On the afternoon of 11 October, the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) opened in Kunming, Yunnan.
At the east gate of the Dianchi International Convention and Exhibition Center, the main venue of COP15, there is a young girl holding up her slender arms, holding up the Meili Snow Mountain, Hani Rice Terraces, Yunnan Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, Green Peacock, Red Panda, Butterfly... This is the three-dimensional flower bed designed by Lan Hailang, head of the expert studio of the design institute of Beijing Urban Construction Garden Group, and his team for the conference, named "Green Dream".
Who is the prototype of this girl? How to integrate almost all the "life codes" of Yunnan into a flower bed? Why does the image of the giant panda that is not in Yunnan also appear in the flower bed? A few days ago, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily conducted an exclusive interview with Blue Ocean Waves.
Use the image of a girl to express the home of all things symbiosis
Beiqing Daily: You have designed the flower basket and the flower bed on Chang'an Avenue in Beijing's Tiananmen Square during the National Day for many consecutive years, what kind of opportunity did you participate in the design of the three-dimensional flower bed at the COP15 venue?
Blue Ocean Wave: I have a lot of luck with Yunnan. I also took over a project in Yunnan before, worked in Yuxi for more than a year, traveled to Kunming very frequently, and went to Xishuangbanna many times. In the process, I became fascinated by the landscapes and rivers of Yunnan. Creating a work on biodiversity conservation is also my long-standing idea.
When I was a child, I lived in the mountains, when the living conditions were not good, and sometimes I would hunt. I also think that in order to survive, this kind of behavior is "natural". Once I followed my father deep into the mountains and met a ranger and his daughter. The girl was about the same age as me, and she had a bird in her hand. The bird's leg was injured, and she was healing the bird. She also told me that the family lived in the mountains and that birds and beasts were her friends.
I was shocked by this idea, and I realized that these animals and plants, like humans, have the right to live in this environment and space. Slowly, many trees on the mountain, as well as the monkeys and leopards that were common when I was a child, slowly disappeared, which caused me to reflect. Later, I was admitted to Beijing Forestry University to study, and then became a garden designer, and I always wanted to make such a work in my heart, using the image of a girl to express the home of all things.
Coinciding with the biodiversity conference to be held in China, I worked with the team members to investigate and cooperate in research, and enriched a lot of materials based on the previous design ideas.
Horticulture tells the story of China's environmental protection
Beiqing Daily: How does this "Green Dream" flower bed reflect the theme of "biodiversity" and the characteristics of Yunnan, and what kind of concept do you want to convey?
Blue Ocean Wave: Our aim is to welcome guests from around the world with three-dimensional flower bed art, tell the story of China's environmental protection through horticultural methods, and spread our voice.
The girl is the image of a Yunnan ethnic minority girl, her eyes are squinted into a line, the hair blown up in the wind is integrated with nature, she has a "green dream", into the girl's dream, the mountains and rivers of Yunnan come into view.
Yunnan is a three-dimensional biological kingdom, with flower beds using more than 50 species of plants, from the Kawagebo Peak of the Meili Snow Mountain at an altitude of 6740 meters to the exit of the Red River at the lowest altitude of 76.4 meters, where towering snowy mountains, colorful tropical rainforests, vibrant wetlands and unique flora and fauna surround the girl. She used her slender arms to prop up a piece of the sky, the jade dragon Meili snow mountain, tropical rain forest, Hani rice terraces, as well as Yunnan golden snub-nosed monkeys, flying eagles, geese, Asian elephants, anti-wave fish, green peacocks, sambar deer, Yunnan rabbits, red pandas, butterflies and other 15 kinds of animals are among them, a flower, a grass, a worm and a beast are her close friends.
Girls love them like they love their own lives, respect and protect them, but also protect our own future.
Recreating the "giant panda" in Yunnan hopes to have a warning effect
Beiqing Daily: There is still a giant panda "hidden" at the crook of the girl's arm, but now the panda is not distributed in Yunnan. What are the considerations for such a design?
Blue Ocean Wave: In fact, the ancestors of giant pandas originated in Yunnan, Lufeng's lime dam ancient ape fossils, found thousands of years ago giant panda fossils, known as Yunnan "the last giant panda". A few years ago, the first trace of wild giant pandas was found in Yunnan, but it is very regrettable and shocking that giant pandas were hunted and killed by villagers. We hope to have a warning effect, and we hope that through the protection of biodiversity, giant pandas can reappear in Yunnan.
Flower bed girls can change into "spring clothes" to keep until next year
Beiqing Daily: Due to the epidemic, cop15 was postponed twice, from October 2020 to May 2021, and again to October 2021. Will this have an impact on your design?
Blue Waves: We have taken these factors into account and made some adjustments. Kunming, also known as "Spring City", has four seasons like spring, which is very suitable for the display of three-dimensional flower beds. We also chose fewer flowering plants in the design, so that the flower beds are more suitable for the local climate and more suitable for long-term display to achieve the best results.
COP15 will hold the second phase of the conference next year, and the second phase of the conference is mainly offline, there will be more guests, friends from the world and people engaged in biodiversity conservation to Kunming, we also hope that we can show it to more people at that time.
Beiqing Daily: Can the flower bed be kept until next year?
Blue Waves: It's no problem to stick around for a year. Just like the girl who loves beauty, it's autumn and she has autumn clothes. When autumn passed, she changed her winter clothes and changed some of the more hardy plants locally. Next spring is coming, and girls will change into spring clothes again.
Text/Reporter Dong Xin Coordinator/Liu Xiaoxue
Photo courtesy of Visual China