Beijing, China. Curators, Michelle Proksell and Solveig Suess, in collaboration with Dashilar Project and Concrete Flux, presented BYOB Beijing on Saturday, June 28th, 2014. The one-night happening of moving light, sound installation and performance consisted of twenty-nine Chinese and international artists.
BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) is a series of international exhibitions where artists explored the medium of projection. BYOB originated in Berlin, Germany in 2010 by artists Rafaël Rozendaal and Anne de Vries and has grown to become a worldwide DIY experience, spanning to cities across the globe.
BYOB Beijing was the first of it’s kind in mainland China. Artists projected onto the walls, ceilings, windows, doors and other surfaces of traditional Beijing hutongs in the heart of Beijing’s Dashilar historic neighborhood. Hutongs, or small alleyways, represent an important cultural element in Beijing and over the years have dramatically decreased and been replaced by other buildings which have changed the community’s cultural landscape.
In light of these changes, BYOB Beijing artist’s explored the theme of “Rendering” or “使成” (shǐ chéng), as they transformed a few spaces within a Dashilar hutong. To “render” means to interpret, reproduce, echo, translate, restore, reflect, or quite literally “to make something become”. To “project” means to extend outward beyond something else, imagining (a space, oneself, a situation, etc.) as having moved to a different place or time — conveying the present, while echoing the past.
BYOB Beijing artists transformed and envisioned these old alleyways and structures as new community spaces through sound, light, performance, installation and shadow play.
