On October 21st, the opening ceremony and academic forum of “Zhongnan – Mountains and Rivers – Countryside Journal” hosted by Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts and Xi’an Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism kicked off at the Zhongnan Theater in Caijiapo Village, Xi’an, Shaanxi. Dai Pu, founder and principle of Daipu architect, was invited to attend the opening event.
Lv Pinjing, Dong Shubing, Liu Qingyuan, Huang Sunquan, Li Yifan, Liu Kecheng, Zuo Jing, Liang Jingyu, Hou Xiaolei, Li Hongbo, Wang Yi, Li Hao, Shi Hongshuai, Peng De, Wang He, He Zhe, Wang Muzhi, Xu Lingyi and other experts and scholars in various fields attended the opening ceremony and forum.
The installation “The Veil” designed by Daipu Architects for this art festival is expected to be completed and opened in late November.
“The Veil” continues the exploration of design strategy similar as the previous project ” Force Field Hutong “, which is often in a deeply embarrassing condition that is “impossible to touch the essence”. The premise of this kind of creation is mostly under the shadow of “unspeakable” ideology, the ” self-censorship” of the special location, and the “unpredictable risk” that honest design may bring. But fortunately, the initiators of such projects are also different from the general real estate development mindset that is indifferent to innovation. In this type of project, we are able to give each other the utmost sincerity and respect. This is the fundamental prerequisite for the creation to become a WORK in the end. It is neither a commission or financial threat from one party to another, nor is it a work of coping or compromise.
When the ideal core actions (such as attempts to renovate the structure, to stimulate the use of external space, etc.) were taken out of consideration, we continued our experiment of wrapping the Hutong Gravity Field in Beijing for the third site of the Mangba Arts Festival. In this exploration, we attempted to combine the form of underlayment of old buildings in Guanzhong with metal material, transforming it into a lighter translucent mesh structure, which is carried over to the expression of the façade, putting a metal veil on the old buildings.
The real old façade and the new contemporary skin are revealed simultaneously, as the metal tiles flow down the sloping veil, twisting and creasing as the entrance rotates. Visitors will enter the gallery through a time lens made of stainless-steel panels, experiencing exhibits or paintings from different eras and in different curatorial contexts.
Daipu Architects has been actively involved in rural development issues and discussions, deeply involved in the design practice of urban and rural development in villages and towns, helping to break the simple pattern of urban-rural dichotomy and promoting more urban-rural intermingling – a multi-dimensional two-way feeder of cultural and industrial development.
This activity is an important part of the Fifth Guanzhong Mangba Arts Festival, which cuts through the perspective of history and geography, nature and humanities, society and field. Since March, more than 30 groups of 50 outstanding artists, designers, architects, writers and practitioners have been invited to go deep into the social scene, resident research, and picking up practice, and with the help of all kinds of art forms and cultural forms, to discover unused space, carry out art practice With the help of various art forms and cultural forms, the exhibition explores idle space, carries out art practice, stimulates the vitality of the place, forms many new scenes, creates a large number of art works, and builds a multi-type, multi-dimensional and multi-level “Earth Art Exhibition under the South Mountain”.
