The Wall

Crazy Stone

2009-03-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

can't guess what's the pose of this gentleman mean

transforming public space in Chongqing March '09

article in Asia Pacific Newsletter

2009-03-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

A remarkable exhibition is currently being hosted by the Institut Francais in Cologne: Kaleidoscopes links artists from Europe and China. The remarkable aspect about this 'work in progress' is that all the artists regard 'progress' as a kind of conversational continuation of exchange. Therefore since their initial encounters in Shanghai each artist taking part in this wandering exhibition (Paris 2008, Cologne 2009, Liverpool 2010) continues to record cultural and human processes of rapprochement and for each new venue allows his/her work to shift, change and even at times absent itself. An online blog ("Exhibitionwall") shares this process with the public at large.

written by Martin Wolf

interpreted into English by Petra Johnson

Saturday, 28th March 2009

2009-03-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

at

2009-03-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

and

2009-03-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

Look who has arrived

2009-03-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

Das gluehende Haus von Xu Zhifeng

2009-03-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

One of the works in the exhibition has not yet been mentioned (Xu Zhifengs). But it was worth the wait. Last night Sabine, who has been helping looking after the show, kept talking about "Das gluehende Haus".

I suddenly realised what a beautiful word gluehen is, and how wonderful a title for the work.

In English a translation would be the glowing house.

Gluehen evokes so many feelings, warmth, soft lights, man glueht vor Freude (glow with joy), it means to send out light, it means enthusiasm, gluehen fuer (glow for) means to love.

So rather than showing a picture of a very nice computer on a very nice table in the entrance hall,three words Das gluehende Haus.

opening the show...

2009-03-22T04:26:00.000-07:00

guided tour for the staff of the french institute

2009-03-22T04:25:00.000-07:00

puuting up the blog

2009-03-22T04:23:00.000-07:00

rice drawing

2009-03-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

thank you

2009-03-22T04:19:00.003-07:00

installing the show Khan's paintings....

2009-03-22T04:19:00.002-07:00

we are ready

2009-03-22T04:19:00.001-07:00

at the studio

2009-03-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

sticking the rice

transporting the rice

Daniel Malbert and Sabine Keller before the opening

2009-03-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

shanghai anti 2

2009-03-22T04:13:00.000-07:00

shanghai anti

2009-03-22T04:12:00.000-07:00

the wall detail 2

2009-03-22T04:11:00.000-07:00

the heart of the wall Wednesday night

2009-03-22T04:10:00.000-07:00

the wall detail

2009-03-22T04:09:00.002-07:00

the wall

2009-03-22T04:09:00.001-07:00

adrian, tiger and carol

2009-03-22T04:05:00.000-07:00

jeremy and khan part 6 and finale

2009-03-22T04:04:00.002-07:00

jeremy and khan part 5

2009-03-22T04:04:00.001-07:00

jeremy and khan part 4?

2009-03-22T04:03:00.000-07:00

jeremy is joined by marie and jam and lam

2009-03-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

alex once more

2009-03-22T04:01:00.000-07:00

other points of view are also possible for alex

2009-03-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

on entering the porter's lodge there is alex

2009-03-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

fortunately the tape is not very good so petra can carry on doing what she loves to do on the next day

2009-03-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

Sophia and Petra who has now run out of photos

2009-03-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

Sophia and petra

2009-03-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

Sophia and Petra carrying on doing what she loves doing

2009-03-22T03:53:00.000-07:00

fanny

2009-03-22T03:51:00.000-07:00

jeremy and fanny

2009-03-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

fanny and jeremy and a little of jeremy and khan part 3

2009-03-22T03:48:00.002-07:00

fanny and jeremy

2009-03-22T03:48:00.001-07:00

Sophia and Petra still doing what she loves doing

2009-03-22T03:47:00.000-07:00

Sophia and petra doing what she loves doing

2009-03-22T03:45:00.000-07:00

just jeremy so far

2009-03-22T03:44:00.002-07:00

jeremy and Khan part 2

2009-03-22T03:44:00.001-07:00

jeremy and johann

2009-03-22T03:42:00.000-07:00

jeremy and khan part 1

2009-03-22T03:41:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, 18th, morning

