From intervention to integration| aesthetic path of rural revitalization

The construction of art townships has received unprecedented attention today, which is a historical continuation of China's century-old rural construction, and at the same time, due to the diversified complexity of rural construction, it requires the intervention of interdisciplinary experts, which also makes the construction of art townships an important force in today's rural construction.

Recently, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other six ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Cultural Industry to Empower Rural Revitalization", which particularly emphasizes the key points of empowering rural revitalization in key areas, and among the eight key areas, the art industry empowerment ranks fourth, and specifically describes the five aspects of the art industry to empower rural revitalization. It is not difficult to feel from this that art empowers rural construction with great operating space and possibilities.

How to build a new era of rural aesthetics? How can artists make full use of traditional art resources, especially relying on the cultural traditions of the villages themselves, to serve the economic and social development of rural areas? How can art academies and art institutions at all levels strengthen the popularization and education of rural aesthetics through long-term residency projects, and enhance the aesthetic ability and humanistic literacy of the rural masses? How to promote the application of more artistic elements to rural planning and construction, strengthen the aesthetic charm in rural construction, and make the natural landscape, cultural landscape, agricultural landscape and landscape of the countryside form an organic whole? It is believed that only by fully understanding the aesthetic value of rural revitalization in the new era can we guard the hometown garden, maintain nostalgia, revitalize rural culture in the historical process of ecological civilization transformation and great national rejuvenation, and make the countryside full of new vitality and vitality.

Continuation of the root vein:

Promote the formation of emotional communities in the countryside

"In the face of the expectations of the whole society, no single purpose, single appeal, and single methods and means can quickly solve the practical problems and deep crises left over from the countryside in the past century." From the "Xucun Plan" to the "Qingtian Paradigm", Qu Yan led the team to carry out more than ten years of rural practice that spanned the north and south regions.

In Xucun, at the foot of Taihang Mountain in Shanxi, he repaired old houses, organized the Xucun International Art Festival, and opened an international art commune, relying on the artist's imagination and passionate investment, he created one situation and spectacle after another to break down daily barriers, so that local villagers and Chinese and foreign artists flocked to admire and appreciate each other. Xucun became a well-known example of the revival of the countryside through art. Qu Yan believes that XuCun is the starting point of rural rejuvenation, using the warm way of art to promote the link of rural emotional community. His more core mission is how to repair the traditional culture that has been affected and reconnect the roots of civilization.

If Xu Cun starts from "art" and looks for the original code of traditional civilization, then Qingtian is to hide the traces of "art" and build the scene of Chinese civilization. Here, the Quyan team adopts a "multi-subject linkage" local cooperation method, that is, "integrating" the countryside through the open practice of locals, intellectuals, entrepreneurs, governments and artists. At the village level, the main thing is to restore the simple rural style. Ancestral halls, colleges, ponds, long streets, watchtowers, and public spaces are all restored according to the old ones, and the idle houses of villagers are rented to build cultural spaces. In terms of culture and folk beliefs, we have written village chronicles and reactivated water culture, such as dragon boat racing, burning fan pagoda... Let the villagers regroup in folk activities. All of this is a restoration of the "home".

Unlike various artists who use the countryside as their canvas to paint indiscriminately, or use the countryside as a testing ground to complete their own artistic experiments, Qu Yan's artistic rural construction road is more like completing a mission, and his "recipe" of rural construction returns to the most essential "root" problem, so that Chinese can find a simple spiritual home in the countryside.

"We have to explore a path of 'transcending art' to intervene in the countryside. However, the premise must be based on the practice of local rural construction based on local culture, historical context, social network and local subjects, emphasizing the pluralism and rheological strategies of rural construction subjects and methods in the context of relationships. The restoration of local cultural ecology, social functions and the dignity of local subjects is the core of art township construction. In this sense, the process of art township construction should be based on a mentality of 'worship' of the local order, traditional context and cultural order, rather than a mentality of 'governance' and 'teaching'. Qu Yan said.

Urban-Rural Linkage:

Connecting the material and spiritual needs of urban and rural areas

▲ Bishan Industrial And Marketing Co., Ltd. Jiaozuo Store displays and sells Jiaozuo local customs and more "long-term design" products

If when the artist first intervened in the rural construction, the most feared thing was to let the countryside be trapped, then it is particularly important to find a balance between the material and the spiritual. From stationing and commissioning creations to spatial production, from triggering dialogue, organizing cultural activities to connecting communities, Zuo Jing and his team have been practicing between urban and rural areas for 10 years. In Bishan, Anhui, he founded the Bishan Industrial and Marketing Cooperative, which is committed to the revival of private workers; in Maogong, Guizhou, he proposed the concept of "township construction", as well as the three implementation steps of "space production", "cultural production" and "product production"; in Jingmaishan, Yunnan, as a branch of the application for the ancient tea forest of Jingmai Mountain, he led the team to sort out local knowledge, spatial design and transformation, as well as publishing and exhibition of traditional villages on Jingmai Mountain.

