has not been fundamentally questioned since the formulation of the 18th-century encyclopedia; they perpetuate, like its earlier form of the campus university, the notion of isolated “knowledge cities” which drastically separate intellect and labour; they provide opportunities for the privatization of knowledge which has been a distinct feature in the Chinese tradition of knowledge production. An alternatively conceived infrastructure of knowledge provides a chance to reformulate knowledge and the city, as well as relieves a tremendous pressure for education at all levels in Shenzhen. The symposium will engage with cultural, social, and philosophical implications of contemporary issues such as information, infrastructure, and urbanism in their specific manifestations in Shenzhen, and in their broadest intellectual formulation.

Founded in 1999, Under the leadership of partners LIU Xiaodu, MENG Yan and WANG Hui, URBANUS is now based in Beijing and Shenzhen, The completed works including Urban Tulou, Dafen Art Museum, OCT Loft Renovation, Tangshan Urban Planning Museum, OCT Art & Design Gallery, Maritime Museum of Art ,Tower of China Merchants Maritime & Logistics Ltd, Shenzhen Planning Building, Metro Tower etc. URBANUS has been exhibited internationally in prestigious shows and presented in prestigious newspapers and magazines, including New York Times. It was featured as one of the ten global “Design Vanguards” by Architectural Record in December, 2005, and has been awarded with many prestigious architecture prizes.

Moderator

Li Shiqiao is Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He studied architecture at Tsinghua University, AA and Birkbeck College. His research has been published in prestigious journals, and his books include Architecture and Modernization (Beijing, 2009) and Power and Virtue (London and New York, 2007). He practiced architecture in Hong Kong, and taught at AA and National University of Singapore.

Guests

Esther Lorenz is an Austrian Architect. She was educated at TU Graz and TU Delft, and obtained her concession for chartered practice in Austria. She has been working internationally in the areas of Architecture and Urban Design prior to coming to Hong Kong to join The Chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Architecture. She has exhibited at the 2008 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale, and at the 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, 2008.

John W P Phillips is Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at The National University of Singapore. He is the author of Contested Knowledge: A Guide To Critical Theory (London, 2000). He writes on philosophy, literature, critical theory, aesthetics, psychoanalysis, urbanism and military technology. He is editor, with Ryan Bishop and Wei-Wei Yeo, of Postcolonial Urbanism (New York, 2003) and Beyond Description (London, 2004). He has just completed a manuscript on Jacques Derrida and is currently researching a project on biotechnology and political philosophy.

Scott Lash is Director of Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London; he is also a Project Leader of Goldsmiths Media Research Programme. His recent books include Critique of Information (London, 2002), Recognition and Difference: Politics, Identity, Multiculture (London, 2002), and Global Culture Industry: The Mediation of Things (Cambridge, 2005).

Andrew Benjamin is Professor of Critical Theory and Philosophical Aesthetics in the Centre. An internationally recognised authority on contemporary French and German critical theory, he has been Visiting Professor at Columbia University in New York and Visiting Critic at the Architectural Association in London. His recent books include: Philosophy’s Literature (2001) and Disclosing Spaces: On Painting (2004).

Invited by the 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, who is also one of the participants of the ‘09 SZHKB , will give a lecture at 3:00pm, 11 Jan (Monday), 2010 at Art de Vivire, Shenzhen.

Sou Fujimoto, born in 1971, is widely considered as one of the most promising architects from Japan. In 2000, he formed Sou Fujimoto Architects. Consisted of over 15 architects, designers, craftsmen and thinkers, the practice has designed houses, temporary installation to medical and cultural facilities that have been recognised as vanguard designs throughout the world. Sou Fujimoto Architects has won numerous awards and competitions: AR Award Grand Prize and 2008 Japan Institute of Architects Grand Prize for Children’s Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, the first prize award at the World Architectural Festival 2008 in Barcelona, and recently the Wallpaper Award 2009.

Often describing his works as “primitive”, Sou Fujimoto pursues projects as a way of exploring the world and humanity. For ‘09 SZHKB, he designed a few gigantic “walking chairs” that give the Shenzhen citizens a different point of view for the urban environment and mobilize them to take steps and connect with its neighbor city —Hong Kong.

The architect has been invited to give talks and lectures in London Serpentine Gallery, UCLA, MIT and other institutions all around the world. His talk in Shenzhen will be based around the philosophy of Primitive Future, and will feature the commentary and references of the recent works of Sou Fujimoto Architects.

