design42day

The First Beijing International Design Triennial has grandly opened in the National Museum of China in the evening of Sep 27, 2011.The moderator of the BIDT opening is Mr Xie Weihe, the Deputy Secretary-General of “2011 Beijing Design Week and the First Beijing International Design Triennial”, Vice-president of Tsinghua University.

The vice-minister of the Ministry of Education Mr. Hao Ping, the vice-minister of the Ministry of Culture Mr. Wang Wenzhang, member of the Party Group, secretary of the Secretariat, and vice-chairman of China Federation of Literature and Art Circles; honorary president of the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University Mr. Feng Yuan, member of the standing committee and propaganda minister of municipal Party committee and vice-mayor of Beijing Mr. Lu Wei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Science, president of Tsinghua University Mr. Gu Binglin, secretary of the Party committee and vice-director of the National Museum of China, vice-chairman, university council of Tsinghua university Mr. Wang Mingzhi, board chairman of Beijing Gehua Culture Development Group Mr. Wang jianqi, deputy director of Beijing Industrial Design Promotion Center Mr. Song Weizu, secretary of the Party committee of the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University Mr. Lu Xiaobo, executive vice-president of the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University Mr. Zheng Shuyang and some other Chinese leaders and special guests participated in the opening. The ambassador of the Republic of Poland Mr. Tadeusz Chomicki, ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain Mr. Eugenio Bregolat, ambassador of the Republic of Italy Mr. Attilio Massimo Iannucci, vice ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mr. Willem van Ee, minister of Japan Mr. Shigeo YAMADA, culture counselor of the Federal Republic of Germany Mr. Harvey Boeckle, culture counselor of the Republic of France Mr. Anthony Chamuzeau, culture counselor of Canada Mr. Mark McDowell, culture counselor of the United States of America Dr. Anthony A. Hutchinson, science counselor of Swiss Confederation Mr. Markus REUBI, culture counselor of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Mrs. Joanna Burke and the other special guests from the embassies came to participate in the opening. The president of Tsinghua University Mr. Gu Binglin, the vice-minister of the Ministry of Culture Mr. Wang Wenzhang, the vice-chairman of China Federation of Literature and Art Circles Mr. Feng Yuan, gave speeches respectively and they give their congratulations for the opening of the show.

That night, the Chinese and international curator of each sub-theme exhibition , the guests from the sponsoring and organizing units, diplomats from various embassies and consulates, excellent designers from various countries, representatives of art academies at home, representatives of various guilds, journalists, and teachers and students of Tsinghua University. There are about 800 people participate in the opening and visit the exhibition.

The BIDT has grandly opened to the domestic and overseas visitors from Sep 28, 2011.The exhibition area is nearly 5,000 m2; more than 2000 pieces of works of nearly 500 top-class designers from over 40 countries are gathered together on this exhibition. The exhibits cover a wide range of elements from daily life, including housing, clothing, transport and other daily necessities. The triennial represents the top standard and up-to-date trend of contemporary international design, and highlights this year’s Beijing Design Week and the First Beijing International Design Triennial.

With “Design Beijing” as theme, 2011 Beijing Design Week and the First Beijing International Design Triennial is hosted by Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, and co-organized by Tsinghua University, Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group and Beijing Industrial Design Center. As the major organizer of the First Beijing International Design Triennial(BIDT), Tsinghua University has selected five curator teams out of the most famous overseas design curators, depending on the influence and charisma of its Academy of Arts & Design, and made the joint planning of “Ren: Good Design” as its general theme. The exhibition has collected all the wonderful design works of the past five years worldwide, and has selected the best of them to display by 5 sub-theme exhibitions.

