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Opening Ceremony of 2011 Beijing Design Week & the First Beijing International Design Triennial

On September 26, 2011, Beijing Design Week and the First Beijing International Design Triennial were officially inaugurated with an Opening Ceremony at the China Millennium Monument. Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong, and core member of the London Guest City Delegation Lord Jonathan Marland (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Chairman of the British Business Ambassadors by UK Trade & Investment) gave remarks at the ceremony. Joined by chairmen of international design weeks (festivals) from London, Milan, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Seoul; industry leaders, renowned designers and design experts, media and more than 1, 500 guests witnessed the grand launch of the festival.

The Opening Ceremony was centered around the main theme of Beijing Design Week, “Design Beijing”, and aimed to present the creative force and charisma of Beijing with a distinctive and unique approach as well as showing the city’s confidence to establish a brand for international culture exchange and communication with a “Beijing style, China characteristics, and global Flavour” .

The Opening Ceremony kicked off with“Road of Design”, a special march-in ceremony that saw 100 designers from home and abroad walk through the Bronze Pathway of the China Millennium Monument. Led by ten children of different nationalities, the designer went on stage,
The climax of the night was an impressive show of new media 3D projections. With the help of cutting-edge 3D technology, Crystal CG presented the evolution of design through various aspects, from the relationship between men and design to the transformation in design thinking. The 8-minute presentation was a magnificent visual feast.

The flagship of the guest city program, the dramatic installation Manuscript (Seats of Poetry), by London designer Paul Cocksedge was also unveiled for the first time during the Ceremony, as a gift to Beijing. Engraved with classical Chinese and English poetry, its 30 sheets of rolled steel—adding up to a combined 20-meter length and 6.7-meter height—express an exchange of words, knowledge and ideas between the two cities.
Resembling  the pages of a manuscript flowing in the wind, the red sheets of the installation  combine  poetry and design, literature and technology, now and then, as well as cross-cultural encounters between the East and West.
Running from September 26 to October 03, 2011 Beijing Design Week & the First Beijing International Design Triennial saw a huge array of design related activities, talks, installations and exhibitions,  from the Beijing Design Forum, and The First Beijing International Design Triennial to Design Hop and the Guest City Program.

For more information, please go to Beijing Design Week Official Site www.bjdw.org.