[image courtesy of divine-interventions.com]

I just arrived back in Beijing after months away, and a few of the things that I worked on before I left are coming out now, so I thought why not put together another one of those awkward self-promo posts to spread the word…

Plug 1 (Posdnuos):

I haven’t been doing much freelance writing these days, but the last two articles I wrote come out this month in the new issues of Domus and AD magazine. The Domus one is about the new museum at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, designed by Arata Isozaki. The AD article is about the new residence of the Dutch Ambassador to China, designed by Dirk Jan Postel. Cop that!

Plug 2 (Trugoy):

The book MAD Dinner that I wrote about a while back is finally out. It took ages, and actually I’m not even sure if it’s in western stores yet, but they’ve got it in Beijing an on the publisher Actar’s website so….

Here’s a description form the press release:

MAD Dinner is the first book by the Beijing-based architectural office MAD. Organized around the metaphor of dinner table conversation, the book is a collection of ideas and opinions about topics ranging from politics to ecology to fame to the future. The dinner’s “guests” include people from all levels of Chinese society: a government official, hairdresser, migrant laborers, a doctor, a taxi driver, and a developer are all brought together to offer their views in an atmosphere of openness and exchange. MAD’s work is embedded in a series of extended conversations with international advisors, including the Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, British writer Ian Buruma, filmmakers Zhang Yimou and Jia Zhangke, and the artist Ai Weiwei. The conversations work in tandem with MAD’s proposals to create an essential account of the architect’s experience inside the fastest urbanization in world history. (2008, edited by Brendan McGetrick)

So as they say, the book emphasizes conversations. I learned a lot working on it, and got to meet a lot of cool people. Here’s a list of the MAD Dinner guests:

Hans Ulrich Obrist_curator/ 小汉斯_策展人
Yang HongJun_delivery man/杨红军_快递员
Zhu XiaoDi _ architect/ 朱小地_建筑师
Lao Dong_taxi driver/ 老董_出租车司机
Ai WeiWei_artist/艾未未_艺术家
Qu HongYuan_construction site foreman/ 渠洪源_现场工程师
Wang MingXian_art historian/ 王明贤_艺术史学家
Hu LiZhong_ doctor/ 胡力中_ 医生
Jia ZhangKe_film director/ 贾樟珂_导演
Ian Buruma_critic/ 亦安·布鲁马_评论家
Wang BaoJu_curator/ 王宝菊_策展人
Jiang QiHong _state-owned businessman/ 蒋启虹_国企领导
Shi Jian_critic/ 史建_ 评论家
Huang Yan _city governor/ 黄艳_首规委领导
Tony_hair dresser/ 托尼_发型师
Zhang YiMou_filmmaker/ 张艺谋_导演
Mies Van der Rohe_architect / 密斯·凡·德罗_建筑师
Cao Fei _artist / 曹斐_艺术家
Kuku_3D renderer/ 酷酷_渲染图师
Peter Cook_ architect/ 彼得·库克_建筑师
Lei Jin _model maker/ 雷进_模型师
Ma QinYun _architect/ 马清运_建筑师
Li MengXia_fashion editor/ 李孟夏 _时尚主编
Jiang Jun_editor/姜珺_主编

And since it’s topical, here’s a selection from the conversation we had with Zhang Yimou, the director of the Beijing Olympic Opening that everybody’s raving about. I personally found the opening’s heavy emphasis on Chinese history a little clunky and against the internationalist spirit of the Olympics, but I think from what he says here, you can get a sense of why it ended up that way…

MAD: As director of the Olympic opening ceremony you seem to have the obligation to juggle many different representations – first a kind of traditional Chinese culture taken from imperial times, then the mass spectacle associated with the communist era, and then a future vision that gives the event a feeling of hopefulness and modernity. How will you balance these different qualities?

ZYM: It is not personal work but team work, and it’s relevant for so many people and their expectations. Just look at all the buzz about it on the Internet or as text messages - there are as many sarcastic remarks as [hopeful] anticipations. It’s indeed impossible to appeal to everybody.

Here’s how I look at it: this is doubtless a very, very important presentation, but you still have to stay calm and treat it as it is - it’s still just an entertainment show, and you need to follow the rules and remain sane. Yes, we Chinese think it’s a centuries-old dream come true, so we have to grab the chance and comb through our 5000-year history, but in the end it’s nothing but a one-hour show.

No matter how great you are, it’s not possible to tell a 5000-year story in one hour. What you want to do is to present the story in visual, aesthetic, and emotional terms. It would be ridiculous to expect anything more than a show from it simply because of the unprecedented anticipation. I mean, why don’t you just write an editorial piece instead of producing a show then?

So I think I have a proper attitude towards it, and I won’t be bothered with all of that. I know it won’t be perfect, but the most important thing is to be entertaining and innovative - we also want to have general appeal. We need to have a universal, humane perspective, which is able to strike a chord in, say, an 18-year-old African youth’s mind. He who knows nothing about China should be able to say, “I seem to know a little bit of the Chinese elements now.” These are all important. When facing such a complicated creative project, I think it helps to start by simplifying things.

Plug 3 (Maseo):

Last, Becoming, a book I made earlier this year together with Ai Weiwei, had its launch event this week. It’s basically a collection of photos taken by Weiwei during the construction of Beijing’s new Air Terminal 3. For the book, I asked Weiwei and the airport’s designer Norman Foster to answer the same set of questions. I didn’t go exactly as planned, but there were a few points where I think the vast differences between the two men are spotlighted.

Here’s Norman Foster:

BM: What insight do you try to offer the students who work for you?

NF: Architects have a duty to design well and to design responsibly – whether that is at the scale of an airport or a door handle. The design process can question our assumptions about buildings and can reconcile needs which are often in conflict. That may mean breaking down social and physical barriers between user groups, or finding ways to bring different functions together under one roof. In that sense, design is a process of integration. The holistic thinking we apply to buildings applies equally to infrastructure – transport systems, streets and public spaces – the “urban glue” that holds a city together.

BM:What have students taught you?

NF: An amazing amount. Every year in the studio we have an evening when recent graduates show their work. The quality and intelligence of the work on display is extraordinary. Every person gets to present his or her work, and that generates a discussion. For me, it is one of the most challenging events of the year. Nobody stands on ceremony and the discussion can be very fast moving. If you begin by thinking you’ve seen it all and know everything, then you’re in for a very big surprise.

And here’s Ai Weiwei:

BM: What insight do you try to offer the students who work for you?

AW: To share the knowledge and to examine it.

BM: What have students taught you?

AW: The students told me it is very difficult to be a student.

LOL. Anyway, Becoming is also my first foray into graphic design, so I’m mostly excited about that. Here’s a couple of images…

And here’s a few of my favorite photos from the book. Click to enlarge…

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