2009-03-22T03:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday night - 15/3/09 thinking about the wall

2009-03-22T03:28:00.000-07:00

first pics

2009-03-22T03:19:00.001-07:00

hello everyone

i am so sorry it has taken time to begin the process of letting you know how it went. I put some pics on the blog, the first one shows Daniel Malbert, the director of the Institut Francais and Sabine Keller without whose help it would not have been possible. We are just giving them a guided tour before the official opening. Daniel was happy to show work by artists from different nationalities and to look, as he said, not always at Paris, but beyond the European borders.

the other three pics show scenes from the opening, unfortunately I had no time to also take pics of the downstairs floor, Fanny's cousin took loads and they will get to you eventually.

many many thanks and i am so pleased how nicely every work fitted in - complementing this very interesting architectural space as well as each other's work

petra

some photos of the setting up will follow next, so sequences are a little out of synch

Tuesday, 3 days before the opening

2009-03-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Johann"s painting went up. It is exactly in the place where I had seen it on my first visit to the institut francais now nine months ago. And it looks as good as I expected.

Downstairs we have been playing around with DVDs, Jeremy and Juergen (from Institut Francais) worked all afternoon, Khan"s work is also up. It now fits in nicely after several attempts to find a home for them.

It is a very good feeling and for once things are running smoothly. Everyone at the Institut Francais is very helpful.

Today we have one more run at distributing flyers around town and in Bonn and then we have two more days to hang up Fanny"s work, do the wall and the painstaking (I so much look forward to this meditative work) distribution of Sophie"s photos.

There was one moment of sadness when I looked down the large auditorium where I had hoped Shaw might do his trademark intervention with coloured neon tubes. Next time.

AAAh which brings up a new idea, depending on the outcome of this show, maybe we could turn this into an annual event in Cologne - our very own art cologne

updating of Caoyang Project

2009-03-12T22:50:00.001-07:00

last week, we went to the Caoyang district. Took some photos and video.

The old ladies and their husbands happily show their words by sewing characters on sheets.

But, it is obvious, their laguage is as pale as their faces.

They are orgnized by the neighborhood committees, which is taking the responssibility of screening residents' true words from their heart.

So, you can see what is happening, a 'beautiful' art project.

2009-03-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Seven days to go and tonight we had duck, wine and courgettes with honey.

Jeremy has arrived from France and immediately took charge of our well being.

I got a visa to the States today by spending 5 minutes on the computer putting in very basic info and received an entry number by return. Actually I am lying, in fact I spent almost an hour but that was because the server I used did not support the program. After 45 minutes of trying different ways, someone suggested I should try internet explorer instead of firefox and then it took indeed only five minutes.

It is day 12 or so (approaching 250 hours) since we started to apply for a visa from China to Germany. Tomorrow the German Consulate in Shanghai will receive a phone call from Germany asking why two artists wishing to attend the opening of an exhibition showing their work and in possession of an official invitation are required to present information beyond that listed in the guidance notes.

Wednesday, 8 days before the opening

2009-03-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

As I put up a poster inside the Chinese travel agent at Sachsenring, a man outside begins to wave and point. His gestures tell me, I am putting the poster up the wrong way.

He soon realises what kind of poster this is and walks off laughing.

At the Koeln Filmhaus another man tells me he has heard of this exhibition, he wants my card, he has even looked at the blog. I tell him about our visa problems, he nods, "You do not have to tell me". And adds "It can be very lonely in Cologne".

I walk from one end of Cologne to the other, putting up posters, fuelled by anger - wut in German which if one turns the first letter round reads mut (courage) - all this talk about human rights here and who is it who does not allow an artist to be at the opening of his or her exhibition? Would we have got the visa if we had gone for a tourist visa???

The Wall

2009-03-07T01:07:00.000-08:00

.
.

in betweens

invitation

2009-03-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

And here is the invitation for the show

1284.1

2009-02-25T04:23:00.001-08:00

each color dot locate our kindest donator

anonymous map

D-Salon photo

2009-02-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

"send me to Köln"

am space Shanghai

pre-launch for "Kaleidoscope"

2009, 02, 21

blessing

mapping

launching

it's not a lantern but our fundraiser!

a naked city?

