Yuting (Roxy) TANG

“The Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture began in 2005. This large-scale biennale jointly held by Shenzhen and Hong Kong, which are separated by a strip of water, has ushered in its ninth “Urban Dialogue”. The Shenzhen exhibition area continues its urbanization proposition, with “Urban Cosmologies” as the theme of this year, connecting the memory and spirit of this “new science and technology city”, and showing the public its ideas and experiments on environmental sustainability, multi-cohabitation and future humanistic landscape through a series of architecture, art, performances and workshops.“

This year’s Shenzhen Biennale is co-curated by architecture and urban planning scholar Lu Andong, young architect and scholar Wang Zigeng and design curator Aric Chen. Through the integration of the new space transformed from the old factory of Luohu Golden Brewery and the curatorial narrative, the boundaries between hard space and soft content are eliminated as much as possible. As one of the early industrial heritages of Luohu District, the main exhibition venue of this Shenzhen Biennale, Kingway Brewery, has opened up the exploration of the protection methods of urban industrial relics and pointed to the possibility of a new round of complex and co-creative cultural blocks.

The renovated Luohu Golden Brewery is the “zero work” of the current Shenzhen-Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. As a local industrial brand in Shenzhen in the 1990s, Kingway Beer occupies the common memory of a group of Shenzhen people; the towering white silos are like the consumption symbols at the beginning of the economic take-off of the Special Economic Zone, and now a new type of cultural incubation space of public community type is fermented here. As the chief designer of the renovation project, Meng Yan and his team conducted in-depth research and observation on Luohu, the “Ruins of Shenzhen”, and its urbanization and commercialization history at the beginning of the project in 2019, and reviewed the entire renovation process in the form of a design archive exhibition in the exhibition: base integration, water tower remodeling, functional plug-in and streamline reconstruction, in order to flexibly transform the old factory into a new stage for cultural production. From pouring green glass slag from beer bottles with concrete to repeatedly pondering the color of each kiln brick, architect Meng Yan not only preserved local memories such as beer silos, but also focused on constructing a new brick-red landscape channel. “In the pursuit of quantitative and precise urban life, even getting lost is a luxury.”

318 exhibitors from 15 countries finally gathered 208 works, responding to the Shenzhen Biennale’s theme of “urban life”. Lu Andong, one of the chief curators, believes that the concept of “life” includes both multi-dimensional symbiosis in space and the rhythm of life in time; whether it is life or rest, it is actually a sustainable natural state of all things in the universe. Returning to the traditional Chinese context, “rest” is the opposite of “life”. The two are born of yin and yang, emphasizing the common sense of life as the center between ups and downs, and criticizing the one-way development concept. Under this melody, the on-site works can start from multiple interdisciplinary perspectives, integrate the collision and reflection of ideals and reality, and explain their different questions, thinking and action methods to audiences from different backgrounds.

1. Use disciplines to co-create ecological warnings and future imaginations

As the first content section of this year’s UABB, the English title “Urgent Question” uses a non-literal translation of a concrete question. It is based on the origin of inspiring humans to face the future and fear the unknown, and also aims to lay out and restart the challenges and possible solutions faced by the “dual carbon” vision in the current social structure. In the chapter section “Institutional Linkage Project/Partnership” designed by curator Xue Tianchong, cultural research institutions, environmental organizations and artists from around the world have launched an attempt at interdisciplinary cooperation. Entering the exhibition hall on the first floor of the basement, the epic comprehensive work “Planet City” comes into view. As an architect, the creator Liam Young invited several environmental scientists, theorists, music producers, fashion designers, film and VR technicians from different languages, disciplines and cultural backgrounds to jointly construct the fictional future landscape of “when the earth reaches 10 billion people”, and speculatively examine and respond to the real problems such as the climate crisis hidden behind it.

