The Solutions: International Design Exhibition
Curatorial Concepts
Since the Industrial Revolution, design has been regarded as a specialization serving clients, and reliance on the capitalist system of development, and the limitations of the employer-client relationship obscured its identity and independence. In other social system such as socialism design was regarded as serving the even more powerful state and so it came to serve as a medium for propaganda, eclipsing its identity and independence to an even greater extent. What in fact is design? Wherein lays its freedom? Even in the design hub and teaching organization of Bauhaus arising during the frenetic period of the modernist movement, design could not address these questions because of the functional limitations to which design as a specialization was still limited.
With the upsurge in new social movements in the 1960s, design sought to play a more radical social role. The combination of psychedelic drugs and music emerging in San Francisco in the 1960s saw visual design seeking a new visual aesthetic and a spontaneity that embodied the rebellion of the era; the Archigram architectural group in London made great efforts to shake off the employer-client relationship of traditional architecture, and to construct their radical Utopias on paper, occasionally having the opportunity to lash out at ornate commercial buildings with their fresh use of concrete. Yet devotees of fashion were roaming the streets, drawing sustenance from subcultures and designing boldly impractical—but utterly daring—clothing. In the rapidly developing product and S&T fields designers and scientists cooperated, effecting dramatic breaks with traditional design categories. Design continued to flourish, search and innovate.
While attempting to win identity and independence, design eagerly sought to affect a break with its material limits, and enter the lofty realm of social engineering). Its ultimate function was engaged with social movements through social operations, psychological structuring, and systems innovations, no longer by the trivial demands arising from the trivial daily demands placed on it. Social engineering, what the renowned artist Beuys described as “social sculpture”, did not end with the hard material world, but was part of the “software” of societies like politics, economy, and culture. This trend strengthened even more after the birth of the internet. In the complex contemporary context, design is increasingly called upon to come up with strategic decisions and solutions for urgent social problems, and in excavating a noble spiritual principle (which we might denote by citing the ancient Chinese concept of “the way”) design has ultimately been able to attain the true identity and independence it long sought.
THE SOLUTIONS: INTERNATIONAL DESIGN EXHIBITION extends the theme of CHANGING VISTAS: CREATIVE DURATION of 2011 CHENGDU BIENNALE, presenting an exhibition highlighting and exploring how design responds to social realities of rapid change. Ou Ning, initiator and curator of GetItLouder Exhibition and the curator of the 2009 Shenzhen &Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, has invited more than thirty prominent international and local designers addressing Product Design, Furniture Design, Architectural Design, Fashion Design, Visual Design, and New Media Design to exhibit work responding to the themes of 2011 CHENGDU BIENNALE. Seminars will bring together international thinkers in the field of design, providing an opportunity for artists and designers to meet and discuss with the audiences the ways in which their fields of endeavor can better serve society. Ou Ning will bring his unique flair and style to this show, promising to make it a mentally stimulating event to remember, one with far-reaching psychological ramifications. Its Internet tools will enhance and dynamically extend the interactive aspects of this unique exhibition.
Framework
EXHIBITION TITLE: The Solutions: International Design Exhibition
DURATION: Sep. 29, 2011- Oct. 30, 2011(preview: Sep. 28, 2011)
CURATOR: Ou Ning
ASSISTANT CURATOR: Zhou Zhenzheng
VENUE: East Chengdu•Music Park
AREA: Around 1,700 square meters
PARTICIPANTS: Designers from China and abroad
WORKS: Products, Furniture, Fashion, Temporary Buildings, Planar Design, Video, New Media Installations, Archives
LANGUAGES: Chinese and English
Platforms
The international design exhibition will be presented by seven platforms or tectonic plates: Product Design, Fashion Design, Planar Design, Architectural Design, New Media Design, and Special Projects:
Product Design: Everyday items, furniture and industrial design, presenting prospective contemporary international design works.
Fashion Design: Showcasing domestic and international fashion design, with a focus on experimental fashion, limited issue (haute couture) and fashionable products.
Planar Design: Books and periodicals, posters, product packaging, visual shapes, film and TV, and mobile video.
Architectural Design: Unlike the architecture exhibition the “Other” and the “Self”, the architects taking part in the international design exhibition present theoretical rather than realized designs, focusing on experimental architecture, large-scale installations and other items.
New Media Design: This platform takes as its starting point the latest science and technology, with a strong interactive interest and a futuristic feel.
Special Projects: The two leading projects in this category are "Green Mountain Community", and "Design and Action". These projects entail special plans that transcend categories (for example extending to art, sociology, agricultural research, etc.).
