Beijing, 16.10.2011
I, CULTURE PUZZLE Contemporary Craft Workshop is an interactive sewing project animated by Polish artist and fashion designer Monika Jakubiak, carried out by 260 volunteers in 12 capitals (Warsaw, Berlin, Brussels, Kyiv, London, Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing and Copenhagen). During the six months from July to December 2011, each capital created a different segment of the phrase "I, CULTURE", sewn up of colourful pieces of fabric on a black background. In the end, all squares created in this way made up the final puzzle, an extraordinary patchwork rich with human stories, forming the words "I, CULTURE" - the slogan the International Cultural Programme of the Polish EU Presidency. Each piece was be photographed and uploaded to the online puzzle available to view via the website www.culture.pl.
The last but one part of the I, CULTURE Puzzle project took place on 16th October in the Beijing district 798 Art Zone, a former weapon factory and currently a Mecca for contemporary art collectors and art enthusiasts, showcasing prestigious exhibitions of artists from all over the world. The event marked the end of the 798 Art Zone Festival, the most important Chinese festival of visual and performing arts.
The event in Beijing had a different format than the events in other capitals. In view of the cultural distance of the country, the organizer invited local artists to cooperation. Feng Lin and Deng Dafei proposed their own interpretation of the I, CULTURE Puzzle project.
Feng Lin works with fabric. She is known as Miss Dolly thanks to her dolls, which aesthetically resemble something between a toy and a scarecrow. In order to remain faithful to one of the basic assumptions of I, CULTURE Puzzle - namely, joining human stories together into a patchwork in the form of a giant puzzle - the artist invited the participants to exchange the patches cut from their own clothes to the fragments of black fabric constituting the background of the puzzle. Feng Lin treated clothing as a point of departure, a sort of identification of the person wearing it. By sewing pieces of clothing marked with individual tales into a black sheet - devoid of any meaning of its own - Feng Lin created a joint story. The artist sewed all pieces by herself and her project attracted over two hundred volunteers. The sewing lasted three months, from August to October.
The volunteers put on the clothes that served as the basis of the project also during the open day, on 16th October. Everyone had the opportunity to alter the clothes and make them more individual during an open tailor's workshop organized during 798 Art Zone Festival. Feng Lin and Monika Jakubiak in front of the public finished the work forming part of the I, CULTURE puzzle.
The project used the space of 798 Art Zone in an unusual way. The place is filled with galleries and elegant boutiques with expensive artworks, typically watched, bought - and thus consumed - by the viewers. On the day of the closing of the festival and the award ceremony, at the main square, near the entrance, tablecloths were spread on the ground, forming the shape of the bottom part of "U" and "R" letters from the "I, CULTURE" theme. From 2 pm to 5 pm the event participants used the tablecloths as canvas on which they formed the shape of the letters out of what remained after the meal: plates, leftovers of traditional Chinese snacks, chopsticks, disposable cups. Hour after hour, the giant tablecloth more and more resembled a field after an intense feast.
The performance was prepared by Deng Dafei. He assumed that the culinary art and food are significant elements of Chinese culture. What first comes to the mind of the foreigners when thinking about China is the cuisine. This association is further reinforced not only by the travelling experience, but also by numerous bars and restaurants opened by Chinese immigrants all over the world. The artist assumed that the food culture brings certain character to a given community in a way similar to how clothes do it. According to Dafei, in China its features can somehow be linked to the idea of Monika Jakubiak: consumer attitude towards food accompanied by the decline of its quality, dissemination of fast food and throwing out unfinished meals, similarly to throwing out unused clothes. The huge quantities of leftovers, unused half-finished products, disposable chopsticks and plates which are thrown out after night cleaning by restaurants give a brief picture of the level of consumption and the pace of life in contemporary Beijing and other large Chinese cities. It was this social topic that made Deng Dafei's performance so well received by the Chinese audience. The whole performance was coherent with the artist's interests - Deng is above all a happening artist, underlining the importance of contact with the audience and his projects are strongly educational. He often works with children and small local communities, creating socially engaged art, yet without any political overtones.
The project assumption was to engage the audience as much as possible, encourage the public to act spontaneously. The realization of the Beijing edition of I, CULTURE Puzzle, involved around fifty volunteers and attracted over five hundred viewers. In a space dedicated to art, they could sit on the ground and have a meal in a relaxed atmosphere of a great picnic. They could also freely alter their clothes, giving them individual character and try their hands in tailoring.
Beijing marked the 11th stop of the I, CULTURE Contemporary Crafts Workshop tour. The project had its previous installments in Warsaw, London, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Berlin, Kiev, Minsk, Moscow, Tokyo and its grand finale in Copenhagen on 9-11th December 2011.
Date: 16th of October, 2011, during 798 Art Festival
Venue: Creativity Square, 798 Art Zone, 2 Jiuxianqiao, Chaoyang, Beijing
Organizer: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Partner: Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing
See also:
I, CULTURE PUZZLE multidisciplinary artistic workshop is a Flagship Project of the International Cultural Programme of the Polish EU Presidency. For more information on the project, see: I, CULTURE Puzzle.