Under this theme, many domestic and foreign architectural firms, technical laboratories and university institutions have carried out program deduction and exploration and practice on ideal habitat propositions such as “more fulfilling”, “more daily”, “more livable” and “more sustainable” through application scopes based on disciplines such as economics, sociology, biology and psychology. For example, the work Aquaphobia, on top of the rational logic, is superimposed with poetic humanistic care: the deformed aquatic bodies under VR technology use hazy visual symbols in the geological landscape spanning ancient and modern times, gently telling the independent and integrated cognitive views of things and phenomena such as water, water level, and climate, which is both healing and warning.

Turning to the other end of the exhibition hall, the Climate Inheritance by DESIGN EARTH from the United States uses 9 warning stories based on UNESCO World Heritage sites – the weathering damage of the Statue of Liberty, the sinking of Venice and the storage of carbon dioxide through lagoons to resist collapse, as well as the landslides and vegetation erosion caused by rice terraces in the Cordillera Mountains in the Philippines, the melting of Himalayan glaciers, and other real heritage sites. The current situation and rescue measures, in the form of geographical illustrations and images, further present subversive and inciting descriptions around global urgent issues such as climate change and species extinction. In addition, domestic artists also participated in cross-domain and multidisciplinary exchanges and co-creations. For example, Liu Jiayu collaborated with the Greenpeace environmental protection organization and the All-China Environmental Protection Federation to create the work “Looking for Mulberry Field Again”.

Using a very brief but urgent problem as the prelude to this UABB is not only an open key crux, but also an awakening of the community of shared destiny to think about the future: how can humans live in harmony and sustainability with the planet on which they depend and all other species, and survive better. This section achieved a breakthrough through disciplinary collaboration, material synthesis and visual language boundaries, reconstructed the established grammar from top to bottom in contemporary contexts, and opened up imaginations about the future.

2. Journey of Spirits, Ecological Imagination of Species Symbiosis

Compared to the intensive exhibition prelude with grand propositions, which expands the boundaries of thinking and enriches cognition, the second section “Journey of Spirits” uses an open and relatively relaxed outdoor field as the text background, allowing the audience to walk around, watch, smell, touch and experience in an environment like a free and flowing adventure and exploration journey, and invites visitors to integrate into this ecological fantasy outside the human city through a public work like a miniature universe.

Lu Yichen, an architect from Link-Arc Architecture in New York, built an inverted porous pyramid in his work “Construction in the Reverse Direction” by using renewable “mushroom bricks” as a material medium. During the following exhibition, people will see how the “protagonist” in this case, mushrooms, as a non-human existence, absorb natural nutrients such as air and rain from construction waste, and grow new life forms after industrial deconstruction.

In this section, the famous architect Shuhei Aoyama used the bright and light “Urban Parasitic Furniture Plan” designed specifically for stepped venues to accurately cut furniture of different sizes and heights according to the environment, and finally created a rich and visually vivid table and chair cluster, which can provide people with rest convenience while creating a feeling of outdoor living room, inspiring people to think about the changing relationship between themselves and their living space in physics, psychology and even time and space through the changes of geographical space from the past to the present.

Taking the nine characteristic themes of China’s “Last Secret Place: Medog” as the starting point, the site-specific installation “One Person, Many Spirits, Breathing” (Pemako) is located in the “Local Casting” space of the renovated building highland. The project was jointly initiated by curator Tian Chuan and Professor Lv Zhi of the School of Life Sciences of Peking University. Combining the original space and natural climate of the exhibition site, it constructs an ecological network structure with the purpose of understanding the life system and exploring the original curiosity. Inspired by the wooden ladders used by the indigenous Monba people in the Medog area of ​​southeastern Tibet, the exhibition invites visitors to “climb” to the “Medog Secret Realm” on the beam. Visitors are immersed in the spatial installation by reading the preface of a poem about the continuation of life. The metal ladder and braided rope guide their movements, which naturally give rise to perceptions and awareness of ancient wisdom, natural ecology and even all living things.

