Cédric Van Parys: A Dive into the History of Shanghai
When Cédric Van Parys became the latest in a string of artists to undergo a residency at Shanghai’s Swatch Art Peace Hotel, he had 18 workshops and apartments at his disposal to design something truly great.
Over 10 months, the Belgian designer travelled to different locations around Shanghai, looking for architectural landmarks that represent the city’s growth since China’s economic boom in the early 1990’s. The subsequent installation – entitled Monuments for Progress and on display at the 2017 Venice Art Biennale – is a selection of monuments that, he says, personify a city that is undergoing massive change.
Van Parys’ work seeks to make strong – and often political – statements through architecture and art installations. His 2014 project for the 14th Venice International Architecture Biennale entitled The Balcony explored the relationship between political figures and their subjects through their use of balconies – Van Parys recreated the Palazzo Venetia, where Italian dictator Benito Mussolini delivered his declaration of war against France and Britain, for example.
After studying architecture in Belgium, Van Parys joined the research department of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam, where he worked as a researcher and exhibition and stage designer for events like Prada’s AW15 fashion shows. After living and working in Shanghai as an artist/architect, he recently opened his own studio, Office CCXD, based in Amsterdam. The new studio, Van Parys says, aims to be a landmark for creating innovative architectonics, exhibitions, stages, artworks, and installations.
“My studio works with and for artists, designers, cultural institutions and corporations,” he says. “Often monumental, always meticulously detailed and occasionally neurotic, CCXD’s aim is to communicate intricate concepts through the visual medium of objects, colors and stones.”
Keep reading for more on Van Parys’ influences, outlook on the current state of architecture and more.
fluoro. What is the importance of architecture today?
Cédric Van Parys. In my opinion, architecture is losing its importance because it is such an inherently slow medium. If a project needs five, 10 or 15 years to be built, it’s not flexible, and rarely temporary, which is exactly the direction it should evolve into.
Today, our cities and living environments are defined differently and are changing much faster than a few decades ago (in part due to the digital revolution). Therefore, the architectural profession needs a revolution if it wants to stay relevant. Architecture can learn from other disciplines to be(come) fast, flexible, adaptable and—sometimes even—temporary.
The future architects should therefore be designers, strategists, writers, storytellers, web developers, contractors, or anything else. Already today and in the future, spaces and places and as such architecture can be found everywhere in every dimension Digital/reality/VR) in every scale.
f. How does your heritage influence your work?
CVP. I grew up in the countryside and was always outside creating very detailed structures and objects from anything I could find. I made large hunting towers in the forests or created small models of boats and airplanes.
This physical aspect has influenced the way I produce my work today. First, it needs to be aesthetically appealing/pleasing and secondly, I need to be able to feel and touch the stuff I create. A digital file or something ephemeral just doesn’t give me enough satisfaction.
f. What are your influences?
CVP. I’m influenced by the many topics/concepts that are not directly related to each other, but they can be recognised within the results of my projects and artworks.
Centrepieces and monuments: I’m very much fascinated by centerpieces or monuments because they act like a black hole. A centerpiece or monument tends to draw in all the attention from the environment and the people around it.
When a monuments or centerpiece is well-made, nothing else around it seems to matter anymore. I really enjoy this hypnotising and powerful effect centerpieces/monuments can generate.
Detail: All kinds of meticulously detailed objects or structures. Ranging from the pinnacles of churches to machines or fine jewelry pieces.
Nomadism: I’ve always been in influenced by the romantic idea of nomadism. In our world today, vehicles are the ultimate representation of being on the move.
Our entire society is based on the idea that we live in one place, exactly therefore, it is very difficult for any kind of organisation or system to gain control over someone or something which isn’t stationary.
f. How have you evolved as a designer over the years?
CVP. First of all, the years at AMO (the research department of OMA) were crucial for my evolution as a designer/artist and as a person. The intensity of the place, the people I’ve worked with and the exceptional projects I’ve worked on have transformed me from a student into a confident professional.
Over the past few years and now that I have started my own studio, I have a better idea about my work strategy. I start from my knowledge about the spatial environment, then I create a concept, and in the end, it frequently turns out to be more of an art-piece rather than a design.
