Special Project: Chen Wei [∞] at West Bund Art Fair
Duration: 2019 November 7 – 10
Venue: Hall N1 entrance, West Bund Art Fair, No.2555 Longteng Avenue
The legendary UP chair designed by Gaetano Pesce for B&B Italia in 1969 celebrates this year its 50th anniversary. A whole year of celebrations all around the world of one of the most iconic design pieces of all times now ends in China. At the sixth edition of the West Bund Art & Design Fair in Shanghai, the artist Chen Wei created a one-of-a-kind artistic project called [∞] (INFINITY).
The project [∞] (INFINITY) stems from the fascination by Chen Wei with retro futuristic imaginary that somehow permeates his productions in the recent development.
Inspired by the sci-fi scenario of the advertising that in 1969 launched the UP series, produced by Swiss photographer Klaus Zaugg, as well as by the iconic shape of the chair, Chen Wei installation highlights the physicality, the sociability and the imagination about future that permeates the late 60s. The scenario that was at the center of the campaign of that time: 1969 was in fact the year that saw humanity reaching out to the moon. Chen Wei brings that feeling into the present-day conceiving an installation that crystalizes the depiction of the future that people had imagined 50 years ago.
Images of distant planets, possible social interactions and peaceful silent open space glitch on electronic screens transformed into abstract imageries that float in the space. Objects, LED sculptures and the UP5_6 accompanied by the foot (UP_7 another iconic piece of the series) become body parts of an ideal human of the future.
The morphological design of “UP” is considered almost like a body as well, if only because it is the sofa that embraces those who sit on it, like the “Big Mama” or an anthropomorphic counterpart of Kubrick’s monolith in “2001: A Space Odyssey”. In other words, Chen Wei’s installation represents the tangible connection between physicality and the context of the digital world we are living in.
The project is curated by Davide Quadrio with the production of Arthub.
More iconic UP5_6 chairs in the 50th anniversary Special Edition will also be placed in other spaces of the fair, tracking a sort of ideal design path in the pavilion.
ABOUT SERIE UP
Designed by Gaetano Pesce and produced by C&B (now B&B Italia) in 1969, Serie UP is a seating range which has become one of the most famous Italian design symbols since its inception, and one of the world’s most famous industrial design products.
A testimony to the Radical Design and furniture of the 60s and 70s, Serie UP makes up seven different sized seating models, distinguished by their extraordinary visual impact, which has made them unique.
Among all the most famous is the UP5, an armchair with anatomical features and unmistakable anthropomorphic references. It has the shape of a large maternal womb and recalls the votive statues of prehistoric fertility goddesses (and for this reason it is also known as “Donna” or “Mama”). With the UP6 additional element, the sphere acts as an ottoman which is ineluctably linked to the armchair’s body – a “captive woman” metaphor.
Initially, each seat was sold vacuum-packed by removing the inside air and returned to its original shape when the package was opened. Since 2000, the collection has returned to production with new materials. For its 50th anniversary, it is presented in a special edition with beige and petrol green lines – part of the original 1969 color chart.
A combination of pop culture, social comment, technological innovation, and organic design, the UP5_6 has surpassed its function and is now a true contemporary icon which is so disruptive that it is still modern. Serie UP is rightfully included in the catalogues and permanent collections of many museums, including the Milan Triennale, MoMA in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Montréal, and the Vitra Design Museum.
ABOUT CHEN WEI
Chen Wei was born in 1980, in Zhejiang Province, China. Currently he lives and works in Beijing, China. In his early career, he used to deal with experimental music and later turned to photography. Chen Wei’s photographs are believed to express his inner thoughts and emotions. Most of his works are finished in his studio.
Chen has exhibited around the world, including Seoul Museum of Art, Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Poznan Biennale, etc. Commissioned by fashion and art magazines such as FHM and LEAP, Chen has produces a few projects that bring together conceptual photography and fashion design, featuring products by Bottega Veneta, LV, and Prada, among others.
He was one of the artists involved in the exhibition called “A Plus” held by Lane Crawford and Modern Weekly, which aimed to gather the top fashion designers and artists in China. Chen Wei won the “Best Photography Artist” in Dead Rabbit Awards (2011) held by art magazine randian .
