Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen)

2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (2015 UABB)
December 4, 2015–February 28, 2016

Press preview: December 3, 9:30am–10pm

Shekou Dacheng Flour Factory
Gangwan Avenue
Nanshan, Shenzhen
China

en.szhkbiennale.org
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The 2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen) will open on December 4, featuring over 80 exhibitors from around the world that will together explore the topic Re-living The City. The world’s only biennale dedicated to the themes of urbanism and architecture, 2015 UABB will take over the former Dacheng Flour Factory in Shekou and run until February 28, 2016. The Xipu New Residence in the Longgang District will be an affiliated venue.  

The sixth edition of UABB will explore the reimagining, repurposing, and remaking of our existing urban spaces and architecture, showing ways in which designers can work with people to make the city more useful, just, and sustainable. 

2015 UABB will feature five primary exhibitions: Collage City 3D, curated by Aaron Betsky, will propose the selective reuse and recombination of worn materials and figural fragments in the city to create, either literally or metaphorically, modern collage art; Pearl River Delta 2.0, curated by Doreen Heng Liu, will advocate for a more balanced relation between people, technology, and the environment in Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta; Radical Urbanism, curated by Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner, will trace a brief history of the contributions of ordinary citizens in reshaping the urban fabric to their needs; Maker Maker, curated by Benjamin Ward, will explain how new tools of production are spurring a democratic renewal of craft, turning everyone into a potential maker; and Social City, curated by Renny Ramakers, will create an online sharing platform and an installation that will merge the public with the personal, and the physical with the digital.

2015 UABB will also present national and regional pavilions from Macau, Netherlands, Finland, Ireland and Russia. Thematic pavilions include institutions like Victoria and Albert Museum, the Shenzhen Institute of Interior Design, and a team formed by Tim Durfee and Mimi Zeiger, Media Design Practices. Public outdoor installations and collateral exhibitions will also be on show at the Dacheng Flour Factory and different locations in Shenzhen.

As an important education platform, the 2015 UABB school offers more than 200 courses and activities to the general public during the exhibition and pre-opening period. Collaborators will include the Art Center College of Design, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Architectural Association School of Architecture, Architectural Digest, NAUTA, and TED Talks, among others.

The Xipu New Residence, a traditional Hakka round house in the Longgang District built in 1928, will be an affiliated venue of 2015 UABB. Programs at the Xipu New Residence, curated by Shenzhen and Beijing-based artist Yang Yong and his team, will explore the theme of “Sharing House," featuring contemporary architectural space intervention and renovation practices, contemporary art exhibitions, interactive art activities, the “Architecture of Life” workshop, “Makers’ Design Clustering," as well as site-specific contemporary opera and dance shows. At the affiliated venue, curators, exhibitors, performers, and visitors will together explore the possibilities of combining the city’s past and future to inspire the reuse of the urban spaces with uncertain purposes.

Artist group See You Tomorrow will present a special documentary series, "Nothing is Untellable," at the Longgang venue. "Nothing is Untellable" includes 20 short films that record the lives of the residents of the Xipu New Village over seven months. 

At the 2015 UABB opening ceremony on December 4, choreographers Liang Xing and Zhuoyan Mei will present a site-specific dance work. Lighting Forumula will bring to the Dacheng Flour Factory venue a 3D light show.

The 2015 UABB exhibitions will open to the public from Saturday, December 5, 2015. Public activities of the opening week will start from December 4, 2015.

Hours: Daily 10am–10pm

Location: Shenzhen Shekou Former Dacheng Flour Factory and 8# Warehouse