The 59th Venice International Art Biennale has been postponed for a year and will finally kick off on 23 April. This "carnival" of the global art world is long overdue, but it is still highly anticipated. Not only because the number of artists exhibiting is the highest since 2005, but also because more than 90% of them are women, the highest in history. The theme of the exhibition "Meta-Scape" of the National Pavilion of China echoes the theme of "The Milk of Dreams" of Weishuang, responding to this era in a way of Chinese culture and art and showing the imagination of the future world.
On the occasion of the countdown to the opening of the exhibition, the visual image of "Meta-Scape", designed by the visual design of the Chinese Pavilion management team and designed by the internationally renowned designer He Jianping, was released, and the "Weekend Pictorial" special dialogue He Jianping, from the poster to the logo design, he will be a virtual and reality integration of the "Meta-Realm" in the two-dimensional space, displayed in front of us.
Dynamic poster of the 59th Venice International Art Biennale at the National Pavilion of China "Meta-Scape"
01
Bridging the barrier between virtual and real
Creating the "Metaverse"
Due to the impact of the epidemic, the 59th Venice International Art Biennale, postponed to this year, will be open to the public from April 23 to November 27, 2022 in the Garden And Armory exhibition area. The venice biennale theme exhibition features 213 artists from 58 countries, as well as 81 countries.
Official website of the 59th Venice International Art Biennale:
www.labiennale.org/it/arte/2022
Among them, the exhibition theme of the National Pavilion of China located in the exhibition area of the Venetian Armory is "Meta-Scape", and Zhang Zikang, director of the CAFA Art Museum, is the curator. The Chinese Pavilion includes two parts, indoor exhibition area and outdoor exhibition area, through the division of different areas, the exhibition can greatly contrast and echo in visual presentation. It can be said that the Chinese Pavilion is an "important area" in each Venice Biennale. Four artists (groups) were invited to participate in the exhibition, namely Liu Jiayu, Wang Yuyang, Xu Lei, and AT Group (a joint project of the Institute of Science and Technology art of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Brain and Intelligence Laboratory of Tsinghua University).
Exhibition plan and interior renderings of the Chinese Pavilion BUZZ Zhuangziyu Studio
Compared with the themes of the Chinese Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in previous years, "Re-Rui" and "Endless", this year's theme "Meta-Scape" seems to focus more on an imagination of the future. He Jianping said that the curator's concept influenced his design thinking: "Uncertainty about the future has always been the theme of artist obsession, right? The artist's imagination sometimes makes it easier to forget reality and thus enter a virtually unknown space. Religious paintings of the 18th century have doubts about the future, Dalí's surrealist paintings are the visual reality of the future, and abstract paintings of organic bodies like Max Bill sometimes bring the viewer into a virtual imaginative space. ”
He Jianping understands the "Meta-Scape" defined by curator Zhang Zikang and assistant curator Sun Dongdong as a fusion context of virtual and real, like an accidental intersection of two spaces in a parallel world that do not interfere with each other, full of contrast and impossibility, but not so contradictory. "'Meta' is virtual, there is space outside of our cognition and vision, and 'Scape' is always there, on the streets of the city, on the seashore, in the mountains, in the human vision, in the history of art, in the Landscape."
Qian Xuesen's translation of "virtual reality" (Photo/People's Daily News)
Zhang Zikang once mentioned the origin of "Yuanjing" in an interview, which stemmed from Qian Xuesen's translation of "virtual reality" as "spiritual realm" in a manuscript at a science and technology exhibition. In a later letter, Qian Xuesen also pointed out that the "spirit realm" technology and multimedia can greatly expand the perception of the human brain and enable people to enter an unprecedented new world.
In He Jianping's interpretation, the mirror is the existence that separates the virtual from the real. In the ancient Chinese Zhiwei books, the mirror is another world, and the Western magic mirror story also uses a mirror to isolate the real and the unreal, so the mirror image is fully used by him in the main visual design of this time.
Static poster of the 59th Venice International Art Biennale "Meta-Scape" at the National Pavilion of China
"The main visual figure is the extended mirroring technique after the Landscape mirror, with a set of mirrored Chinese landscapes, which are overprinted on the face graphics of the neat and delicate silicone fashion mold. It's like the overlap between natural incubation and industrial production. He Jianping said.
