Wu Jian’an Solo Exhibition “The Huge Sand Dunes are the Bed of the Sea” Space Design
Pills Architects was invited to design the space for “Wu Jian’an: The Huge Sand Dunes are the Bed of the Sea,” a large-scale solo exhibition held at the Silk Road International Art Exchange Center in September 2021.
Agency
PILLS
Practice Area
Client
Road International Art Exchange Center
Industry
The Challenge
Wu Jian’an is an internationally renowned contemporary Chinese artist. He synthesizes various materials, languages, and media to reconstruct a visual link between contemporary art and ancient culture, giving a new perspective to ancient myths, totems, folk crafts, tales, and traditional writing. The exhibition presents Wu Jian’an’s large-scale installations, showing the peaks of his creations in recent years and systematically sorting out the creative lineage.
Project Vision
We create a surreal field in the exhibition hall of more than 1,000 square meters, with a five-meter high dune, a black ocean, an endless mirror, and the rising and setting sun. The exhibition space allows viewers to meditate in the silent dunes, get lost in the forest of reflections, perceive the passage of time amid the “changing sun and moon,” and gaze at the illusion and reflection of light and shadow in the huge mirror. Desert, mirrors (including water), and light are the keys to creating a dreamland. The exhibition space is divided into zones by ground constructions instead of partitions. After many experiments, the exhibition team eventually used foam board as the base. The structure maintains the sand textures of various granularities on different layers, forming a desert’s durable and rippled surface. We conceal the structural pillars with mirrors and place the work “Daydream Forest Series” between parallel mirrors so that the limited work extends infinitely in the space. The physical and reflective images of the work “The Heaven of Nine Levels” become the main body of the dreamland. At the end of the dune, the work “Plain Faces” is suspended above a black ink pool, forming a mirror image with the tranquil water.
Space Design The Specular and Real “The Heaven of Nine Levels”
Pills Architects
Space Design The details of Dune and the Silhouettes of the Artwork “Omen”
Pills Architects
Design + Execution
The two searchlights on the site’s diagonal corners constitute the exhibition’s main light source, becoming an artificial “sun” that rises in the east and sets in the west. The moving figures, the rippling sand, the changing light, the fictitious reflections, the space, and the works together, layer by layer, draw the viewers into the artist’s mysterious narrative. Walking, moving, and perceiving are core to the exhibition experience, and the whole viewing process is like a mystic tour of an ancient or a science-fictional world. The entire exhibition hall is covered by sand, and we constructed a huge dune with a diameter of 17 meters in the center. Entering the space, one first encounters the artist’s signature piece, “The Heaven of Nine Levels,” a huge mirror that creates an alternative world. Following the lead of the light, one can wander on the sandy ridges of the “Eternal Realm.” The changing light spills from above, rendering the boundaries while signaling the “Black Sea” entrance. Bypassing the screen, “Plain Faces,” a giant matrix of nearly four hundred individual works suspend on the tranquil black water surface. The footprints in the long stretches of sand are a testament to the viewers’ dialogue with the world. As the feet sink deeper into the sand, the burning light shines across the dune, and the animal silhouettes of the piece “Omen” appear on the inked walls. These animals foreshadow certain mysterious messages obtained by peeking into the future. Looking out from the cave, a “black ocean” stretches in the middle of the sand with boundless and open water. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west in front of the viewers. At the end of the dream, the secret “Mirror Jungle” lies behind the giant wall, a space enclosed by two parallel mirrors. The “DaydreamForest Series” work casts glittering light spots on the surrounding sand. The core of Wu’s artistic discernment and visual creation is to express the eternal part of human civilization and history through situations that seem distant from today’s mundane life. In this exhibition, the body of works comprises more than 300 individual pieces. It is like the ancestral mantle and wisdom collection arranged in a matrix of time and space. Between truth and myth, image and illusion, there lies the sea, lies the dune.
ArtWork “Plain Faces”
Pills Architects
ArtWork “Plain Faces”
Pills Architects
Artwork “Daydream Forest Series”
Pills Architects
ArtWork “Daydream Forest Series”
Pills Architects
Exhibition Space Design Axonometric
Pills Architects
Project Details
The exhibition “The Huge Sand Dunes are the Bed of the Sea” represents a dynamic interweaving of an art installation and interpretative exhibition. Art pieces and diorama-like scenic elements come together to create an experience that is both didactic and dreamlike.
The exhibition was about to create a Truely immersive experience that brought the visitor into a new world. The clever use of build materials made the space look vast, this created the opportunity to effectively tell the artist’s story that merged ancient and contemporary Chinese culture to a local and global audience.
Design Team
Zigeng Wang (principal architect)
Manying Wang, Yu Yan, Shaomin Zhang,
Shen Li, Yiting Zhang, Yuzhu Wang, Sihan Zhao (design team)
Yang Lu (structural consultant)
Xunjun Xu, Zhiwen Ou, Yang Li (design consultant)
Collaborators
Wu Jian’an (artist)
Zhenhua Li (curator)
Haiyan Han (exhibition director)
Xue Feng (executive curator)
Che Chen (exhibition coordinator)
Shicui Li (exhibition coordinator)
Silk Road International Art Exchange Center, CAFA Art Museum – Langfang (organizer)
CAFA Art Museum (academic support)
Beijing Minsheng Art Museum (special support)
Photo Credits
Pills Architects
Open Date
September 2021