Walking into the circular passage, the work “The Seed’s Garden” can be vaguely seen through the small holes in the wall. By placing bird-adaptive structural devices in the former brewery reservoir and now the circular outdoor garden, Obsidian Studio demonstrates the possible model of humans and other species farming at the same frequency, sharing habitats, and mutually beneficial symbiosis. During the four-month exhibition period spanning the winter and spring in Shenzhen, the Seed Garden is like an ecological island: plant seeds are scattered on the shallow round funnel of the blue pipe and randomly scattered, and migrating birds leave fertilizers during their flight, which will meet the growth nutrients required by the soil and flowers; then, a sustainable circular garden may be formed naturally in the spring of next year. Just by erecting a clever device, the ecology here can be restored and continued – this is undoubtedly an ideal creative practice for sowing seeds.

The architect’s insights into animals, plants and symbiotic environments provide the audience with a variety of post-industrial ecological balance paradigms from a unique perspective through this series of function-oriented or archaeological or future works. “The Journey of the Spirit of Things” also encourages the audience to discover the ecosystem and its beauty hidden in the city through open and interactive conceptual practices, and try to learn how to share and protect this symbiotic city with other creatures from a microscopic perspective.

3. Expanded community, de-humanization of “global dialogue”

Walking to the middle of the exhibition, in the section “global dialogue” jointly implemented by one of the chief curators Wang Zigeng, as well as many well-known curators, researchers and design firms at home and abroad, the multi-perspective cognitive map that transcends linear methods and one-way thinking is concentratedly displayed through the creative perspective of the cross-disciplinary cross-section of the five sub-exhibitions, jointly exploring new opportunities for the development of current cities and architecture.

The exhibition project “Have we met?” attempts to build a coexistence place “Zoöp” (the word is an abbreviation of “collaboration with life” in Greek) for humans and non-humans by taking the interests of non-human life as part of organizational decision-making. “Have we met?” shows the Shenzhen Biennale exhibition site under the on-site evaluation of researchers Liao Wenxi and Zhuang Mingyu: In the environment of the Kingway Brewery, what life forms are sharing this environment with humans? Is there a need and what kind of mutual support is needed? By analyzing and developing cross-species collaboration tools from perspectives such as soil, this work immediately focuses on and reflects the industrialization, modernization, and human-centered perspective of the exhibition site, and proposes a direction of action in the context of Zoöp for the local flora, fauna, microorganisms, and even yeast.

As the core presentation of this chapter, curator Wang Zigeng’s exhibition within the exhibition “Universal City” invited nine groups of participating architects to observe and analyze from nine “cosmological perspectives” of space, plants, sound, air, energy, garbage, soil, water, and household appliances, using Shenzhen as a blueprint for description. Among them, architect Ma Yansong constructed a galaxy universe to show the complex and empty universe under the theme of “space”; architect Meng Yan, in “Time Medium” under the theme of “garbage”, believes that rather than saying that garbage is an ending, it is better to admit that garbage is a completely man-made concept. “There is no garbage in the world, but because humans have a definition of garbage, and time is linear, outdated things become waste.”

Based on the “Do it-China 2021” concept and series of solutions by Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director and curator of the Serpentine Galleries in London, and Cao Dan, a senior art media person, the co-creation project “co-habitats” invited 44 groups of contemporary architects and artists from China to jointly write their understanding, desire and practice of the coexistence of people and the environment with conceptual solutions, and put forward realistic and inclusive responses and imaginations in the context of global climate change. As a physical exhibition of the publication of the same name, “Do-China 2021”, “Do-Co-habitation” brings together a special long scroll narrative exhibition wall in the form of graphic solutions, in which the flat archives become a guide for everyone to continue to practice art in life.

In this chapter, Chen Bokang, one of the chief curators, believes that simply taking “sustainability” as a “problem to be solved” is far from enough under the various crises faced by mankind today. “We need to consider ‘regeneration’ or ‘healing’ the earth.” Chen Bokang said, “This requires changing our worldview, from a human-centered worldview to a cosmic view in which people are interconnected and dependent on animals, plants, microorganisms, air and water.”