(Note: The international design exhibition categories are at this stage provisional, and will be refined as the event draws closer.)
Pre-activities and Activities Concurrent with Design Exhibition
THEMATIC SEMINAR: At the same time as it sought to establish an identity and independence, design eagerly sought to further surmount its long limited material aspects, and attain status as social engineering. Its ultimate function was drawn from social operations, psychological constructs, and systems innovation, no longer from simply meeting the demands of everyday life but attempting to guide social progress. In the complex contemporary context, design is increasingly called upon to make strategic decisions and come up with solutions for urgent social problems, and in excavating a noble spiritual principle (which we might denote by citing the ancient Chinese concept of “the way”) design has ultimately been able to attain the true identity and independence it long sought. To address this question, the curator have invited international design thinkers, critics, historians, practitioners, design think tank personnel and research and display organization personnel, to participate in the discussions at 2011 CHENGDU BIENNALE.
Artist Talks: During the exhibition, participants will present artist’s talks running to approximately 40 minutes for each individual, in which they will introduce their works and responses to the design exhibition themes, and address audience questions.
Introduction to the Curator of Design Exhibition
OU NING
Born in Suixi, Guangdong province, in 1969; Ou Ning graduated in 1993 from Shenzhen University. He is a cultural practitioner spanning many fields. In 2005 he initiated and curated the Getitlouder Exhibition. In 2006 he accepted an invitation from the Serpentine Gallery to stage an audio-visual program at London’s Battersea Power Station titled Wake Up Battersea. As an artist, his works are widely exhibited and collected internationally; his 2002-2003 urban research and documentary film titled Sanyuanli was exhibited in 50th Venice Biennale. Since then he has participated in many international exhibitions. In 2005- 2006, with the assistance of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, he supervised the project titled Dazhalan (The Large Fence), and in 2006 part of the project, the documentary titled Mei Shi Jie(Coal Street) was premiered at MOMA in New York. In 1989-2000, he lived and worked in Shenzhen, and moved to Guangzhou in 2000, and in 2006 to Beijing. In 2008 he became general director of the Shao Zhong Foundation. He presently regards Beijing as his permanent home, although his work sees him constantly traveling to many different countries. In 2009, he was the general curator of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong City\Architecture Twin City Biennale; at 53rd Venice Biennale he won the Benesse Grand Prix Judging Panel and a Judges’ Award at the Yokohama International Video Festival.
Since the Industrial Revolution, design has been regarded as a specialization serving clients, and reliance on the capitalist system of development, and the limitations of the employer-client relationship obscured its identity and independence. In other social system such as socialism design was regarded as serving the even more powerful state and so it came to serve as a medium for propaganda, eclipsing its identity and independence to an even greater extent. What in fact is design? Wherein lays its freedom? Even in the design hub and teaching organization of Bauhaus arising during the frenetic period of the modernist movement, design could not address these questions because of the functional limitations to which design as a specialization was still limited.
With the upsurge in new social movements in the 1960s, design sought to play a more radical social role. The combination of psychedelic drugs and music emerging in San Francisco in the 1960s saw visual design seeking a new visual aesthetic and a spontaneity that embodied the rebellion of the era; the Archigram architectural group in London made great efforts to shake off the employer-client relationship of traditional architecture, and to construct their radical Utopias on paper, occasionally having the opportunity to lash out at ornate commercial buildings with their fresh use of concrete. Yet devotees of fashion were roaming the streets, drawing sustenance from subcultures and designing boldly impractical—but utterly daring—clothing. In the rapidly developing product and S&T fields designers and scientists cooperated, effecting dramatic breaks with traditional design categories. Design continued to flourish, search and innovate.
While attempting to win identity and independence, design eagerly sought to affect a break with its material limits, and enter the lofty realm of social engineering). Its ultimate function was engaged with social movements through social operations, psychological structuring, and systems innovations, no longer by the trivial demands arising from the trivial daily demands placed on it. Social engineering, what the renowned artist Beuys described as “social sculpture”, did not end with the hard material world, but was part of the “software” of societies like politics, economy, and culture. This trend strengthened even more after the birth of the internet. In the complex contemporary context, design is increasingly called upon to come up with strategic decisions and solutions for urgent social problems, and in excavating a noble spiritual principle (which we might denote by citing the ancient Chinese concept of “the way”) design has ultimately been able to attain the true identity and independence it long sought.
