China Design Now at Victoria and Albert Museum on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Mar 15 2008
until Jul 13 2008
China Design Now, will be the first in the UK to explore the recent explosion of new design in China and the first to attempt to understand the impact of rapid economic development on architecture and design in China’s major cities. From the 2008 Olympic stadium, and other significant architectural projects, to the latest in fashion and graphics, China Design Now captures a dynamic phase as China opens up to global influences and responds to the hopes and dreams of its new urban middle class. The exhibition will focus on three rapidly expanding cities – Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. It will display the work of Chinese and international designers, focussing on architecture, fashion and graphic design as well as film, photography, product and furniture design, youth culture and digital media. Around 100 designers are featured, more than ninety five per cent of whom are Chinese. The exhibition will be in three sections and is structured round the idea of a journey from south to north along China’s east coast through Shenzhen (China’s manufacturing capital with a population whose average age is younger than 30) to Shanghai and Beijing. Each city is a starting point for the exploration of different design fields – graphic design and visual culture in Shenzhen (where China’s contemporary graphic design movement started), fashion and lifestyle in Shanghai, and architecture and the city in Beijing. The displays examine China’s hopes and dreams – from the entrepreneurial spirit of individual designers, to society’s aspirations at a moment of tremendous change, to the global ambitions of a nation. China Design Now places exhibits in the context of China’s social, cultural and economic reforms over the last 25 years, providing both a critical survey and a narrative that enables visitors to see how China’s new design and consumer culture has developed, what its driving forces are and where it is going. China Design Now will include case studies of influential individuals, companies and organisations that have played an important role in shaping aspirations in today’s China. They include Yue-Sai Kan who launched one of the first cosmetics companies in China; Wong Kar Wai, the director of the film In the Mood for Love that inspired renewed nostalgia in China for the glamour, romance and fashions of Shanghai of the 1930s; Chen Yifei, one of China’s most commercially successful artists as well as influential entrepreneur; and SOHO China, a leading private land development company. OPENING HOURS: Daily: 10.00 - 17.45 Fri: 10.00 - 22.00 Image Credits: Image 1: Preference, front cover artwork for Vision Magazine, February 2004. No licence for use in China, (c) Chen Man Image 2: Poster for Graphic Design in China Exhibition, 1992, (c) Chen Shaohua Image 3: Hi Panda, (c) Ji Ji, 2006 OPENING HOURS: Daily: 10.00 - 17.45 Fri: 10.00 - 22.00  |
