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