ABOUT B&B ITALIA
B&B Italia (www.bebitalia.com) is the leading Italian high-end design furniture brand, globally recognized for its iconic products and technological innovation. The Company has a unique product portfolio, marketed under the B&B Italia, Maxalto and Azucena brands for furniture and Arclinea for high-end kitchens. Since December 2018,
B&B Italia has been a part of Design Holding.
Over the years B&B Italia has developed longstanding partnerships with world-renowned designers and architects such as Antonio Citterio, Patricia Urquiola, Naoto Fukasawa, Piero Lissoni, Mario Bellini, Gaetano Pesce and many others which have positioned the Company at the forefront of creativity, innovation and industrial know-how.
Headquartered in Novedrate (Como) – in a building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers in 1971, the company has a total of 600 employees and a presence in more than 80 countries through 70 single-brand stores and 1000 specialized stores.
B&B Italia Group operates also in the Contract Division with complex “turnkey” realizations of furnishings and finishes in the hospitality, retail, office and nautical areas.
ABOUT ARTHUB
Arthub is a company devoted to the creation of contemporary art and diffusion, collaborating with artists and institutions worldwide. It was founded and previously evolved from the first not-for-profit art organization in China, BizArt Center, since 1998. Arthub has, for more than 20 years, promoted and produced art events, exhibitions, educational and cultural exchange projects with institutions all over the world.
It has helped launching the careers of artists such as Zhang Enli, Ding Yi, Yang Fudong, Xu Zhen, Yang Zhenzhong, Liu Jianhua, Hu Jieming, Zhang Peili, and it has been and continues to be instrumental in the shaping and flourishing of the China contemporary art scene. Arthub has not only been focusing on Shanghai and Asia but expanded collaborations both locally and globally, with artists and institutions – including Shanghai Biennale, Mori Art Museum, Palais de Tokyo Paris, Gwangju Biennale, Royal Palace Milan, Milan Triennale, Venice Biennale, M+ Museum, Guggenheim NYC.
ABOUT DAVIDE QUADRIO
After having founded and directed the BizArt Center between 1998 and 2010, the first non-profit artistic/creative laboratory in Shanghai, where he lived from 1994 to 2017, in 2007 Davide created Arthub Asia: a platform dedicated to the production and promotion of contemporary art in Asia and throughout the world. In the arena of these experiences, he staged numerous exhibitions, teaching projects and cultural exchange programs, fostering relationships between institutions around the world. This work led to the inclusion of BizArt as a special project in Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World at the Guggenheim in New York, 2017.
His most recent initiatives include: Bird Cage, a Temporary Shelter, Zhang Enli in Galleria Borghese, Rome 2019, the retrospective Journeys Without Arrivals by Qiu Zhijie (Vanabbe Museum; Centre d’Art Contemporaine de Geneve; Kunstalle Lund) 2017-2018; the solo show by Paola Pivi Tulkus 1898-2018 (Castello di Rivoli; Witte de With; Frac Dijon); the exhibition and film New Women by Yang Fudong for the Toronto Film Festival 2013. As a curator of the Aurora Museum of Shanghai from 2013 to 2016 he curated a multi-faceted project New Roads, presenting several contemporary art interventions in the Museum (artists included: Li Mu, Yang Fudong, Francesco Vezzoli, Kan Xuan, Michael Lin, Yin Xiuzhen, Liu Shiyuan, Liu Jianhua, Li Shurui, Qiu Zhijie, Zhang Enli, Christoper Doyle among others), from 2015 to 2016 he curated the pop-up edition of the magazine Kaleidoscope Asia. Since September 2017 he is living in Milan.
ABOUT WEST BUND ART & DESIGN FAIR
Established in 2014, West Bund Art & Design features more than 100 leading galleries from Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America at West Bund Art Center.
The fair provides a platform for international exhibitors to display the finest quality of modern and contemporary art in Shanghai. With exhibitions and art events offered by museums and galleries in the city, West Bund has made November’s Shanghai a permanent fixture on the global art calendar.