THE SOLUTIONS: INTERNATIONAL DESIGN EXHIBITION extends the theme of CHANGING VISTAS: CREATIVE DURATION of 2011 CHENGDU BIENNALE, presenting an exhibition highlighting and exploring how design responds to social realities of rapid change. Ou Ning, initiator and curator of GetItLouder Exhibition and the curator of the 2009 Shenzhen &Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, has invited more than thirty prominent international and local designers addressing Product Design, Furniture Design, Architectural Design, Fashion Design, Visual Design, and New Media Design to exhibit work responding to the themes of 2011 CHENGDU BIENNALE. Seminars will bring together international thinkers in the field of design, providing an opportunity for artists and designers to meet and discuss with the audiences the ways in which their fields of endeavor can better serve society. Ou Ning will bring his unique flair and style to this show, promising to make it a mentally stimulating event to remember, one with far-reaching psychological ramifications. Its Internet tools will enhance and dynamically extend the interactive aspects of this unique exhibition.
Framework
EXHIBITION TITLE: The Solutions: International Design Exhibition
DURATION: Sep. 29, 2011- Oct. 30, 2011(preview: Sep. 28, 2011)
CURATOR: Ou Ning
ASSISTANT CURATOR: Zhou Zhenzheng
VENUE: East Chengdu•Music Park
AREA: Around 1,700 square meters
PARTICIPANTS: Designers from China and abroad
WORKS: Products, Furniture, Fashion, Temporary Buildings, Planar Design, Video, New Media Installations, Archives
LANGUAGES: Chinese and English
Platforms
The international design exhibition will be presented by seven platforms or tectonic plates: Product Design, Fashion Design, Planar Design, Architectural Design, New Media Design, and Special Projects:
Product Design: Everyday items, furniture and industrial design, presenting prospective contemporary international design works.
Fashion Design: Showcasing domestic and international fashion design, with a focus on experimental fashion, limited issue (haute couture) and fashionable products.
Planar Design: Books and periodicals, posters, product packaging, visual shapes, film and TV, and mobile video.
Architectural Design: Unlike the architecture exhibition the “Other” and the “Self”, the architects taking part in the international design exhibition present theoretical rather than realized designs, focusing on experimental architecture, large-scale installations and other items.
New Media Design: This platform takes as its starting point the latest science and technology, with a strong interactive interest and a futuristic feel.
Special Projects: The two leading projects in this category are "Green Mountain Community", and "Design and Action". These projects entail special plans that transcend categories (for example extending to art, sociology, agricultural research, etc.).
(Note: The international design exhibition categories are at this stage provisional, and will be refined as the event draws closer.)
Pre-activities and Activities Concurrent with Design Exhibition
THEMATIC SEMINAR: At the same time as it sought to establish an identity and independence, design eagerly sought to further surmount its long limited material aspects, and attain status as social engineering. Its ultimate function was drawn from social operations, psychological constructs, and systems innovation, no longer from simply meeting the demands of everyday life but attempting to guide social progress. In the complex contemporary context, design is increasingly called upon to make strategic decisions and come up with solutions for urgent social problems, and in excavating a noble spiritual principle (which we might denote by citing the ancient Chinese concept of “the way”) design has ultimately been able to attain the true identity and independence it long sought. To address this question, the curator have invited international design thinkers, critics, historians, practitioners, design think tank personnel and research and display organization personnel, to participate in the discussions at 2011 CHENGDU BIENNALE.
Artist Talks: During the exhibition, participants will present artist’s talks running to approximately 40 minutes for each individual, in which they will introduce their works and responses to the design exhibition themes, and address audience questions.
Introduction to the Curator of Design Exhibition
OU NING
Born in Suixi, Guangdong province, in 1969; Ou Ning graduated in 1993 from Shenzhen University. He is a cultural practitioner spanning many fields. In 2005 he initiated and curated the Getitlouder Exhibition. In 2006 he accepted an invitation from the Serpentine Gallery to stage an audio-visual program at London’s Battersea Power Station titled Wake Up Battersea. As an artist, his works are widely exhibited and collected internationally; his 2002-2003 urban research and documentary film titled Sanyuanli was exhibited in 50th Venice Biennale. Since then he has participated in many international exhibitions. In 2005- 2006, with the assistance of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, he supervised the project titled Dazhalan (The Large Fence), and in 2006 part of the project, the documentary titled Mei Shi Jie(Coal Street) was premiered at MOMA in New York. In 1989-2000, he lived and worked in Shenzhen, and moved to Guangzhou in 2000, and in 2006 to Beijing. In 2008 he became general director of the Shao Zhong Foundation. He presently regards Beijing as his permanent home, although his work sees him constantly traveling to many different countries. In 2009, he was the general curator of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong City\Architecture Twin City Biennale; at 53rd Venice Biennale he won the Benesse Grand Prix Judging Panel and a Judges’ Award at the Yokohama International Video Festival.