4. Responding to co-living, a tool to inspire action

After raising questions, traveling around the residence, and rethinking the worldview, the curatorial structure has moved from the overall perspective to experimental solutions and actions. Through observation and experimentation of tradition, local, system symbiosis and earth rhythms, UABB proposed its conceptual direction – “Co-living”. By imagining a global perspective, we try to narrow the distance between cities and architecture, technology and innovation, individuals and communities, and imagination and practice, in order to generate more new connection channels in the integration of fragmentation. Finally, we can see the crux of the problem from various cracks, and then guide the outlet of bridging through a series of complete solutions. Shenzhen Biennale points the ideal closed loop and future continuation to the final chapter of “joint action”.

In the next two sections of Shenzhen Biennale, architects and researchers deconstructed the prototype through case analysis and returned to the realistic and feasible future vision. In the research work “Future Community 2060” which radiates from the elements of Quzhou Lixian Future Community as the genetic origin, gad architects try to give some inspiring working modes and thinking angles in the posture of a “toolbox”. “Future Community” is not a certain “building type” or “space prototype”, it is an architectural experiment from 1.0 to 5.0, from creation, copy and paste, repair, disassembly and movement, to the final occupation again. This evolutionary approach is a presentation of the multiple stages that “architecture” itself may appear in. It is even a radical vision that is extremely conceptual and targeted. “In addition to the five chapters, we also set up X.0 as a live interaction, as a blank creative area reserved for the audience that is closely related to their own future.” said the architect.

Professor Xie Hui of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Chongqing University’s X-scape Lab presented his team’s collaborative field soundscape interactive installation “The Promise of Sound” in a white box of more than 30 square meters, simulating and recreating the immersive audio-visual environment brought by wind power generation – behind the clean energy that humans are proud of is actually 24-hour uninterrupted low-frequency noise, and these long-wavelength, slow-decaying noises can radiate and propagate several kilometers away, causing continuous and destructive stimulation to the biological auditory system of the habitat, and ultimately leading to rare diseases such as “wind turbine syndrome”. In another multi-channel system of the device, Xie Hui and his team restored four types of natural sounds, namely water flow, rain, insects, and birds, as solutions. Through public interaction, they participated in this reverse harm mitigation process and realized the current situation and opportunities of “environmental backlash” in the process of urbanization.

The strong orientation of “curation” seems to be effectively diluted and decentralized in the logical, vivid and life-oriented performances of Shenzhen Biennale, such as the “de-humanization” perspective it advocates. The audience can open up a new perspective on the human ecology, absorb cutting-edge knowledge, and connect memories and ideal perceptions.

The opening of this Shenzhen Biennale coincided with the peak of the outbreak of the epidemic. In the absence of all curators, the difficulties in implementing and presenting the exhibition in the face of a huge amount of exhibition works can be imagined. Some conceptual works presented in the form of documentaries and VR were presented on site in juxtaposition with video works, which also weakened the clear communication of the works’ concepts. The new concepts and new terms that emerged in the exhibition also urgently need to be effectively communicated with the industry and the audience. The public exhibition area opened after the renovation was inevitably noisy and chaotic, which also affected the exhibition experience to a certain extent. Although there are many areas that need to be improved, if you have the patience to watch the entire Shenzhen Biennale, you will still be impressed by its promised vision of coexistence, the ambition of multidisciplinary co-creation, and the huge volume of voices gathered at home and abroad. The Greater Bay Area where Shenzhen is located is still accumulating optimistic energy for the world and the future.

