Since the release of the first video on September 8, 2014, a path of finding, discovering, and documenting beauty has been going on for 7 years.
We use the narrative techniques of news reports and high-quality video styles to create more than 4,000 original high-quality short videos.
As presented in the opening video, we think about how human beings can better exist in the space architecture that touches people's hearts; we explore the opening of the beauty of life in unique artifacts; and we also find expression forms outside reality in the spiritual world of contemporary art.
Adhering to the aesthetic gene of 7 years of deep cultivation and with a heart of goodness and beauty, we launched the aesthetic list with high professional value to the public for the first time at the end of 2021 - "An Aesthetic Award".
This is by no means an ordinary list, and its birth is the painstaking efforts of countless people.
As a key incubation project of Shanghai Cultural IP, an aesthetic award is jointly initiated by Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Association, Shanghai Minhang District Cultural and Creative Industry Association as the co-organizer, Shanghai Aesthetics Society as the academic guidance unit, and Dunhuang Academy of Painting, Suzhou Museum, Aurora Museum, Xiling Cultural Creation, as well as Branding Shanghai, Nahang Culture and Tianyi Cultural Fund.
In particular, we invited Wu Yue, President of LVMH Group in Greater China, Jiang Qiong'er, Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Shangxia, Li Xiangning, Dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University and architectural critic, and Sun Xiangchen, Professor of the School of Philosophy of Fudan University, as the first Chair of the Board.
In order to enhance the authority of this list, we have taken the four dimensions of aesthetics, concept, innovation and dissemination as the criteria for consideration in the three fields of artifacts, architectural space and art, combined with the comprehensive opinions of the chairman guests and professional judging teams in three different fields, from the 100 architects, 200 pioneer buildings and beautiful spaces, 200 artistic trends leaders and 1000 life aesthetics experts who have reported in the past 7 years to jointly select "the beauty of utensils", "the beauty of space" and "the beauty of art" "List of professional aesthetics.
Below, I will introduce the artists and their works that won the first Aesthetic Awards.
As the "forerunner of purple sand utensils", the purple sand pot made by Long Wen combines the beauty of the practical design of tea utensils with the cultural consciousness aesthetics of pottery creation, refreshing people's traditional impression of purple sand utensils.
The inspiration for this incense five-finger pot comes from a flat melon that Long Wen saw on the side of the road that resembles a pot: a pot in hand, two or three confidants, throwing tea into the pot, incense out of the five fingers.
Tan Zhipeng, a post-90s artist, spent 7 years using a lost wax casting method dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to design the Satanic chair that was collected by international celebrities.
He skillfully integrates the human spine and pelvic bone into the seat design to explore the relationship between the person and the seat. In 2021, the work was included in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in France.
Mao Guanshuai, a post-90s wood carving artist, in 2018, picked up wood from the waste heap and used these natural scars to make 99 "injured people".
The enchanting texture of the wood and the reflections of Mao Guanshuai himself come together to preserve both originality and a contemporary feel.
Ma Yansong, an architect who grew up in the old Beijing courtyard, built a floating roof around a historic courtyard in 1725, making it a children's paradise.
Several seemingly unrelated architectural elements, coexisting harmoniously while maintaining their own authenticity, are the architect's tribute to the beautiful memories of childhood.
In 2016, "gardener" Dong Yugan built an "ear garden" in the countryside of De'an, Jiangxi. Through the relationship between this courtyard and that courtyard, the people who live in it can be both alone and together, which is the highest realm of Chinese residence.
Chinese house pays attention to order, and the garden house is one, and this kind of space is wise.
Between 2014 and 2015, Xu Tiantian, founder and architect of DnA Architectural Design Office, retained the original skin texture of Hengkeng Village in Songyang, Zhejiang Province, did not destroy the original form of the village, formed a smooth flow of public activities, and created 3 beautiful and special rural buildings.
She has roots in the countryside, helping local people rebuild their identity and sense of honor for their cultural heritage.