2009-02-17T06:36:00.000-08:00

Lupu Brg.

2009-02-13T06:09:00.000-08:00

TTT

resonates to Johann's work

studio

2009-02-07T10:27:00.001-08:00

And this is my studio
The view is amazing, but it's not the most practical space for working.
But I'm getting used to the city and geting ahead in my work. I sould start with the rice sticking on monday!!!!

sigh....

2009-02-05T09:54:00.001-08:00

« imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond in the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colours are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of « green » ? How many rainbows can light create for the untutored eye ? How aware of variations in heat waves can that eye be ? Imagine a world Alive with incompréhensible objects and shimmering with an endless variety of movement and innumérable gradations of color. Imagine a world before the ‘beginning was the word’ »
Stan Brakhage, Metaphors on vision
When I was in college, I wrote an essay about the transcendance of language in art and I came about this text.
When I arrive in Shanghai, that for me the closest I would ever be to this state. Walking around the Streets without any understanding of what things were. I felt like a child, I was excited like a child, had the attention span of a child, I wanted something new everyday. When this feeling subsided, it became harder, I had lost something I would never recover, China would never be tottaly unknown again, and this knowledge I acquired, slight as it may be killed this amazing feeling of total freedom in a world that look to me as a huge moving image, with colours, impressions, people, but no « things ». The number of things I couldn’t name….

2009-02-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

I just got to Cologne and got myself settled in my new studio at the Chocolate Museum.

It has a beautiful view over the river and nothing else really, I'll post some picture later.

The language difference is actually as present as in Shanghai I was quite surprised.

In a shop, I asked for some tape and they gave me tampons!

I visited the museum where they have a small chocolate factory, which is very cool and they produce their own chocolate.

A bit like in Charlie and the chocolate factory.

I was wondering what would be the equivalent of chocolate for a chinese kid.

LI JIAO II

2009-01-31T09:36:00.000-08:00

Shanghai Orchestra plays its music without noises

loops us the cars over the grass

transportation effectivity is amplified to the life size

city has its fractal beauty visual or invisible

it depends where is your viewing angle,

and the technology of imaging.

TOUR TUEUSE

2009-01-27T13:52:00.000-08:00

Conspiracy? Coincidences? Better double check!

STOCKMARKET LAND

2009-01-23T04:14:00.000-08:00

In ruin, building site, construction, on standby, in pause, In « pour parler », project, demolition… Each city regulates. Humans live their own cycle and buildings frame too. During all punctuations, the life does not exist anymore.
In Shanghai, at the time of very grown, this phenomenon seems even more present. Like so suddenly, during the overactivity of this mégapole, the approximate 1% of “waste land” is multiplied. And in this personnal percentage, I count only the places which at the present are completely inert at 100% for one remarkable period. In a city of more than 16millions inhabitants that happens very quickly on a colossal surface (without counting the inactive places 50% of their time)
Indeed as for the stockmarket, many built spaces are under the speculative emulation and then not used… In parallel I note that Shanghai have a great number of mobile actors, passengers in perpetual revival, temporary workers, visitors, expelled…
In a 24 hour city, I imagine the Utopia that the inert consumption of space can find fugitive use, “ the time of”. An environmental program, within the meaning of entourage, offering to these places a transitory life useful for the residents as one can see it in the destroying process of the shanghainese Lilong.
During more than one month, apartments and shops empty one after other and start to be dismantled. During this time the last occupants simply adapt emptied space, a shop becomes a night carpark, a place for a nap, a clothes line, an office or a storage for the new workers…
In China this mobile force exists thanks to the mass of inhabitants. And when a city live more quickly than its own men, and when it is so large, suddenly if we discover non moving area it becomes to us source of mystery.
What could be more public than a building site in destruction stopped or deserted to be destroyed? What could be more educational than a building in construction or ruin? What could be more suitable for events than a devasted land? What could be more useless than a tower emptied by the owner?....

