The pavilion curated by Ma Yansong will show how four decades of urbanisation have marked Chinese society, Chinese architects are now facing the beginning of the Intelligent Age, a new challenge associated with today's society that encompasses such different but interrelated themes as ecological, social and cultural identity.
The exhibition will seek to make the user reflect on the definition of architecture, using it to generate multi-spatial experiences over a time supported by technological advances. As an answer or a further question to add to the visitor's thoughts, traditional Chinese wisdom on "nature" appears as a metaphor for emergence, inclusiveness, diversity and a continuum of imagination towards the coexistence of a whole in the cosmos(天人合一tian ren he yi).
Open Source City. Red Product Design Center. Pavilion of China by Ma Yansong.
CO-EXIST and its presented works draw inspiration from and cast imaginations upon this wisdom by stratifying diverse epochs, cross-disciplines, technological advancements, and methodologies, answering to the motion of "one place, one solution". It manifests itself more as a journey: Chinese architects working with different elements in search of an inclusive and sustainable path towards a new, diverse and humane era, an era imbued with emotional depth that firmly rejects the mundane.
"If the Industrial Era was about rationality and efficiency, the Intelligent Era must re-center humanity and nature. In classical Chinese philosophy, 'nature' is beyond the mainstream discord as symbols, materials, or techniques. It is a worldview of harmony between heaven and humanity, where the self and the cosmos intertwine as one, and all existence resonates with one’s emotions—gardens, architecture, and cities were all spatial manifestations of this wisdom".
Ma Yansong, founder and senior partner of MAD Architects, curator.