▲The exhibition "Rural Examination and Present Learning" is in the main exhibition hall of the Great South Slope Art Center

Although the strategies of these art rural construction projects are different, one of the clear clues is social design. Curating is one of the main means to promote Zuo Jing's work of rural construction driven by art. Taking the Da Nanpo Village Project in Xiuwu County, Henan Province, as an example, the work content of the work in the past two years is the development planning of the whole village, the introduction of cultural resources, the excavation of local culture, etc., including the planning of the county-wide exhibition "Rural Examination and Study: Mountains, Products, Crafts and Demeanor of Xiuwu". The exhibition covers the organic parts of "locality". In the "Mountains and Rivers" section, four photography artists are invited to create on the spot, so that the images created by poetry, painting and shadow can be changed in the high and clear ink color of Yuntai Mountain. The "Crops" section sorts out the history of wheat cultivation and Henan wheat noodles, and explores the relationship between the local and Asian and world through the "Wheat Noodle Road". In the stranded porcelain section of the "Craft" unit, the latest contemporary developments in the craftsmanship and aesthetics of stranded porcelain are presented through specially designed tea room spaces and furnishings. The "Grace" unit is a visual form of woodcut and woodcut animation, so that the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest", an important image in the spirit of Chinese literature and imagery, has a new expression in contemporary times.

In addition to bringing cultural and creative forms such as exhibitions, bookstores, homestays, workshops, and shops belonging to the city to the countryside, Zuo Jing is also good at exporting valuable rural culture to the city and attracting urban resources to the countryside. At the 2016 and 2018 Venice International Architecture Biennale, Zuo Jing's Yixian Baigong, Maogong Project and Bishan Industrial and Marketing Cooperatives were invited to participate in the exhibition. "Red Earth From Black: Red Rice Theme Exhibition", "Jingmai Mountain" and "Great South Slope" also went out from local villages and exhibited in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Chengdu, Beijing and Shanghai. In this way, the cultures of the city and the countryside are connected.

When summarizing the purpose, methods, steps and paths of rural work in recent years, Zuo Jing said: "The first principle of our work in the countryside is to serve the community, that is, to serve the local residents; the second is the regional imprint, which refers to the close connection between the projects we do and the local culture; and the third is the connection between urban and rural areas, which connects the material and spiritual needs of cities and villages." The specific path is to import urban resources into the countryside and export rural value to the city. In terms of methodology, we first investigate, and then disseminate through exhibitions, publications, lectures, and other possibilities depend on the degree of cooperation. Under limited conditions, we want to be able to work creatively, not just to present rural culture as a specimen. I want all projects to be sustainable. Only by tying it down can you know the real needs of the locals and do what you can do accordingly, which is something I value in particular. At present, many rural construction projects only have projects, and there is no rural construction. The goal of our work is to cultivate cultural self-awareness in the community. ”

Sustainability,

More well-intentioned creative strategies

It is worth noting that whether it is between the "capillaries" of the rural texture or in the central nodes of the administrative areas of villages and towns, the practice of architects has penetrated into all aspects of rural economic and cultural development. In the space construction that gives full play to the architectural strategy, on the one hand, architects organize villagers to build themselves in the countryside, provide lightweight, sustainable, high-quality, low-cost design for "home spaces" such as collective relocation houses, and provide practical assistance for the realization of the individual interests of villagers; on the other hand, they carry out architectural restoration and transformation of abandoned schools, grain depots, auditoriums, village brigade departments and other public spaces, awaken the public space and its functions in the countryside, and provide space support for subsequent public art projects, cultural education and community activities.

▲ Meng Fanhao's team designed and created a net red building - Hangzhou Fuyang Dongziguan to relocate to the farmhouse, looking for a state between traditional residential and urban living mode.

If you want to take something to quantify the influence of different rural construction paths, those "high-value" buildings really provide a great boost for the dissemination of rural construction concepts. The rural relocation house in Dongziguan, Fuyang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, has made a name for itself by young architect Meng Fanhao, and the project has been widely disseminated on the Internet because of its poetic appearance and has attracted much attention. Black tiles and white walls, continuous roofs, twisting alleys, Dongziguan relocation houses not only evoke many people's childhood nostalgia, but also truly activate the 1500-year-old countryside, which is in decline and once had a permanent population of only 300 households. With the return of the population, the entry of new villagers, and the emergence of new industries such as various types of cultural tourism, this new type of community has stood the test of time. In Meng Fanhao's view, under the connection of the Internet, the boundary between urban and rural areas has become more and more blurred, and after blurring is fusion, it is "genetic hybridization". "In these communities we design for the countryside, in the end, it may not be used by rural indigenous people, but there will also be some new groups, such as some retired elderly people who will come from the city to rent in the countryside for a period of time, some young people who come here to rent a tea room, etc. These mixed groups also need to share cultural public spaces and supporting facilities." Meng Fanhao expressed the hope that through space design, sociality and inclusiveness will be reflected, community relations will be stimulated and strengthened, and the "siege" of urban and rural areas will be broken, which will ultimately truly affect and improve the living conditions of villagers and urban groups.