5. The ninth evolution, another “Bay Area” that is eager to be seen

One month after the opening of the 9th Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Hong Kong and the mainland ushered in a long-awaited customs clearance. So far, the travel restrictions in the Bay Area for nearly three years have been lifted, and the win-win situation between cities, the exchange and development between economic industries and humanities and arts, and the repair, bridging and replacement of the overall ecology have become important contents that have been reactivated in the sector. In addition to the five major sections of the UABB, the ideal of harmonious coexistence is still present in the special units. The six sub-exhibition venues in various districts of Shenzhen, such as Qianhai Cooperation Zone, Nantou Ancient City in Nanshan District, and Dawanshiju in Pingshan, have also extended the concept of “urban life” through their own local projects, and have also extended an open and inclusive “partnership” invitation to the public to the greatest extent.

Compared with the exhibition venues that have been used in previous UABBs, Pingshan has designated the “Dawanshiju”, a regional ancient architectural relic, as the venue for the first Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, which has not only expanded the territory of UABB, but also enriched the “dialogue” dimension between architecture and the city. The Pingshan branch exhibition is named “Dawan Unplugged”, which is a promotion of a carbon-reducing lifestyle. Through the four chapters “Come Together”, “Wondrous Ingenuity”, “Humanism” and “Open Spirited Paradigms” jointly created by the three co-curators Liu Xiaodu, Gao Yan and Richard Hsu and their work team, a multi-dimensional discussion of Hakka tradition (past), cultural relics revitalization (present) and sustainable artistic inspiration (future) is launched.

Dawan Shiju, which has a history of more than 200 years, displays many exquisite, knowledge-intensive and refreshing “future buildings”, including the “‘Building’ House” from the Future Human Settlement Discipline of Tsinghua University Shenzhen International Graduate School, the “Heavenly Courtyard” that responds to “unplugging” with the natural starry sky, and the local creations of southern artists who adapt to local conditions. “New Theory of Species” is a special “exhibition within an exhibition” jointly organized by curator Wei Ying and Shenzhen natural history researcher Nan Zhaoxu. Through biological photography, projection plants and a series of novel presentation and narrative methods, it depicts the cross-section and future imagination of the concept of “species”. The exhibition starts with the works of three artists and unfolds the thinking about the relationship between humans and species: artist Tan Bin uses modern X-ray technology to complete the image translation and the perceptual existence of awe in the myth of “Classic of Mountains and Seas”; Zhao Renhui reveals the human intervention in the evolution or degeneration of species through natural history-style high-definition photography; Yuan Ye re-emphasizes “equality of things” through the commissioned creation of “Da Wan Plant Identification Manual” of plant groups near the ancestral residence, that is, the consistent and equal perspective of humans and non-humans in space, and reflects on the evolution and problems of biology and even epistemology.

Site-specific works grow in ancient buildings. For example, the “Garden of Rebirth” is a special exhibition project that displays the courtyards and houses of ancient ancestral residences outside and inside. By claiming outdoor ruins (Xue Feng’s “Two Moments—2022 Da Wan Shi Ju”), reconstructing local memories and cultural contexts (Shen Shaomin x Liu Heng’s “Mirror World”), and laying “moss” hills, “yellow sand” waves, and “stone” peaks in the entire site (Zhang Jing and Jin Shishe’s “Sand, Stone, Mountain”), the “changing living works” are reproduced from a wider perspective, including outside the site and even the natural environment, connecting the local environment, the memory of the past ethnic groups, and the changes in modern life. Liu Xiaodu, one of the chief curators of the 2017 Shenzhen Biennale, one of the co-curators of the Pingshan branch of this year, and the director of the Pingshan Art Museum, believes that as a former clan enclosure, the original function of Dawanshiju has obviously changed with the changes of the times, and the migration of the clan members has also accelerated the decline of the building itself and lost its vitality. Whether cultural implantation is effective for community regeneration requires, on the one hand, the cultivation of the “soil” environment through long-term accumulation, and on the other hand, it also needs to stimulate people’s consciousness to generate conscious cultural needs for outward growth. Ultimately, a two-way vision and a sustainable ecology can be formed.

*Originally published on The Art Newspaper China (Issue 103, January/February 2023): 14–15. [snapshot]