"Beyond Architecture" invites artist Cai Donghua and architect Liu Yichun to collaborate on Dragon Totem • Musical Legend, a dialogue between the performance venue designed by Liu Yichun and the architectural music composed by Cai Donghu:

The First Movement • Overtones – Dialogue – Water, Tree, Stone

The Second Movement • Puccini – Dialogue – Full Moon Flower

The Third Movement • Liu Yichun – Dialogue – Dragon Totem

Since the end of 2013, the "Beyond Architecture" exhibition has successfully opened in Beijing, Shanghai, London, Rome, Venice, Stockholm, Freiburg, Chengdu, Guangzhou, etc. More than 150 local and foreign architects have participated in this exhibition through furniture design, sculpture, painting, and various other manners.

Dream Chair:

Tadao Ando hopes that the dream chair can help people spend more time dreaming about the future. The chair’s gravity-defying appearance is spectacular. This sculptural chair creates a rich atmosphere especially apparent in large spaces when people are allowed to appreciate it from all angles. At the same time, it is also a seat that allows people to completely relax. Tadao Ando and the cabinetmakers at Carl Hansen & Søn used three-dimensional veneer that can be curved along two axles during the molding process, creating an effect that surpasses imagination. Tadao Ando believes that a product should be made of a single material throughout, pure and without unobtrusive of its environment. He has successfully created his dream chair according to his strict requirements. The surface of the chair can be made of oak, walnut, or leather upholstered. There is also an adjustable pillow available.

Participating parties: Tadao Ando, Aranda + Lasch, Cai Donghua + Liu Yichun, Chen Jiong, Davide Maculllo, Hu Rushan + Guo Xien, Feng Guoan, Hou Liang, He Jianxiang, Karre Klint, Li Zhenyu, Liu Kecheng, Lu Zhirong, Lu Zhigang, Pang Jian, Song Gang, Wang Weiren, Wang Yan, Wang Lei + Lu Bin + STEVEN MA, Wang Fei, Wu Hua, Wu Di, Xie Xiaoze, Yu Ting, Wang Zhanpeng + Xing Yishun, Ye Cheng, Zhang Ying, Zhang Jiajing, Zhang DI + Jack Young + Ruben Bergambagt, Zhang Qianxi, Zheng Ke

About the Curators:

Chen Zhanhui | MADA s.p.a.m. | President

Chen graduated from the Department of Architecture of Shenzhen University in 1992. He has founded and managed a number of creative design companies in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Dalian, and Beijing. He has a profound understanding of the drastic changes in the social, economic, and cultural realms during China’s transitional period and has a rich experience in working in cooperate culture, management, service innovation, and cross-border cooperation. In 1999, he founded MADA s.p.a.m. with Mr. Ma Qingyun, and has successfully established offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Los Angeles, Shenzhen, Ningbo, Shaoxing, and many other places. He is responsible for the company operation and management as well as most of the company’s design management in China. He has played a decisive role in many large-scale projects in major cities, including the overall coordination and full service of large urban complex such as the Ningbo Southern Business District and the Shaoxing International Textile City. In 2007, he served as the co-curator of the Shenzhen-Hon Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture and as the curator of Xi’An Mo Art Center. In 2008, he served as the curator for a ten-year retrospective of Xi’an contemporary art. In 2011, he served as the co-curator of the Chengdu Biennale International Architecture Exhibition and as the curator for China’s first winery design forum. In 2012, he was the executive curator for the Huigang Art Museum. In 2013, he served as the curator of "Beyond Architecture", a large-scale architect group exhibition, as the director of CBC China Architecture Center, co-founder and art director of CBC Architects Art Museum, and member of the Academic Committee of Today Art China. He has been the editor-in-chief and participating editor of "Motor Field," "Motor Model," "Urban Reengineering," "Hundred Islands," "Urban Regeneration," "Dialogue" (Biennale Series), "Shenzhen Special Investigation," and other monographs.

Zhang Bing, a curator of contemporary Chinese Art, lives and works in Shanghai. He is currently the art curator of the Goethe Open Space Project "9 Square Meters Art Museum" at the Cultural and Education Section of the German Consulate in Shanghai. From the 1990s, when he was one of the first people involved in the development of Chinese contemporary art, up until today, Zhang Bing has been recognized and respected by the industry for his comprehensiveness, independence, and unique vision in the field of art. In 2014, he won the US Global Cultural Leadership Award and was invited by the US Embassy to visit and research art galleries, art spaces, and art institutions in five major cities in the United States. In 2013, he was invited by Australia’s AsiaLink Art Institute and the University of Melbourne to hold a lecture on "Chinese Contemporary Art after 2008" in the Melbourne University of Arts. He was also invited by the Australian Embassy to inspect the art ecology of Sydney and Melbourne, including art galleries, art collections, and art institutions. In 2012, Zhang Bing served as one of the curators of the Biennale of the Guandu Museum of Art in Taipei. In the same year, he was invited by the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea to attend the first Global Biennale Summit. He also cooperated with the Taiwan MOT Art Foundation for Shi Jinsong’s large-scale solo Exhibition "Shi Jingsong: Scenes from an Unpredictable Theatre" and Shi Zhiying and Yang Yongliang’s double exhibition "A Sprinkle of Salt." In 2011, he was invited to plan the Chinese section of the Rennes Video Art Festival in France as well as the Chinese video section "Cold Wonderland" In the Snow Art Festival in Hokkaido Japan, including more than 10 young Chinese video artists such as Bird Head, Sun Xun, Ma Qiusha, and Jiang Zhi. From 2005 to 2010, he was the initiator and consultant of the "Art-AIDS-Life" Art project of the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations AIDS Program, cooperating with charity projects such as "No Hazardous Contact," "19 Games," etc. In the same year, he cooperated with the Shanghai Creative Industry Center to exhibit "Rebirth@800Xiu." In 2008, he planned the exhibition "Reincarnation of the Flesh" for the Berlin Contemporary Art Festival (ABC) and was selected into the weekly TOP10 exhibition media rankings. In 2006, he received special support from The Getty Foundation to go to New York to participate in the Global Art Museum Director training. In 2007, he became the deputy curator of the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Art and is responsible for art exhibitions and cultural exchange projects involving various countries.

When viewing Anish Kapoor’s work "Turning the World Inside Out" and "Untitled," a concrete space created at the Malmö Art Center, a dialectical relationship between art and architecture is introduced. "Beyond Architecture" presents "Overtone." With the help of a group of talented artists, architecture is once again connected with art; the two intertwine in a spiral manner, moving forward and guiding us into a new realm of aestheticism. Visual imagery, 3D printing, musical performances, multimedia, and modeling designs pierce, penetrate, and touch the depths and edges between art and architecture. "Overtone" is a reverberation and response communicated between architecture and art. Because of architecture, art becomes an existence within space. Because of art, the concreteness of architecture leads into endless imagination.

- Zhang Bing, Chen Zhanhui