▲ Songyang Xingcun Brown Sugar Workshop designed by Xu Tiantian

The story of the architect Xu Tiantian's Songyang is also talked about, and she calls her practice in Songyang, Zhejiang "architectural acupuncture". According to the characteristics of different villages, small-scale public buildings intervene, organically renew, enhance local traditional cultural elements or industries, and combine characteristic tourism to form a cultural and economic circulation system at the county level. For example, she presided over the design of the brown sugar workshop, the open space design makes the production process a theatrical performance scene, giving the workshop a "stage" nature - both showing production activities and presenting idyllic poetry. Since it was put into use, it has not only improved the dirty and messy production conditions of small workshops, but also made the traditional brown sugar processing move towards the road of industrialization, and realized the tourism system of "magenta brown sugar, living in a homestay, touring the cane fields, purchasing products, and experiencing traditional processing". The recreation area of the Brown Sugar Workshop has also become a natural public cultural venue in the village, with a number of puppet shows and experience heritage activities. Xingcun Brown Sugar Workshop has become a typical production space of characteristic industries, which has played an important driving role in the development of related economies, and the sales volume and selling price of brown sugar have been improved. Such changes have also made more villages in Songyang County actively join the "Architectural Acupuncture" program and carry out special workshops.

In addition, there are Liang Jingyu's "civilian design", Liu Jiakun's "loach drilling tofu", He Wei's "weak architecture" and other concepts and methods, which have developed special strategies in rural design, through the construction of "reused architecture", "ideal prototype", "village art museum" and other dexterous spaces and activities, to draw a specific and vivid picture of rural construction. Under these different methods, how to coordinate the relationship between ecology and development, speed and rhythm, subject and community is the common goal and ideal of designers.

Explore the vernacular classroom

Let beauty grow naturally

How to combine rural rejuvenation with education reform, and provide a new perspective on rural dilemmas through various forms of thinking collisions between schools? The "2021 UIA-Hope Cup International Student Architectural Design Competition" sponsored by the International Association of Architects is a new model to help rural revitalization. From the work "Flowers and Branches" of the School of Architecture of Tianjin University, which won the first prize in this competition, it can be seen that the plan of the work takes the education industry as the entry point of rural revitalization, aiming to take "nature education" as the fourth industry of the countryside, implant education in the countryside, and establish a new type of rural classroom in the natural environment. The scheme selects an ordinary village in Jiangxi, China, as an example. Based on the folk culture of the village and natural resources such as tianlin lake grass, the team designed five courses and their architectural forms in detail, and used local materials such as bamboo, wood and stone. On the mounds, among the woods, by the stream... The children take nature as their teacher and the countryside as their classroom. Invisibly, the countryside is no longer the supply of the city, and while restoring its own vitality, it has also become a unique place for nature education. The countryside, like education, can pass on the torch.

Similarly, through textbook writing and aesthetic education classroom model innovation, the foundation of rural aesthetic education culture is also explored by the resident creation project of aesthetic textbooks in Xiuwu County, Henan Province. The project is jointly initiated by the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, the Xiuwu County Education and Sports Bureau of Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, and Zuo Jing Studio, to collect the creation plan of the local aesthetic education textbooks in Xiuwu County from the whole society, and invite the selected creators to stay in the local area, participate in the co-creation workshop with the judging artists and local primary and secondary school teachers, integrate modern aesthetic standards and rural aesthetic research into the local aesthetic education textbooks, return to the natural origin and history, and customize their own local aesthetic education textbooks for Chinese rural children.

Speaking about the specific way of working, Hu Fei, secretary general of the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, said: "When we plan a rural art project, the first thing to consider is the sustainability of the project. That is, we have to consider the exit mechanism at the beginning. We enter the countryside as outsiders, not to make the local area dependent, to make them feel that we can only do this when you are there, but when we slowly withdraw and retreat to a suitable position, the villagers can still do as well as when we were there, or even better. ”

Artists, architects, etc. carry out or spill over their professional work, learning, collaborating, creating, and evolving in practice. Such artistic practice is actually more like a two-way educational process. As Qu Yan said: "The fundamental difference between the art township construction and the rural transformation in modern times is that it no longer regards the countryside as the object of modernization, but affirms the cultural value of the excellent traditions of the countryside and connects it with the current era and life." Contemporary artists have a mission to find problems and solve them. It's not about superficially doing an event, a show, or beautifying a few buildings, a few facades. Artists use actions, ideas, and their own emotional communication skills to integrate the countryside and slowly awaken the countryside. This is not a one-time event, and there needs to be a long-term process to see the countryside slowly come back to life. ”

May 8, 2022 China Culture Daily

The first edition featured a special report

From Intervention to Integration: The Aesthetic Path of Rural Revitalization

Editor-in-charge: Chen Xiaoyue