In 2015, architect Shui Yanfei converted an 80-year-old dilapidated group of houses in Xiayu Village, Moganshan, Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, into 15 guest houses with different scenery, and the field of Great Happiness was wrapped in endless natural emerald greenery.
The work allows people to rethink new definitions between living and travel, public and private.
In 2017, artist Peng Wei began a four-year theme of women's work, in which she described the dilemmas, entanglements and pains of women in social life.
In this group of works painted on a 50-meter-long scroll, Peng Wei dragged the women out of the ancient background, enlarged them, and let everyone see them carefully and think about why they became like this.
An extreme life experience related to water as a child became the inspiration for the artist Shen Lieyi's most representative "Rain" series.
Water, symbolizing the yin to the soft, stone, symbolizing the yang to the rigid, the two extreme manifestations are fused on the same carrier, resulting in strong visual contrast and contrast.
In addition to the group awards, this year's Aesthetic Awards also set up 5 "Aesthetic Spirit Awards" to recognize the contributions of the following 5 winners to aesthetics.
In China, the circle of making glass is very small, and less than 20 people may be invested full-time, and Dumont, a post-85 Beijing girl, is one of them.
She uses the combination of wood, stone, sculpture, tea, paper and other different materials with glass to produce a particularly recognizable glass work.
Dumont was the first Chinese to win the Kanazawa Glass Art Award in Japan, which won the "Oscar of the Glass Industry".
Artist Zhang Huan has used his body to constantly explore and expand the boundaries of performance art. He has performed at the highest level of art in the world, marveling at the world, and few people have surpassed it to this day.
After 2005, Zhang Huan began to explore the innovative use of exotic materials such as incense ash. In September 2020, he held a solo exhibition "History in the Ashes" at the Russian Hermitage, one of the four major museums in the world, becoming the first Chinese artist to exhibit at the Hermitage in a hundred years.
In 2010, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) awarded Ma Yansong an International Fellow of RIBA.
Over the years, he has been committed to exploring the future of architecture, advocating the combination of urban density, function and landscape artistic conception, and re-establishing the emotional connection between man and nature, moving towards a new era of urban civilization with the human spirit as the core.
As a representative of the "scar aesthetics", He Duoling insisted on painting for 40 years, and he may be the most craftsman-spirited of painters.
In addition to painting oil, he designed and built his own studios and art galleries. Architecture and music were hobbies, but he took them very seriously and played with them masochistically for decades.
"Silkworm spit silk generally does not exceed 5 days, can highlight more than 1,000 meters of silk, is really with life in textile", at that moment, Obsessed with silkworm breeding Liang Shaoji found the creative direction he has been looking for.
He said that he knew the language of silkworms, and in his opinion, Chinese silkworm farming was like a large performance art.
In 2000, Liang Shaoji wrapped women's nude works in silk at the Lyon Biennale in France, which caused a huge sensation. He created in an almost spiritual way, and now at the age of 77, he continues to create.
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Two days ago, at the Yangyun Aman Hotel on the outskirts of Shanghai, we held a special award ceremony for the aesthetic award "Beauty is born of beauty and beauty".
Due to the pandemic, the scale is limited and the time is only 3 hours. Behind this brief gathering was the painstaking efforts of the team and guests for several months.
Looking back at the road ahead, we are more deeply aware that beauty is not an overnight freeze-frame, but an eternal discussion.
Those original aesthetic works full of vitality and enlightenment always make us believe that "making beauty a daily life" should not only stay in words, but also become the benchmark of Chinese life aesthetics and promote it to become a way of life.
As Mr. Bai Xianyong said: "It is impossible for one person to have a Renaissance, but if there are a large number of people, and everyone has a passion for beauty in their hearts, then a Renaissance is possible." ”
Thank you to all the guests who attended the event, as well as to everyone who followed the event remotely. Hopefully, this time next year, we can gather again for a feast of beauty.