4-1 A blueprint of memories
A glaringly blue landscape has recently been added to the Civic Square. “Shenzhen Civic Square Blueprint”, made by Liu Kuo-Chang and OU Studio, does not talk about the future but the past. The blue imagery tells the elements that used to exist on this land: bicycles, paddy fields, forests, waterways and disappeared sampon boats.
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3-1 The most animate work
Does this huge monster look like a bull? Right, this is the participating work from Rigo 23 – “Snow Bull Station”. Only the “skeleton” has been completed so far, while the “flesh” and “skin” are still under construction. Rigo 23 is a Portuguese American artist. His work addresses political concerns that intersect the local and the global while remaining steadfastly rooted in the environments of its creation and the relationships built within those communities. Before designing this work, he had been in Shenzhen for almost a month meeting and interviewing citizens.
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2-1 “The Bug Dome” by The Weak! under construction
The Weak!, an architecture group from Taiwan, consists of Hsieh Ying-Chun, Marco Casagrande and Ching-yueh Roan. The Weak! learn their architectural methods from bugs and put them into practice. Most of the materials for “the Bug Dome” are from nature and will go back to nature finally. It aims to create an uproarious quietness and build a peaceful shelter in the clamorous and disturbing city. As a temporary multi-functional architecture space, the “Bug Dome” will also serve as a workshop for children. There will also be performances by underground bands, poetry parties and architecture forums in it by then.
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Venue: Third Floor, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen
Date: 6 to 20 Dec, 2009
“Under the Sun: A Retrospective of Architect Hsia Chang-shi”, the only solo exhibition ever offered to an individual architect for the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, will be held at Guan Shanyue Art Museum during the 2009 event.
Hsia Chang-shi, born in 1905, earned a PhD in art history in Germany before teaching in a number of well-known Chinese architecture schools. He created his best work for the southern part of his country during his tenure at South China University of Technology. As a key explorer, practitioner and promoter of modernism in China, he neither simply transplanted the ideas, technologies and forms of German modern architecture nor wrapped the vernacular over modern techniques and materials. Rather, he began a search for a spatial spirit rooted in the traditional local culture and climate of south China, applying it to modern forms that fit the technological conditions of the time. Returning to his hometown, he established modern architecture in the Lingnan region and created a wellspring of ideas and forms for Lingnan style architecture.
Click here to see full descriptions of the project
Our civic projectionist Mr Huang Jianxin brought a brand-new China-made 16-mm cinematograph to try out the eight film copies we just received from MoMA.
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Movies shipped from New York
The film copies for the Urban\Architecture Film Exhibition (link) just arrived in Shenzhen after a long journey from New York. The film exhibition is a special project of the ‘09 SZHK Bi-city Biennale. All the film copies are borrowed from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Produced between 1920s and 1950s, these films copies are all in 16mm format. It will be a quite special experience for the audience today who’re used to digital screenings.
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Tomaz Tomazin, assistant of Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč, went to Shenzhen Civic Square on 17 November to prepare for their participating work New Orleans, Tirana, Shenzhen and Other Places. Marjetica’s researches focus on the forms and types of international architecture and she is fond of presenting the result of her study by means of murals and sculptures. The masterpiece she provides for Shenzhen & Hongkong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture is a mural that portrays the all kinds of buildings constructed in New Orleans after being struck by Katrina Typhoon. The mural will be exhibited in the underground space of Shenzhen Civic Square.
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The publication of the special project “Odyssey: Architecture and Literature” will have about 400 pages, with all the content in both English and Chinese. Designed by Xiao Mage and Chengzi, the book uses over eight kinds of papers and many nouveau techniques. The design duo make lots of efforts to better the layout, reading rhythm and visual details. The book is expected to come out before the opening of the Bi-city Biennale on 6 Dec, 2009.
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Model Cities, participating project of DRDH Architects is under preparation in Shenzhen. They invited kids from five primary schools and kindergartens to help making models of Shenzhen’s symbolic buildings and those nameless ones which might represent the city even better. The work will left to Shenzhen citizens as souvenir.
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Construction workers for Red Link Park and Anarchitecture are on the site already. The two works proposed by Open Architecture and Tercerunquinto both need to first destroy the walls to the northeast of the Civic Center. The walls will be changed to part of the Red Link Park which provides entertainment facilities in the shape of the 26 letters in the English alphabet. Anarchitecture comes from anarchic architecture. The project will inscribe the word “Anarchitecture” (anarchic architecture) perforated all
through one of the venue’s walls in such a manner that the resulting holes will allow one to view the exterior
(the city, its transformation) through them.