Imagine whereas any blocked space becoming a new property..
Could a place, before the last blow of tractopelle, transform as an external happy ending party not obstructing form the noise anybody more…
Could someone propose to the expelled, a refuge like in deserted offices or waste ground near the places they have social and work life…
Could an empty roof be a public observatory sources of break as parks.
Immagine a public building site allowing to discover the construction differently.
Immagine to visit a ruin through scaffoldings…

About Xujie and Sophia

2009-01-22T19:51:00.000-08:00

I guess nobody knows us before this exhibition though we met Lam once in an interview with Niyouyu when they were roomates 2 or 3 years ago. But actually we are living in a so related circle.

Xuejie and I are very old friends. We met when we were in middle school in our 12. And after studying the high school separately, it occured to us that we were coincidentally be schoolmate again. During 2001-2008 we were both in Shanghai University major in different major.Mine is graphic design and his is always art history.

Our cooperation begain in 2006 mid summer during which we managed to figure out our first documentary Ecounter Art. Since then we are living like twin brothre and sister. However the last thing we want to do in the world with eachother is just being a lover. I just like Xujie like a famely. Anyway, he is the person through whom I met Petra. Eventhough before I met her I had known much about her and her lessons by chatting with Xujie. And then I am happily to meet everybody here.

We are now working on many different documenta one of them is to record Chinese Acrobats life in Shanghai. Other one is shooting our schoolmates project, Caoyang project. That's why we know Tiger and Zhouzhiyuan and Ivan etc. In Shanghai Anti Xujie is in charge of cutting and I am the translator.In Runner both Ivan and I are the camera.It's fun to hang out with these guys to join the creation of artworks.

By the way, Xujie is too lazy to write this. Haha, so I do it.

Good luck everybody & Happy new year!

LI JIAO

2009-01-22T09:24:00.000-08:00

I met Petra before we met, it has designed, from my high school. In 2003, the beginning of my university, i just can not select the English major's English course, because there're time crashes with my own major's, and one of the teacher heard of my frustration and suggested me to Petra's course, just because she is one of the two foreign teachers in my college and the only one who has the open course. And in the later terms i got to known Lam and Jam in this class room, and later on Adrian and Tiger, who were both my living room roommates in our first year. In 2004, i met an Australian friend, Rowena in a gallery in 50 Moganshan Lu, where i went firstly with Petra. Then i got a summer job by knowing George through Rowena, in the gallery of studio rouge, and Lam and Jam were my colleagues, but we shift work the other day. Also that was in studio rouge, i met Alex, we started be friends because he was an international student in my college in 2002. After we became good friends, he introduced his best French friend also his high school class mate, Johann, who later introduced naco, the company he worked for me, because that is also an architecture company. So i got the internship in the summer of 2006 by an interview, and Fanny sat next to me, Marie sat down stairs. I know Jeremy because he also was an architectural student and then roommate of Johann. February 10 2007 i was invited to an art exhibition called "Contemporary Art doesn't feel cold at home" hosted by Johann and Jeremy, where i also met Kahn. Xujie and Sophia both we met in amspace for the exhibition, but we also studied in the same college, in different years...

We are with Sichuan acrobats in Shanghai.

2009-01-21T22:06:00.000-08:00

'Link to Link' Park Junghyun Performance Room

2009-01-19T22:00:00.000-08:00

Joseph Beuys said "Every man can be an artist" If you are an artist, you probably denounce these words; but if you want to be an artist, it might give you power and confidence. So, are these words correct? What actually is the relationship between art and artists?

And yet, artists are not the only creators of art. The rest comes from people who treasure life. Those that care deeply, those who know what love is, those that generously express their feelings. These are often the sources of art.

With "Every man can be an artist" in mind, if we go searching for such a person, we are assured be pleasantly surprised. This type of pleasant surprise doesn't come from people only, but also from art!

She believes: If people used their hearts to communicate, anyone from anywhere in the world can become friends. Among the countless ways of expression, I am only trying to say to use your heart to communicate for relationships.

