Just returned from Beijing after 10 days of working on an installation for NOTCH festival 2011. NOTCH festival is an annual event in China showcasing Nordic and Chinese artists and designers, and this year we collaborated with a local Chinese designer called Been, who we met last time we were in Beijing. We got along so well, and now we just want her to move to Denmark!
This year’s theme for the festival was Feedback, and all the artists used recycled materials found in the hutong area where the factory and exhibition space is situated.
Our work consisted of 4 large weaving frames hanging from the ceiling. In between the cotton strings we wove pieces of colourful paper from used cigarette boxes.
If you happen to be in Beijing, you can go and see the whole exhibition at 8 Dawailangying Hutong, Dashilan, until October 9th. Other participating Nordic artists were Jacob Sikker Remin from Denmark, Tuomas Laitinen from Finland, Gudrun Kristjansdottir from Iceland and Baltos Kandys from Lithuania.
The day before yesterday we had a guest talk at CAFA, Central Academy of Fine Arts – our last one on this trip. Our Chinese friend, Been had been so kind as to arrange everything for us. We also got to meet Professor Xiaoyong, a famous designer and professor of graphic design at CAFA. We didn’t have much time to see the school, but hopefully we’ll be able to go back one day and see more.
After our guest talk, we had a cup of coffee with our Danish friend Sidsel Tuxen who is studying at the architecture department at CAFA this semester. She had made two new Chinese friends with really cool Western names – Highway and Oxygen. Later Oxygen, Been and a bunch of her friends then joined us for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We ended the day with Jessica on a roof top bar with a magnificent view of the forbidden city. Beijing is a magical city.
Yesterday we did some regular tourist business, and we also visited our friend Jessica at the architect office where she works, called Dada.
And now our trip is nearly coming to an end! It has been an absolutely amazing experience for us to visit China. Tomorrow we are flying back to Denmark, back to our little basement studio. We are looking forward to seeing our friends, family and most of all our (other) better halves…
Sculptures at CAFA
Tourist business included visiting the galleries of 798. This photo is from Olafur Eliasson and Ma Yansong’s collaboration at UCCA. It’s a giant room filled with colored lights and smoke, an amazing experience.
2 Comments 798, Been Design, Beijing, CAFA, Ma Yansong, Olafur Eliasson, Sidsel Tuxen, UCCA, Xiaoyong
We are now in Beijing, staying with our Swedish architect friends in a very charming hutong area very near The Forbidden City. Not much internet access, so there will probably only be a few updates from here. But some great news is that we have been invited to do a small guest talk at CAFA, Central Academy of Fine Arts, which is the no. 1 arts academy in China, and we are of course very exited about this.
Today we are going meet a local friend, Been, and see more of Beijing. We are already in love with the city!
Caroline and Jessica live here