Our time at LAFA is nearly up. The workshop ended yesterday, where all 80 students brought their food plate to the students’ cafeteria where we set up a gigantic dinner feast of colourful meals. The table was almost 45 meters long! We then had to chose which students to give special awards – something they seem to like a lot in China. So we did as we were told, although this goes a little against Danish teaching spirit as we know it. When we get home we’ll upload photos of the whole workshop on our website.
Today we went on a sightseeing trip organised by Miss Yu from LAFA’s Shenyang campus. We were taken on a 2 hour drive to a neighboring district, where Miss Yu’s parents live. Actually we weren’t quite sure what was going on as the driver got lost several times, but when we reached the destination and Miss Yu’s mother handed us swimming suits with matching swimming hats, we knew that we were in for another special experience! And true enough, the next minute we found ourselves submerged in a hot spring, in matching retro swimsuits and hats. None of the local guests hesitated to stare at us curiously, and consequently Mu is now in the possession of a handful of potentially dangerous photos. After the hot bath, we went to have a delicious huge lunch with Miss Yu’s parents. They had been preparing it for a week, and we were very touched by their kindness and hospitality.
Later there was an award ceremony at the packaging studio, where we gave the students awards in 6 different categories – it was quite like the Oscars! The president of LAFA, Mr. Sun Ming, came by and it was a great pleasure meeting him. Afterwards there was a lovely buffet and a lot of group photographing with the students. Now our cheeks hurt from smiling to the cameras.
Sweet Mu got all teary at dinner, thinking about our departure tomorrow. “Time is frozen and I have so many memories” he philosophically stated. We will surely miss him! We make a brilliant trio.
Just now a crazy thunderstorm broke out, so hopefully we can fly to Beijing tomorrow.
Student work
Student work
Student work in the cafeteria
Paper dinner for 80!
Cheers!
Here we are in yet another group photo, this time with Mu, Miss Yu and her parents
Today we got up very early and had breakfast at the LAFA campus. We were then driven to the Polytechnic University of Dalian, which has a very interesting design and arts school. We got to visit a lot of different studios there, and especially the ceramic and sculpture studios were really exciting to see!
Here we gave our first lecture which was a very nice but strange experience, since very few actually understood what we said. Mu had to translate everything, and since we don’t speak Chinese, that could be anything! Afterwards it was like we were rockstars and we were asked to sign autographs.
Back at the LAFA campus, we held another lecture in the package design studio. Now we are very tired, so off to our big beds with plastic sheets. Tomorrow our workshop will begin and we are looking forward to really meeting the students and talking with them.
The ceramics department at Dalian Polytechnic University
Sculpture students
Again a glorious lunch, this time with the dean and teachers of Dalian Polytechnic
If you’re a lover of seafood and weird creatures, Dalian is the place for you. You can even get silk worms and huge frogs. Of course they are alive when you order them and then prepared for you… we didn’t dare though.
HOT v.2! This poster was designed by one of the teachers, Professor Yuling. We like this poster very much.
Group photos are a big thing in China. Here we are with Mu, the dean of Dalian Polytechnic Professor Ren, Professor Wang and Professor Yuling in front of one of the dean’s beautiful paintings.
First lecture at Dalian Polytechnic. The crowd is eagerly anticipating our words… Professor Wang fell asleep.
Second lecture at LAFA campus.
We are in China!
We arrived safely yesterday, and were greeted with flowers at Shenyang airport by Mu Xulong, the MA student at LAFA who initially invited us to come here. He is a huge fan of our work – and he knows everything about us! If we try to tell him something, he already knows… It’s quite incredible. When we got to the academy we had a welcome dinner with Professor Yafei Wang, a famous Chinese designer. After a fair deal of skepticism towards our closet vegetarianism they tuned into our needs and had extra vegetables delivered to the table. We feel very well taken care of here! Proffesor Wang also gave us tons of Chinese tea and a special tea pot which will be used all the time when we get back.
Today we did a guest talk at Lafa campus, for the students of visual communication, both under graduate and post graduate students. Most do not speak English but Mu did a fine job of translating our words. Later we were driven to the Dalian part of LAFA’s campus which is situated 5 hours’ drive south of Shenyang. Once again we received an overwhelmingly warm welcome, and had a delicious dinner with some of the professors, teachers and students. This campus seems huge – it will be interesting to see it in day light!
With Mu in front of a stone engraved with the LAFA motto: ‘Study hard!’
Professor Wang’s tea machine
At the guest talk
Lunch with students and Professor Wang
No, it’s not risengrød, it’s tofu!
Mu studying Hvass&Hannibal history
Hot!
Welcome dinner at Dalian campus
Our rooms are huge!
0 Comments China, LAFA, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, Mu Xulong, Yafei Wang
We are very nearly ready to fly off to China, and we are so very exited! We will be flying directly to Shenyang where we will give a guest talk, lecture and a 3 day workshop at LAFA, Luxun Academy of Fine arts. And we have prepared some fun stuff and can’t wait to meet the students, and see how it all turns out. We’ll be posting news about our journey along the way, so check in to see what we are up to…
We are happy to announce that we are going to China! We have been invited to Luxun Academy of Fine Arts (LAFA) in Shenyang to do a guest talk and a workshop, and we will probably also be visiting some other schools in the area. LAFA is one of the top art academies in China with varieties of specialties and departments and excellent academic staff, according to Saatchi Gallery’s website. We are very honoured to have received this invitation and also exited to finally have settled on a date, as we’ve been planning this trip for nearly a year now, since we were first contacted by LAFA student Mu Xulong.
We will be traveling end of May 2010, and after staying at the school for one week, we will spend a few days in Beijing. If anyone knows some interesting places we should go and see in Beijing, please leave a comment!
You can read a little more about the school on Saatchi Gallery’s website or visit the school’s own website here, but you won’t get very far if you don’t read Chinese.