2009-01-19T21:49:00.000-08:00

No activities these days, because of the rebuilding on Xiang Shan Rd. Lam & I sitting in am space, have no idea of the worse and worse environment. We plan to put our own art work in am space. I put my little hair balls on the wall, and Lam stick some paintings on a piece of wall. too. Staring at our own works in the space, we have some flash idea of how to set out our works and made them look better.

Stocking Tree

2009-01-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

This year, so much " accident" drive me mad, and have so much extra happiness as well. What I should say? That's life, just like this afternoon, sitting at my favourate side, looking though the window, what I can see is not the full green as usual, but a " stocking tree", that's what we called, a huge tree but hanging so mang stockings threw from the second floor. Sometimes, there are so many unbelieveable affair, beyond your comprehention.

2009-01-19T21:38:00.000-08:00

you know, am space located in an old French style villa, but our government always attend to drive the people who live here away! Because they want to sell the building to some rich people and use the building in business, like a commercial center. So it's a long fright between government and people living here. We two plan to make an art work about the building and the people living here, yesterday I had a great idea about the work's name------" Xiang Shan Cat". It's quite special that you can see so many cats live and act in Xiang Shan Rd, so friendly with people here. ( Most of the people living on this road are quite old and stay here for a long time) And I plan to express a feeling -----sad, but not much concerned, say bye-bye to here in a grance way, from a cats' soul and way.
So next week, Lam and I plan to take pictures to the whole building, every room of it, and interview the people living here, collect materials for our work. I guess we will make this work for at least 7 months, after finishing it, we plan to find some opportunity to show it abroad, some good art events, like Biennial Events.

Sweet Food

2009-01-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

Visitor 00809203 Visitor 00809202
Visitor 00809200 Visitor 00809201

One day, a Japanese came, so gentlemanlike, took so many maps about Shanghai galleries. We didn't talk a lot about am space. Obviously, he had more interest in some bigger and more famous galleries about Chinese Contemporary Art. So, I gave him a lot advice, and said bye-bye to this gentleman.

That was a rainy day, I remember, just liked today, a group of about 4 or 5 foreigners came into am space. They whispered in a language I didn't understand. And suddenly, the eldest man pointed to the paintings on the wall and shouted to me, just like performing a drama, he speaking and waving his hands like mad. I guess he was so angry about the Chinese government not protecting the French building very well, and mistook that was us made the building in a mess. Anyway, it was hard to explain anything to this rude man, I opened the door and hoped never see him again.

Children are always welcome, and good critics about Art. A Germany family came one day, five children from 4 years old till 12 years old. They critic the art works seriously, and then kept putting my gum in their mouth. It seemed that they were really interested in my chewing gum project. And I were much obliged to their help chewing my gum.

When people entered, some just looked around, some would asked you several question, some left as soon as entered. Sometimes it was not easy to let others listen to your story, and what we want to do is not just telling story. It's reality.

am art space

2009-01-19T20:48:00.000-08:00

This, is am space, located in the first floor of an old building more than 90years lod. This villa is a French style, I guess here lived a rich family long long ago. But right now, the space inside is seperated into parts. 5 or 6 ordinary Chinese family living here. We have a lovely garden with grass and trees. Although nobody take care of the grass and cut them regularly make it looks so rough, everyone living here still love it.
am, not big, has three space. The biggest space is the one you will as soon as you come in, this is our main room for activity. It's about 20 square meters, with high ceiling, two old windows with figured glass and old wooden floor. Our design area is just beside the main room. It's the smallest of three, full of books and files. Most of the time, Lam and our only staff sit here and working on computer. Behind the working area, the last stays a little dim and mysterious...
It's so multifunctional, sometimes it's living room for travelling artists, sometimes it's a storeroom, sometimes videos show here.
The character of the building make our space quite different from other Shanghai gallery---- huge, bright, so much white wall... ...Here is so suitable for some fresh, freedom, small group talking... ... I can show my own art work here, without talking and explaining my ideas to different directors of gallerys with CD, and they always look so absent-minded; I can spare here with some friends of mine, that face to the same difficulty like me as a young artist; I can make my style exhibition, just my style; I will meet more interesting people and try to talk with them here, you know, it's not easy to find the right people who you would like to speak to and hear from; Lam could keep the balance of doing what he hate(design for some stupid boss of a company that has an awful taste and doesn't know anthing about art, just for money)and what he like(enjoy his favourite music, draw what he likes to draw, don't say Bye-bye to the art world) All and all flash into my brain in one minute, and when I am writing to you right now, I fell come back to 6 month ago...

