Odyssey: Architecture and Literature
Chief Curator Ou Ning has chosen nine key representative architectural designs constructed over the past ten years around China as participating works of the Biennale. Nine prominent writers are invited to explore the nine chosen buildings. Each writer writes a fictional story that links architecture and individuals through their own experience and imagination.
The nine writers include Han Dong, Zhu Wen, Ching-yueh Roan, Lu Nei, Hu Shuwen, Hu Fang, Hon Lai-chu, Sheng Keyi and Zhang Yueran. They will respectively write about Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Art Museum (Jiakun Architects, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 2002); Yaluntzangpu Boat Terminal (Zhang Ke+Standard Architecture, Tibet, 2008); Slit House (Atelier Zhang Lei, Nanjing, 2007); Xiangshan Campus, China Academy of Art (Wang Shu, Hangzhou, 2008); Well Hall and Father’s House (MADA s.p.a.m., Lan Tian, Xi’an Province, 2005); Guangzhou Opera House (Zaha Hadid Architects, Guangzhou, 2009); Urban Tulou (Meng Yan, Liu Xiaodu, Wang Hui + URBANUS Architecture and Design, Nanhai, Guangdong Province, 2008); Vanke Center (Steven Holl Architects, Shenzhen, 2009) and Dashawan Beach Facility, Lianyungang (Zhu Xiaofeng + Scenic Architecture Office, Liandao, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, 2007).
What has made the Odyssey project different is to draw attention to the experimental, the undefined, the under-analysed. There was a time that a whole genre called “architectural fiction” could be traced: from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Edward Carey’s Observatory Mansions, Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. The stories being produced – based on particular buildings or featuring architects – might set one’s imagination going more effectively than other publications.
This odyssey, through buildings, geographies, literary worlds, starts in south China, in Shenzhen, the birthplace of contemporary China’s urbanisation fever. From there, people go east and then west, ending up in Pai, a small town in Tibet. Odyssey, we hope, will be an imaginative voyage of discovery: a slice of history in the making.
The audience will also have chance to visit these selected buildings with the company of the architects who designed them. After reading the novels, if you are interested in visiting any of the listed buildings, you can register your name online. When the applicants reach a certain number, designated travel agencies will form a tour group for the applicants.
Renowned writer and film director Zhu Wen has been invited to not only contribute a piece of fiction but to also produce a film documenting this project and linking the nine points together. The documentary will be screened during the opening ceremony of the Biennale.