Date: 11 Jan (Monday), 2010
Time: 3:00pm
Venue: Art de Vivre, 1/F, Shenzhen Public Art Center, No. 8, Zhongkang Road, Shangmeilin, Futian Dist, Shenzhen

*Portrait by David Vintiner

Works by Sou Fujimoto Architects

Children’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Hokkaido,Japan

HOUSE N, Oita, Japan.
*Photographs by Iwan Baan

Tokyo Apartment, Tokyo, Japan

Moderators: Hans Ulrich Obrist & Rem Koolhaas

The first group of guests: Urban Planning

HUANG Weiwen (黄伟文) – ex-design director of the Shenzhen Municipal Planning Bureau

HE Chengjun (贺承军) – architecture critic

The second group of guests: Photo-Journalism

AN Ge (安哥) – legendary photographer of life under Deng Xiaoping（Left）

HE Huangyou (何煌友) – photographer of Shenzhen since the 1960s（right）

On the site.

The third group of guests: Industry and CSR

Thomas SHAO (邵忠) – chairman of Modern Media Group

WANG Shi (王石) – chairman of The Vanke Group

The fourth group of guests: Community & Activism

SHU Kexin (舒可心) – community activist with background in engineering

Local Action (本土行动) – Hong Kong-based group for democratization in urban planning

CHOW Sze Chung (周思中) from Local Action

TANG Siu Wah (邓小桦) from Local Action

CHU Hoi Dick (朱凯迪) from Local Action

The fifth group of guests: Art Practice & Institution

LU Jie (卢杰) – curator

HU Xiangqian (胡向前) – artist

QIU Zhijie (邱志杰) – artist

The sixth group of guests: Biennale

Marisa YIU (姚嘉珊) – architect,  chief curator of ‘09 HKSZ Bi-city Biennale

Pauline J. Yao (姚嘉善)–curator of ‘09 SZHK Bi-city Biennale

The seventh group of guests：Art & Architecture

Yung Ho CHANG (张永和), the founder of Atelier FCJZ, chief curator for the 2005 edition of the SZHKB

WANG Jiangwei (汪建伟), one of China’s best known conceptual artists

The eighth group of guest: Politics & Economy

TANG Jie (唐杰): vice mayor of Shenzhen

GAO Zhikai (高志凯), former interpreter for late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping

The ninth group of guests: PRD Criticism

CHEN Tong (陈侗), the founder of Libreria Borges – a leading independent art institution and publisher in South China

FENG Yuan (冯原), associate professor in the School of Communication & Design at Sun Yat-sen University

The tenth group of guests: Art & Culture

LIU Xiaodong, very successful contemporary painter in Lucian Freud /social realist style

ZHU Wen, writer, director, director of the ‘09 SZHKB opening ceremony

The eleventh group of guests: Culture & Subculture

Samson Chiu, renowned Hong Kong-based director and film writer

JIANG Jun, chief-editor of Urban China magazine

Li Yong, writer and famous blogger

The twelfth group: Taiwan & Local Society

HSIEH Yingchun, Taiwanese architect and contractor, known for his low-profile
approach he takes to various architectural projects

WU Yinning, writer and poet

The thirteenth group: Female Intellectual

ZHANG Nian, researcher on feminism and cultural study

MENG Hui, Writer and ex-editor in the prominent intellectual magazine DuShu

All together

The whole process of the Shenzhen Interview Marathon: 22 Dec, 2009 Tuesday 14:00 – 22:15

14:00-14:15
欧宁+姜珺
Introduction by OU Ning + JIANG Jun

14:15-14:45
贺承军+黄伟文 On Decision-Making of Urban Planning
HE Cheng Jun – architecture critic
HUANG Weiwen – ex-design-director of the Shenzhen Municipal Planning Bureau

14:45-15:15
安哥+何煌友 On Photo-Journalism
AN Ge – legendary photographer of life under Deng Xiaoping
He Huangyou – photographer of Shenzhen since the 1960s

15:15-15:45
邵忠+王石 On Industry and CSR
Thomas Z. SHAO – chairman of major publishers Modern Media
WANG Shi – chairman of China Vanke

15:45-16:15
李勇+袁伟时 On History & Social-Politics
LI Yong – journalist and blogger
YUAN Weishi – critical historian and writer

16:15-17:00
本土行动+舒可心 On Community & Activism
Local Actions – Hong Kong-based group for democratization in urban planning
SHU Kexin – community activist with background in engineering

17:00-17:30
欧宁+姚嘉珊 On Biennale
OU Ning – writer, artist, chief curator of Shenzhen Biennale
Marisa YIU – architect, chief curator of Hong Kong Biennale

