In the waning days of the 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, enjoy a getaway to northern Longhua and the expansive exhibit inside the recently renovated Minzhi School subvenue.
Dozens of artworks, maps, architectural restorations, models and video projects fill the two adjoining spaces of ‘Rural-Urban(ism) Breakthrough,’ a collaboration between Future+ Academy and artists from across China.
Start your journey in a restored tile factory, not far from Longhua’s Zhangkengjing Park. Grab a kid-friendly capsule from the dispensary outside, built up in homage to the illegal additions that marked much of Shenzhen’s rapid growth. Then head inside for two floors of fascinating history and musings on our future.
Most visual displays include bilingual text, though some of the featured artists and researchers only produced works in Chinese. The material helps add historical context to the works, but ultimately isn’t necessary to appreciate the conscientious restoration going on in Shangwei Village.
The old Hakka Village of Shangwei is the impetus behind each element of the exhibit. The centuries-old village still endures in the surrounding area, though invaded and upended by the urbanism of the title.
With a strong artist community, supportive local government and the efforts of the Future+ Academy team, Shangwei is trying to hold onto its past and slowly restore its distinctive Hakka architecture. Active engagement with the local community and research-driven restoration efforts are part of a new model they hope will lead to healthier urban-rural relationships.
The Hakka Building Venue just behind the factory is a prime example. Restored under the guidance of Future+ and their team of experts, the traditional rowhouse gleams and welcomes visitors to explore rooms of its distinctive history. Though this building isn’t the eponymous schoolhouse, it’s filled with exhibits that give glimpses of Shangwei’s centuries-old mission schools.
Learning the history of Chen Mingxiu – first local schoolboy, then Christian missionary, then administrator of his old school – gives a human face to the region’s earliest efforts to reach out to the world. It’s a beautiful counterpart to the P+V Girls School subvenue and their deep dive into the lives of those missionary families.
The Hakka Building Venue also provides a glimpse of the massive transformation of Shenzhen, glimpsed through the lens of its encircled villages and besieged paolou towers. A looped display of the shifting course of the local river adds a deeper sense of how dramatically life has changed in mere decades: What was once the community’s lifeblood now seems a mere trickle, mostly hidden beneath new streets and sidewalks.
There’s much to explore, in the exhibit spaces and the artist studios nearby, but make a point of visiting ‘The Composting.’
One of the most successful projects from the Future+ collaboration, the permanent structure reimagines the village’s old sanitation plant as a lush garden with “vertical circulated agricultural system and other strateg[ies]” to complete the water treatment. Visitors can stop in the rest rooms tucked out of sight or simply enjoy the greenery while exploring a corner of Shenzhen that refuses to let its old ways die.
Dec 23-Feb 4, 10am; free entry. Minzhi School/Exhibit Subvenue, near Zhangkengjing Park. See event listing.
[Cover image via huitu.com]
0 User Comments