And the two brilliant fluorescent colors of red and yellow, which bring a strong visual impact, He Jianping regards it as a disturbance to natural colors, almost making people forget the real living space: "Colors that do not really exist in nature have a more visually attractive force than natural colors, which is a bit paradoxical, but it is real. If it were to be extended, art would not be like this, and real-life experiences may sometimes be inferior to the imagination of virtual spaces. A moment's hesitation in reality and trance may be the 'Meta Realm'. ”
02
Construct a dialogue between "my state" and "other state"
Constantly "beyond"
Chinese National Pavilion "Meta-Scape" logo design
Assistant curator Sun Dongdong once introduced that in the China Pavilion, three artists and a joint collective project jointly constructed the spatial narrative space of "Yuanjing". And this "creation of the environment" creates and presents a cosmic consciousness of symbiosis, in order to discuss the civilization road signs set by human beings for the coexistence of the future world.
In the logo design, He Jianping focuses the literal meaning of "Meta-Scape" on "Unknow Space" and "Exotic", condensing the connotation of the art exhibition. "For example, the Möbius ring has a contradictory visual effect on space, grouping words into groups, and Chinese and English characters are separated on both sides of the ring, just like the two Spaces of 'My Realm' and 'Other Realm', just like the dialogue of two spaces, and like the connection of yin and yang."
Logo visual use design
This also reminds people of the new logo visual image of Meta Media (Hypermedia) designed by He Jianping not long ago at the invitation of Shao Zhong, founder and chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Modern Communications. Coincidentally, they all belong to the "Meta" series, but each has its own meaning.
"Meta Media" new logo visual image
He Jianping said: "I am still loyal to my understanding of the concept of 'Meta' - that is, the graphic transformation of the real and the unknown space. We can see that in the "Meta Media" logo design, the two words are formed into a circle, which seems to have a clockwise rotation, but contains the rotation of two non-parallel spaces. "Although it is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, from the perspective of logical thinking, after the text is turned out, it should be the reverse or mirror image of the letter, and in fact, the text that appears in the forward direction is visually deceived, which is the rotation of two different dimensions."
Chinese "Hypermedia" uses horizontal lines to express a sense of speed and direction at full speed, which contrasts with the curve of English. The elements coordinate with each other, following the innate convention of the human visual system: to find a balanced and stable way forward in the complex external world. And that's exactly what Meta Media wants to convey: Modern Communications Group is the pioneer of bringing the metaversic universe to reality.
"Meta Media" icon
Whether it's jumping into a new dimension or breaking the boundaries of reality to find dialogue and connection. Consistently, this "Meta" from the Greek word implies the meaning of "transcendence."
Engaged in graphic design for more than 20 years, the internationally renowned He Jianping has countless titles and awards. But he kept moving, spanning creative practices in design, art, publishing, education and curation, and was tireless in experimenting with new forms, techniques and new fields. The word "transcendence" is not only reflected in his countless works, but also runs through his creative career.
In 2021, He Jianping's first large-scale retrospective exhibition "daydream He Jianping Solo Exhibition" presented by Design Interconnection at the Shenzhen Sea World Culture and Arts Center (Photo / hesign.com)
He Jianping mentioned that he had seen a concept of "people are old and old" in the calligraphy monograph "Book Genealogy" by the Tang Dynasty calligrapher and calligraphy theorist Sun Guoting, which is about calligraphers focusing on calligraphy and treating it as a matter of a lifetime, and finally calligraphy and life are integrated, people are getting old, and the calligraphy realm is gradually entering the realm. He believes that design has a similar side to calligraphy cultivation, you have to be diligent and learn a lesson every day, but he also knows that the difference between design and calligraphy art is that design and people's creative ability are related, often subject to the speed of technological innovation.
But He Jianping has always firmly believed that "new forms, new techniques and even new fields can stimulate new ideas, new motivations and new explorations, and help designers extend their design life." People always have dependence on their own habitual expression methods, and if they are not careful, they will fall into the trap of ease. "This ease obviously doesn't give birth to creativity.
He Yunchang publication design
Logo design for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany
"Paradise Cinema" Li Binyuan solo exhibition poster design
"Missing Topic - Liang Quan Solo Exhibition" poster design
Over the years to witness the rise and fall of the media form, and now see the "metaverse" wave sweeping the world, many people will understand this trend term as "3D version of the Internet", in this wave, the combination of more new technologies is essential, challenges and opportunities can not be seen clearly, but He Jianping is still calm: "If you think from the '3D' as the future, then the situation of graphic designers, must be more challenges than opportunities." But if the core of design is 'creativity', it is not necessarily an opportunity for designers. The same is true of human survival, the so-called 'survival of the fittest', in which the 'fittest' should be those who are creative. ”
Edited, written by Luzy
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