The Museum of Modern Art has announced details of “Reuse, Renew, Recycle: Recent Architecture from China,” an exhibition highlighting a new generation of Chinese architects and their commitment to social and environmental sustainability. On display from September 16, 2021 through July 4, 2022, the exhibition will present eight projects including the adaptive reuse of former industrial buildings, the recycling of building materials, the reinterpretation of ancient construction techniques, and the economic rejuvenation of rural villages and regions through non-invasive architecture.
The exhibition features projects by Pritzker Prize–winning Amateur Architecture Studio (Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu), Archi-Union Architects (Philip F. Yuan), Atelier Deshaus (Liu Yichun and Chen Yifeng), DnA Design and Architecture (Xu Tiantian), Studio Zhu Pei (Zhu Pei), Vector Architects (Dong Gong), and Aga Khan Award laureate ZAO/standardarchitecture (Zhang Ke).
The results of a four-year-long research endeavor, the exhibition will include models, drawings, photographs, videos, and architectural mock-ups drawn from a recent acquisition of 160 works of Chinese contemporary architecture. From the vaulted ceilings of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum in Jiangxi, to an open-air Bamboo theatre in the Hengkeng Village, to a former sugar factory turned into a hotel near Guilin, the exhibition will examine careful yet decisive interventions that serve as a blueprint for a less extractive, more resource-conscious future for the profession.
“China’s economic and societal transformation of the past three decades has been accompanied by a building boom that made the country the largest construction site in human history,” the organizers say. “After years of focusing on urban megaprojects and spectacular architectural objects, many of which were designed by Western architects, a rethinking has begun by a younger generation of architects who are working independently from state-run design institutes.”
“Reuse, Renew, Recycle: Recent Architecture from China” is organized by Martino Stierli, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, and Evangelos Kotsioris, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design. Curatorial advice was provided by Prof. Li Xiangning of Tongji University, Shanghai.
19 Comments
Of course the MoMA doing a show on china’s critical regionalism while never exploring America’s pioneering history in this field and myriad great architects and works. There’s a reason you will never see any of the USAs modern architects at the MoMA — museum of marxist art.
I can see spotlighting Yugoslavia’s interesting mishmash of communist architecture — but China deliberately destroyed their culture in favor of ideology. These architects are much a resistance to China as representative of it. Which means you probably shouldn’t sell this as “recent architecture from China” Think they will mention Wang Shu is from Uyghur?
A better curator would find a common thread among critical regionalists around the world, and avoid nationalistic propaganda wins for autocratic regimes
I doubt anyone will mention "Wang Shu is from Uyghur" because Uyghur is an ethnicity, not a place. Shu was born in Xinjiang but is not of Uyghur descent.
I'm not about to defend the authoritarian government of China, and you're absolutely correct that "These architects are much [if not more] a resistance to China as representative of it" but the rest of your comment displays a lack of knowledge about China from a historic, cultural and geographic perspective that it comes off as reflexively anti-Chinese and dismissive of these artists as artists simply because of the regime they work within. Not to mention the eyerolling "..marxist art" comment.
Don't know what ethnicity Wang Shu is, but he is from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region -- whatever you call it, he likely carries a lot of the culture that China is currently trying to eradicate. I brought up Yugoslavia to show how MoMA is promoting marxist ideology in a nice architectural package. Of course they won't show any work from Americans working in China because that will muddle the socialist message. I'm sure there is a lot of good architecture going on in Iran too, but that doesn't mean you'd want to carry water for the regime there -- that doesn't make you anti-China or anti-Iran. Though you can see how this exhibit originated, four years ago when there was no criticism of the money flowing from China into American institutions. Now we know better?
"After years of focusing on urban megaprojects and spectacular architectural objects, many of which were designed by Western architects, a rethinking has begun by a younger generation of architects" .... such an intellectually dishonest statement .... ah yes, it's the Westerners who are pushing authoritarian design and cities full of housing blocks. Those crazy westerners never heard of regionalism! Nothing to see there.
I think you're seeing things that aren't there.
I agree with yao.
all the same people projecting racism on everything American are like 'nothing to see here' on China. I see you
All I'm saying is I think one should understand something in order to properly criticize it and saying "Wang Shu is from Uyghur" reflects a poor understanding.
I've commented on this in other threads: I'll admit I'm a little sensitive to a lot of online criticism of China because I tend to notice it all-too-easily slips into Sinophobia and/or stereotyping. I spent a lot of time in Asia in my 20s and considered moving to China full time for a while (I didn't, incidentally, because of what I saw as a resurgent authoritarian / surveillance state, and a scary increase human rights abuses during Xi's first 5 years) and I spent even more time studying the history and sociology of the country. All this to say I find the average American Who Hasn't Been There take to be extremely oversimplified & I have a low threshold for calling it out. Maybe a too low threshold.
That's not to say I'm pro-China, merely that I think it's possible to criticize Chinese state policy and the ruling party without criticizing Chinese people. And conversely it's possible - encouraged even - to celebrate Chinese people while also calling the authoritarian government what it is. And, in this case specifically, it's possible to critique what you see as a lack of proper context without drawing a borderline conspiratorial narrative about liberal American culture promoting CCP values.
And finally, neither of us have actually seen the exhibit and it's entirely possible that the curators *do* address the things you're bringing up (which would be valid! Much art in China is protest art and should be recognized as subversive, not as evidence of policy success.)
I'm mainly focused on the MoMA's dishonesty and lack of context, coming from their exhibition title and quote, a strong indicator of mission statement. The narrative we are hearing is that great booming China was overrun with western architects, while a few ingenious architects are discovering critical regionalism. In reality these rebels work within the same authoritarians--whereas critical regionalism is a movement infused by and in the Americas.
Positioning these recent architects as pioneers of critical regionalism (modernism + local tradition) is false propaganda -- the idea comes out of the Americas -- from Canada to the US to Mexico to Brazil. It's the same story MoMA played before -- sell American birthed modernism back to the US as European high art for the rich donors.
Chemex, as someone who travelled China and Hong Kong I would love to see this show, don't know why you hate architects from China so much, as if they have a say where they were born and practising architecture and under which constrained circumstances. As an architect creativity is often born from constraints, in my opinion this show should be celebrated and the architects supported. These few images of contemporary Chinese architecture look fresher and more interesting than what's being designed in neoliberalist regimes such as the States, maybe some constraints would do us good...So stop being such an ass ;)
"The narrative we are hearing is that great booming China was overrun with western architects, while a few ingenious architects are discovering critical regionalism."
That might be the narrative you're hearing, but those adjectives are all yours, man. None of that is even faintly implied in the press release. Like yao said, we think you're seeing things that aren't there.
enjoy the red kool aid. Just follow your tour guide past the housing towers and the suburban Tudor gated communities to the regional architecture that somehow slipped by the cultural revolutionary purge. not representative of central planning — but now useful for MoMAs marxist anti-American propaganda
can we also cancel architects like marlon blackwell who legitimize red states with abhorrent political leadership? or is this sanctimony only applicable to foreigners?
Look out Sam Mockbee.
fwiw i work with two architects from arkansas and alabama and who are excellent, kind people and show the fallacy of associating people with the politics of a particular place. my above comment was with a sense of irony which will probably be missed by its targets.
“Let a hundred flowers bloom: Architecture in China”
If you think Arkansas is like China I don’t know what to say for you.
You're not good at analogies or criticism.
FYI if you criticize China’s government your internet will get massively attacked. Luckily I have good security. Ha.
I’ll be waiting for MoMA to show any regional modern American architecture, which has never happened
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