17:30-18:15
胡向前+卢杰+邱志杰 On Art Practice & Institution
HU Xiangqian – artist
LU Jie – curator, director of Long March Project
QIU Zhijie – artist

18:15-18:45
张永和+汪建伟 On Art & Architecture
Yung-Ho CHANG – dean of architecture at MIT, curator and architect
WANG Jianwei – artist

18:45-19:15
高志凯 +唐杰 On Politics & Economy
Victor Zhikai GAO – Deng Xiaoping’s translator, now a columnist
TANG Jie – vice mayor of Shenzhen

19:15-19:45
陈侗+冯原 On PRD Criticism
CHEN Tong – founder of Libreria Borges Contemporary Art Centre
FENG Yuan – critic and urbanist at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou

19:45-20:15
刘晓东+朱文 On Art & Culture
LIU Xiaodong – artist
ZHU Wen – writer, poet, film director

20:15-20:45
赵良骏+姜珺 On Culture & Subculture
Samson CHIU – Hong Kong-based director and screenwriter
JIANG Jun – designer, critic, chief editor of Urban China magazine

20:45-21:15
谢英俊+吴音宁 On Taiwan & Local Society
Hsieh Ying Chun – Taiwanese architect and contractor, director of Atelier 3
WU Yin-Ning – Taiwanese writer, poet and activist

21:15-21:45
孟晖+艾晓明+张念 On Female Intellectual
AI Xiaoming – documentary maker, feminist scholar and activist
MENG Hui – writer and editor
ZHANG Nian – feminist and cultural critic

21:45-22:15
长平+梁文道 On Social Criticism
CHANG Ping – journalist and social critic for Southern Metropolis Daily
LEUNG Man Tao – public intellectual, TV host, writer18:15-18:45
张永和+汪建伟 On Art & Architecture
Yung-Ho CHANG – dean of architecture at MIT, curator and architect
WANG Jianwei – artist

18:45-19:15
高志凯 +唐杰 On Politics & Economy
Victor Zhikai GAO – Deng Xiaoping’s translator, now a columnist
TANG Jie – vice mayor of Shenzhen

19:15-19:45
陈侗+冯原 On PRD Criticism
CHEN Tong – founder of Libreria Borges Contemporary Art Centre
FENG Yuan – critic and urbanist at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou

19:45-20:15
刘晓东+朱文 On Art & Culture
LIU Xiaodong – artist
ZHU Wen – writer, poet, film director

20:15-20:45
赵良骏+姜珺 On Culture & Subculture
Samson CHIU – Hong Kong-based director and screenwriter
JIANG Jun – designer, critic, chief editor of Urban China magazine

20:45-21:15
谢英俊+吴音宁 On Taiwan & Local Society
Hsieh Ying Chun – Taiwanese architect and contractor, director of Atelier 3
WU Yin-Ning – Taiwanese writer, poet and activist

21:15-21:45
孟晖+艾晓明+张念 On Female Intellectual
AI Xiaoming – documentary maker, feminist scholar and activist
MENG Hui – writer and editor
ZHANG Nian – feminist and cultural critic

21:45-22:15
长平+梁文道 On Social Criticism
CHANG Ping – journalist and social critic for Southern Metropolis Daily
LEUNG Man Tao – public intellectual, TV host, writer

After several months, the eggplants, chilies, corns and other crops in “LandGrab City” are already ripe. At 3pm, Dec 20, the first round of “happy garden” harvesting started in the Nanshan sub-venue for 09SZHKB so that citizens can be more involved in the Biennale.

Under the instruction of the staff of the Biennale, parents along with their children participated in the harvesting. In addition to bringing them the family fun that had been absent for a long time, this activity also helped the children to experience the life of vegetable farmers. After the harvesting, the staff there also asked questions to the participators. Every correct answer was awarded with a pack of fresh and pollution-free “happy vegetables” that can be brought home for a healthy dish.

Children were cutting chilies

In front of the generous prizes, all the little participators were enthusiastically racing to answer the questions.

A children giving the correct answer were receiving the prize from the staff.

Ideas behind the work: American architects Joseph Gerima and Jeffrey Johnson think it is a common misconception that the contemporary city is becoming increasingly disconnected from the countryside. In some cases it is actually becoming more rigidly connected. “LandGrab City”
proposes an examination of these cities as complex, multinational territorial systems no longer confined by their physical or administrative city limits.

The eggplants, chillies, corns and other crops in 「LandGrab City」are ready to harvest.「LandGrab City 」is a project at the Shenzhenwan Avenue Sub-venue.