The Beginning

2009-01-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

Lam & Jam

I, YuJi, a Chinese girl grow up with Anderson's fairy story, always believe in miracle and the power of great effort. Dad, professor and artist; Mum, dress designer, make it certainly for me to be an artist. Well~~ of course, that's not the point. I love art! It is the easiest and hardest language to be understood in the human's world. I ploughed into art work when I was 18, so devoted to imagine that how different and deep meaningful my art works are, until I met my lover, Lam, at a day of deep autumn 5 years ago. Lam, a boy who declared " Art comes from niceness!" at our first met, is also my partner of organizing am art space and making art work right now. And the famous words he spoke to me change my attitude of art. All the thing mix together create the life of am art space, the long but still young story I wanna to tell you.

It's a story about dream, love, freedom, persistence, arduousness and fight.

Guanxi －关系

2009-01-19T06:14:00.000-08:00

Harbin Festival

In China, people say that Guanxi, "relation", is very important.

One morning, somebody came to my room asking me to go to see the director of the foreign student department. A friend of mine and myself got a grant from our government to come to China to discover and experiment Chinese culture and art. The director wanted to talk to me because of that. He explained me that a professor from the sculpture department wanted to participate in the Harbin Snow Sculpture Competition 2003 and for what needed to build an international team. Flight and accommodation were paid by Harbin Festival, we only needed to conceptualize and realize a three cubic meters snow sculpture. I accepted right away and went to talk to my friend Guillaume about it. He enjoyed the idea. We started to work immediately on the concept. The idea was a mix between a cute rabbit and and Homer Simpsons. An allegory of contemporary China and an homage to McCarthy.Next week we were suppose to meet the professor and other team members.
We went to the meeting with our sketches.

The Professors, they were two, also had their own sketches.
The first one, from Prof. A, was a reproduction from Botticelli's Venus.
The strange things is that the model was a rectangular prism instead of a cube as it was suppose to be. Everybody enforced that point.

But Prof. A was sure that it would be fine. I tried to image what would be the result.

Prof. B, with his giant hands and a meta-something calm, revealed its project. It was something really astonishing. He took a traditional auspicious image representing a baby in a lotus flowers and cut in the middle with a wall. The wall was a symbol for modernity.

Prof. A project was not so far from ours,
but it seemed a good idea not to show our concept.

We were introduce to other teams members: Helena and Nathalia, two Russians student who were learning Chinese and suppose to be our translators; Petra, who as that time was a professor at Shanghai University. Next day in the plane to Harbin joined another team member: Chi-chi, a writer from New-York who was an old friend of Prof. B.

Harbin is a delicious place.
In the Chinese part of Siberia.
It's cold.
People are really nice.
They like to organized funny events that implement cold elements.

A car from the Festival arrived to bring us to the hotel. There we would assist at the Official Ceremony for the Launch of the Snow Competition of Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, which was preceded by the Introduction of the Official Jury of the Snow Competition of Harbin Ice and Snow Festival and follow by the Official Dinner of the Official Ceremony for the Launch of the Snow Competition of Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, where the other Official Participants of the Snow Competition of Harbin Ice and Snow Festival were also attended. After that we officially went to bed.

Next day, 7am sharp, the competition started. Many people from many countries speaking many different languages were carving, chiseling, casting and jumping all around there three meters high snow cube.
Our team have to be split in two as we had to realize two sculptures. Which also mean that Helena and Nathalia had to participate, and they did not like so much the idea. This plus the fact that they had to pay for an insurance-which was not suppose to be- and that he was not participating in the realization of the sculpture made them pretty pissed against Prof. B. Prof. B's job consisted of buying cigarettes and disappearing all days long to smoke them with certain people.
Prof. A was more active, sculpting all day long, calm and concentrated. He was not speaking much. We developed a sort of telepathy to communicate.
By coincidence, my hotel room was adjacent to the one of a Russian team from Vladivostok which came with a big box full of bottles of vodka. Every night a lot of people were gathering in their room, the vodka helped people communicate. From that moment on and until the end of the competition half of the contestant were totally drunk.
This was the snow competition 2003: a lot of drunken people from everywhere doing giant snowman in the middle of Siberian steppes.