The sub-theme exhibition “Creative Junctions” boasts the largest floor area in the first BIDT. It is co-curated by Gilda Bojardi, the general planner of Milan Design Week and the editor in chief of INTERNI, and Yang Dongjiang, the associate professor of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. “Creative Junctions” focuses on the junction between the most renowned designers and the most famous brands in the world. Audiences may not only have a look at the classic masterpieces by Alvar Aalto, Ettore Sottsass, Gio Ponti, and Tadao Ando, as well as the latest designs by contemporary design stars such as Philippe Starck, Zaha Hadid, Jaime Hayon, Bouroullec Brothers, Campana Brothers, Patricia Urquiola, Konstantin Grcic, and Oki Sato, but may also learn a lot of knowledge about design brands. From chairs to lamps, from tableware to beddings, most of the exhibits are closely related to family life, fully presenting the spirit of the first BIDT to serve the people and improve the living standard by good design.

The sub-theme exhibition “Rethinking Bamboo” is the exhibition unit to full-show the oriental design in the first BIDT. It is co-curated by renowned Hong Kong designer and curator Freeman Lau and Hang Jian, the well-known professor for design history from the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. The whole unit takes bamboo culture which is characterized by vivid Chinese characteristics as the background, and presents the bamboo handcrafts and bamboo designs in Asia and in the world in a poetic manner. Besides, Freeman Lau will have another exhibition of “Chair Passion, Chair Drama” in the Academy of Art & Design of Tsinghua University together with Zhu Xiaojie, the famous Chinese furniture designer, as the satellite show of the first BIDT for visitors.

The sub-theme exhibition “Reason Design Emotion” is co-curated by the French curator Benjamin Loyauté born in 1979 and Fang Xiaofeng, the editor in chief of ZHUANGSHI. This unit gives emphasis to how to achieve the optimum balance between reasons (function and technique) and emotions (symbolic and aesthetic value) in good design. In this unit, there are advanced industrial design products, such as Airbike, a printed plastic bicycle made by airbus techniques and Nokia “Green” Phone, a cell phone charged by “Coke”; there are also products with strong machine aesthetic features, including SPUN rotating chair designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of UK Pavilion of Shanghai World Expo, and Citrange (orange squeezer) designed by Quentin De Coster, a post-90s designer from the Netherlands. These works well present the “reasons” and “hi-techs”, and meanwhile also fully satisfy the emotional and aesthetic needs.

The sub-theme exhibition “Good Guys” is co-curated by Holzer Kobler Architekturen from Switzerland and the Chinese young curator Li Degeng. This unit perfectly presents the post-modernistic spirit of irony, low-key, mix and match. More than 400 pieces of contemporary works are displayed on rows of dragon-like shelves made from over a hundred thousand pairs of chopsticks, like a mountain path winding upward with a lot of views to enjoy.

The sub-theme exhibition “What If” is the most experimental unit in the first BIDT. It is co-curated by Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne, famous British designers and professors of Royal Academy of Arts, and Jin Jiangbo, a Chinese new media artist. The exhibits in this unit explore the possibilities of applying the edge-cutting hi-techs in future life, including transgenosis, transplantation of organs, nano technology, and nuclear physics, etc. Looking at the radio teeth, power-generating appendix, nano-ice cream van, artificial meat, bacteria paints, musical plants, etc., visitors will feel be personally on the amazing scenes in the Avatar world.

What’s worth mentioning is that nearly a hundred Chinese designers will be on the stage in this Triennial, including Chang,Yung Ho, Ma Yansong, Jeff Dah-Yue Shi, Shi Zhenyu, Rocco Yim, Zheng Shuyang, He Jie, Lu Xiaobo, Shi Chuan, Teng Fei, Yu-Hsuan Yeh, Jiang Hua, Ma Huimin and design team Xiao Mage Chengzi and URBANUS. Their creative and intelligent works represent the front and future of the Chinese design. As a design expo with the largest size and scale and the most academic value so far in China, even Asia, the First Beijing International Design Triennial will certainly leave a wonderful page in the Chinese design history.

It is reported that the exhibition is free of charge and will last till Oct 17, 2011. It will be a pretty good choice for visitors to view the Beijing Design Week and Beijing International Design Triennial during the National Day holiday.

visit: www.bjdw.org/en/