On 20th December, from 3pm to 4.30pm, the first round of “happy garden” harvesting is taking place at Wenxin Plaza of Shenzhenwan Avenue. This event focuses on introducing the Biennale to the citizens, especially kids growing up in the special economic zone. Through close contact, the activity provides the Shenzhen people with an opportunity to enjoy harvesting from a vegetable garden in the city.

The staff of the Biennale will pick and pack the vegetables on the spot in advance. They will also ask questions about the Biennale and every correct answer will be awarded with a pack of “happy vegetables”. Children can bring home the vegetables with their parents, and cook a healthy dish produced by the Biennale.

As part of 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism \ Architecture, Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist will host an INTERVIEW MARATHON at the Shenzhen Civic Centre on 22 December.

In an exhilarating and cerebral non-stop, eight-hour event, Koolhaas – the architect of the new Shenzhen Stock Exchange, under construction next to the Civic Centre – and Obrist – co-director of exhibitions and programs and director of international projects at London’s Serpentine Gallery – will interview 30 of China’s leading figures from the fields of media, economics, politics, planning, architecture, the arts, religion, science, and technology. The theme of this urgent dialogue is THE CHINESE THINKING.

What is the intellectual, creative, and political underpinning of China’s burgeoning economy, its rapid urbanization, its architectural and artistic development, and its new power status in a bi-polar world? What are the costs, and the blindspots, of this rampant growth? And what is the special role played by Shenzhen as a laboratory for China’s development?

A broad range of participants – from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan – will generate new knowledge and insight into China’s current conditions. This marathon event is organized by Ou Ning, chief curator of 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism \ Architecture, with research by Jiang Jun, editor of Urban China magazine.

Hans Ulrich Obrist invented the interview marathon concept in Stuttgart in 2005 as an experimental new kind of public event that bridges panel discussion, exhibition, and performance. In 2006 the concept evolved as Rem Koolhaas joined Obrist in interviewing over 70 people in a 24-hour marathon that took place in the Serpentine Gallery’s summer pavilion, co-designed by Koolhaas and structural designer Cecil Balmond. The pavilion was one of an ongoing series of annual architecture commissions conceived by Serpentine director Julia Peyton-Jones. Obrist and Koolhaas now look forward to engaging the rapidly growing city of Shenzhen as a way into THE CHINESE THINKING.

Confirmed guests:

AI Xiaoming (艾晓明) – documentary maker, feminist scholar and activist
AN Ge (安哥) – legendary photographer of life under Deng Xiaoping
Yung-Ho CHANG (张永和) – Dean of architecture at MIT, curator and architect
CHANG Ping (长平) – journalist and social critic for Southern Metropolis Daily
CHEN Tong (陈侗) – founder of art institution Libreria Borges
Samson CHIU (赵良骏) – Hong Kong-based director and screenwriter
FENG Yuan (冯原) – critic and urbanist at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou
Victor Zhikai GAO (高志凯) – Deng Xiaoping’s translator, now a columnist
HE Chengjun (贺承军) – architecture critic
HE Huangyou (何煌友) – photographer of Shenzhen since the 1960s
HSIEH Ying Chun (谢英俊) – Taiwanese architect and contractor, director of Atelier 3
HU Xiangqian (胡向前) – artist
HUANG Weiwen (黄伟文) – former director of the design department of the Shenzhen Municipal Planning Bureau
HU Xiangqian (胡向前) – artist
JIANG Jun (姜珺) – chief editor of Urban China magazine
LEUNG Man Tao (梁文道) – public intellectual, TV host, writer
LI Yong (李勇，网名十年砍柴) – journalist and blogger
LIU Xiaodong (刘小东) – contemporary figurative painter
Local Action (本土行动) – Hong Kong-based group for democratization in urban planning
LU Jie (卢杰) – curator
MENG Hui (孟晖) – writer and editor
OU Ning (欧宁) – writer, artist, chief curator of Shenzhen Biennale
QIU Zhijie (邱志杰) – artist
Thomas Z. SHAO (邵忠) – chairman of major publishers Modern Media
SHU Kexin (舒可心) – community activist with background in engineering
TANG Jie (唐杰) – vice mayor of Shenzhen
WANG Jianwei (汪健伟) – artist
WANG Shi (王石) – chairman of China Vanke
WU Yin-Ning (吴音宁) – Taiwanese writer, poet and activist
Marisa YIU (姚嘉珊) – architect, chief curator of Hong Kong Biennale
YUAN Weishi (袁伟时) – critical historian and writerZHANG Nian (张念) – feminist and cultural critic
ZHU Wen (朱文) – writer, poet, director of Seafood, winner of Grand Jury Prize at Venice, 2001