With Petra, we exchanged a lot our point of view about art, China and the World. It was really nice to have somebody with whom to exchange about art as a Praxis and not only as craft.
After one week of trying to fit our prism into a cube, the competition ended. Our sculpture was close to a disaster but we made a lot of friends whom had realized very nice works. We were feeling really bad when we heard we won the second price. This was mostly because Prof. B smoked a lot of cigarette with certain people. Guanxi is sometime very important.

meeting in shanghai

2009-01-19T05:40:00.000-08:00

our meeting.

2009-01-19T05:31:00.000-08:00

Other thing...Xujie is crazy.

We want to call these project as Xujie is crazy,Xujie is dead and Xujie is fool.

Some amusing moment on the shanghai metro.

2009-01-18T20:20:00.000-08:00

Some amusing moment on the shanghai metro.

Ps. Petra looks great. We miss you.

3rd meeting

2009-01-18T08:59:00.000-08:00

amspace Shanghai

2009-1-18

On arrival at amspace, few minutes before 4pm. I discovered an art work from the last exhibition in the inside room behind the office, it called "Link to Link" by an Korean "amateur" artist, Jung Hyun Park, what's to my surprise is her 'unprofessionality', but more of the coincidences to what we also shared, a diagram of relationships!

I talked to Jam, director of amspace, also the curator of this exhibition, to show some better images on Jung's work to the blog.

As Alex mention that kind of installations are started in the 70's in Europe, so maybe also we can find something on that.

This meeting presents: Alex, Jam, Johann, Kahn, Lam, Marie, Petra(skype), Shaw, Sophia, Tiger, Xujie.

Meeting Mission: Updated work completion; The Wall blogging.

ball man in shanghai

2009-01-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

this is a commercal shooting project for a game

but i like some photo

2009-01-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

2nd meeting at amspace shanghai

2008-12-31

Just feel sooo sorry all of us about Petra's arm fracture on the way to the meeting, but now she has returned home receiving the best treatment in Cologne, we are looking for her recovery and return — So we still need to work our best, carry on the project, that's the best cares we can contribute to her!

two different things

2008-12-22T13:06:00.000-08:00

Kaleidoscope vs Zoetrope

wàn,huā,tǒng xī,yáng,jìng

万花筒还是西洋镜

ten-thousand flowers cylinder or western ocean mirror

a wall

2008-12-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

a wall 13.5m x 3m

2008-12-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

this is a saved google earth map just been updated recently, hence i can see the place where i am from clearly of its textures that was only a vague projection before, been excited! quietly the google earth's refreshing and exploring the pieces of the countless and nameless places alike my hometown. this is a place with the saying: six rice fields, one waters and three lands, as you can see all the little counties are grows along the river, creek or lakes before the mobile's roads across the farmlands and 'destroy the landscapes.

that's the geological gene of me, and i had a new look on it here.
i left there when i was 12, old enough to have a good memory of it, had played fun within the boundary of waters and foot power. but it always was and still is my life-long set of coordinates.

stuff I found in an old sketch book I had in Shanghai

2008-12-17T09:12:00.001-08:00

This was a drawing of a sculture I wanted to make with a real octopus and a diamond shape resin trophee

November 2005???????

2008-12-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

November 2005

It has been three years since I have seen this magnitude of reds, of golds, of browns. Autumn in England.

In a Pizzeria in Totnes Xiao Lan asks, 'Is there an art form in the West that expresses that which is expressed in Chinese painting?' Qiu Zhijie replies, 'Classical music.'

any recollections about sept 2006 ?????? where were you?

2008-12-13T06:37:00.001-08:00

Absent other

shanghai 6th sept 2006 at 1918

alex and petra agree

in china things are not that different, they are just more visible

shanghai 7th Sept 2006 at starbucks

i listen to simon saying, "I wonder, if there is still something in Europe, something other."