Once I have decomposed the environment, I mostly feel the urge to communicate certain valuable and complex information. So, I try to find patterns and eventually a concept grows out of those patterns. The actual result is the materialisation of that concept.
Architecture/design is mostly (not always) trying to provide solutions while artworks are the representation of an interpretation, a point of view or a way of thinking. Therefore, now, I’d like to believe that I work on the threshold of art and design.
f. What have been some of your standout projects and why?
CVP. The re-prototyped Chinese roof construction: This piece was created for the roof-room as part of The Elements of Architecture Exhibition in the central pavilion at the 2014 International Architecture Biennale in Venice. For this Biennale, Rem Koolhaas (OMA) was the appointed director. We started analysing the oldest complete architecture treatise found in China – Yingzao Fashi – written in 1103 AD by state building supervisor Li Jie.
Together with a group of 18 Chinese students and supported by several Chinese experts, we looked at the text’s central component – the construction of the Chinese roof – and attempted a first translation. Puzzled by the text, we re-prototyped the roof construction using blue foam in two workshops in early 2014 at the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture.
Throughout this reconstruction this ancient structure was transformed into something fresh and new. And in the end, it turned out to be almost an artwork. It was my first project in China and at the time it combined all my knowledge and capacities.
The set design for the Prada Shows: It was fascinating and challenging to create a space following the fast pace of fashion, not the slow pace of architecture. And it solidified my preference for temporary/short term constructions.
Monuments for Progress, the project at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel: It was the first time I did an artist-residency. After some years in an architecture office I wanted – for at least some time – to get away from functional aspect of design/architecture.
I was looking for the time and space to do something different and the artist residency at swatch provided me exactly with that.
I really didn’t know how it would go, or what I would do. Therefore, it is fantastic that 1.5 years later the finished artwork/installation is presented on the 57th International Venice Art Biennale.
f. How do you feel Swatch has positively influenced design and art, globally?
CVP. I think they provide an amazing platform for designers/artists to show their capacities on a bigger international stage (such as the Biennale). Connecting a product (the watch) with an artists’ work is a great way to bring an artist global visibility.
f. What was your experience like during your stay at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel?
CVP. The experience was refreshing and challenging at the same time. Going to a city for a residency it is a completely different approach then when you would go there for a job because you don’t exactly know what you are going to do.
I had a lot of alone-time in my studio which provides you with the space to look deeper into your field of interest. At the same time, being alone in a new place on the other side of the world without any point of reference and without people to reflect onto is also very challenging.
f. What did you create at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel?
CVP. Over a period of ten months, I travelled to all the different corners of Shanghai, seeking the architectural landmarks that gloriously represents the city’s breakneck progress since China’s economic accelerations in the early 1990’s.
Researching Shanghai’s urban development and architectural history, while living and experiencing the city, has directed me towards several mysterious monuments, located on top of the metropolis’ skyscrapers. This installation—now presented in Sala d’armi (in the Arsenale) at the 2017 Venice Art Biennale, and created during my time at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel—is the result of a system that was projected on top of Shanghai’s urban network, to select a series of ‘monuments’ that truly represent the city’s history, present and future.
The standout was the amount of studio space is exceptional. I’ve never had so much space to do my work. And watching Pudong from the roof terrace of the hotel is something I will never forget.
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“Now, I’m focused on establishing my studio, as it is now at its starting phase. For some time, I’ve been designing the prototypes of a jewelry line, and I’m preparing to realise this in the near future.”
Van Parys also believes that Shanghai has its own unique architectural history that has played out in the city’s development today, with aesthetic influences from France, England and the US. For the designer, his newest project for Swatch is a chance to coalesce the city’s history and future into one place.
“Apart from the traditional monument’s purpose to represent the ritual, memory and identity of a (local) community,” he says, “these elevated structures illustrate that a Monument can also be the image of progress.”
For more information on the project, click here. Read our coverage of artist Ian Davenport’s recent collaboration with Swatch to celebrate the watchmaker’s support of the Venice Biennale’s Biennale Arte.
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