One year later in Europe I meet Jo by chance in the library in Stourbridge, he looks at me with concern and says: "It must be very quiet for you here."

there are in the score that is china sounds whose rarity in Europe condemn me to a real accoustic exile - chris marker

painted building

2008-12-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

I just saw this image taken during the celebration of lights in Lyon this weekend and it reminded me of Shaw's work.
Plus de 300 peintres volontaires ont réalisé dimanche soir une fresque de 2.700 m2 sur un immeuble de Lyon, en un "accompagnement artistique" de la destruction de cette barre HLM, dans le cadre d'un vaste projet de rénovation du quartier populaire de la Duchère. Au total, 300 kilos de peinture ont été utilisés pour peindre 1.600 balcons dans le cadre de cette performance organisée à l'occasion de la Fête de Lumières, grand show lumineux organisé chaque année à Lyon
More than 300 volunteers painters realized a frescoe on 2700m2 on a low rent building in Lyons, which is due to destruction to leave place to a huge (by French term) renovation project.
1600 balconey have been painting, using 300kg of paint.

If the painted image is not really good, I think the idea is very interesting.

idea for presentation

2008-12-09T03:13:00.001-08:00

this is an idea from Petra

attached is a pic of the charcoal stencil shaw and i made

How do you feel about doing something like that for the wall

it is aesthetically very appealing

and has that ephemeral quality of being only temporary but not scrap

that is we make a stencil of a map of shanghai (not all the streets, just major points)

and then attach the projects we thought of to the places that generated the ideas.

hello

2008-12-09T03:12:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone,

This blog is a platform for everyone participating in the show “A travers le mirroir” meaning “through the mirror” in french to share their ideas in order to produce a wall of ideas.

You can post your ideas about shanghai, the show etc, and everyone can react to it with pictures text etc.

The purpose of this wall is to show creative energy of Shanghai and to encourage crosscultures relationship between the western and chinese artist of the show.

The Wall

Crazy Stone

article in Asia Pacific Newsletter

Saturday, 28th March 2009

at

and

Look who has arrived

Das gluehende Haus von Xu Zhifeng

opening the show...

guided tour for the staff of the french institute

puuting up the blog

rice drawing

thank you

installing the show Khan's paintings....

we are ready

at the studio

Daniel Malbert and Sabine Keller before the opening

shanghai anti 2

shanghai anti

the wall detail 2

the heart of the wall Wednesday night

the wall detail

the wall

adrian, tiger and carol

jeremy and khan part 6 and finale

jeremy and khan part 5

jeremy and khan part 4?

jeremy is joined by marie and jam and lam

alex once more

other points of view are also possible for alex

on entering the porter's lodge there is alex

fortunately the tape is not very good so petra can carry on doing what she loves to do on the next day

Sophia and Petra who has now run out of photos

Sophia and petra

Sophia and Petra carrying on doing what she loves doing

fanny

jeremy and fanny

fanny and jeremy and a little of jeremy and khan part 3

fanny and jeremy

Sophia and Petra still doing what she loves doing

Sophia and petra doing what she loves doing

just jeremy so far

jeremy and Khan part 2

jeremy and johann

jeremy and khan part 1

Wednesday, 18th, morning

Sunday night - 15/3/09 thinking about the wall

first pics

Tuesday, 3 days before the opening

updating of Caoyang Project

Wednesday, 8 days before the opening

The Wall

invitation

1284.1

D-Salon photo

a naked city?

Lupu Brg.

studio

sigh....

LI JIAO II

TOUR TUEUSE

STOCKMARKET LAND

About Xujie and Sophia

LI JIAO

We are with Sichuan acrobats in Shanghai.

'Link to Link' Park Junghyun Performance Room

Stocking Tree

Sweet Food

am art space

The Beginning

Guanxi － 关系

meeting in shanghai

Some amusing moment on the shanghai metro.

3rd meeting

ball man in shanghai

two different things

a wall

stuff I found in an old sketch book I had in Shanghai

November 2005???????

any recollections about sept 2006 ?????? where were you?

Guanxi －关系