http://www.ubu.com/film/just.html
◇ Jesper Just - Artists - James Cohan Gallery
http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/jesper-just
◇ The exhibition: Kunst.dk
About the project
In his work for the Danish Pavilion in Venice 2013, Jesper Just confronts the paradoxical nature intrinsic to Biennale commissions in the Giardini: the pavilion as physical representation of one country in another country. Using this as a point of departure, Intercourses examines themes of architectural pastiche and cultural dislocation by creating an immersive, multi-faceted environment. Made up of five channels, the film is set in a replica of Paris, France, in a suburb of Hangzhou, China. Unlike many replica cities, this one is fully functional, though in contrasting states of construction and decay. Just’s treatment of the location challenges the viewer’s preconceived notions of space and time, rendering obsolete the distinction between real or imagined memories, between factual or fictional connections to a place.The film follows three men, interwoven within the scenes, but it is the city that is the main character. Just explains, “I've worked in the past with the idea of architecture performing, with a building or structure as a main performer, a main protagonist. And here there was the possibility of working with a whole city. I was thinking about ways to make the city the protagonist or mediator between these characters, making them connect via the architecture. I wanted to explore how you could take something as superficial as this architecture and then turn it into something connecting humans.”
The projections vary in size from 1 meter to 15 meters depending on the scale of the room they inhabit, thus underscoring the spatial element of Just’s presentation. The exhibition begins before the visitor has entered the pavilion, with architectural interventions defined by Just that create a new geography, engaging the viewer on a visual but also a physical level. The architecture orchestrates the audience’s relation to the work, choreographing the viewer’s experience of the pavilion.
A parallel graphic campaign by design studio Project Projects will communicate and extend the ideas of doubling and dislocation intrinsic to Just’s installation. Project Projects have created posters that juxtapose black-and-white stills from Just’s film with a newly-developed graphic symbol. This symbol is derived from a Chinese character that is inverted, manipulated in form, and iterated in multiple stylistic variations. During the Venice Biennale, different sets of posters will be posted publicly in five sites (Copenhagen, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, and Shanghai) to present a parallel world and window onto the project.
The project is funded by the Danish Arts Council. The project has received additional support from Nørgaard på Strøget, Copenhagen. Jesper Just’s film project is co-produced by Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen.
http://www.kunst.dk/danishpavilionorg/the-exhibition/
◇ Visit Paris And Venice In The Same Afternoon (In China) : Parallels : NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/09/20/223040143/visit-paris-and-venice-in-the-same-afternoon-in-china
◇ Inside China's mini-Paris: Town built to look just like French capital complete with its own Eiffel Tower and Champs Elysées | Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2384036/Inside-Chinas-mini-Paris-Town-built-look-just-like-French-capital-complete-Eiffel-Tower-Champs-Elys-es.html
◇ China's Replica of Paris Is Now an Eerily Depressing Ghost Town
Tianducheng (Cn: 天都城) is a town in the suburbs of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.[1]
History
Aerial View of Tianducheng
Construction at Tianducheng began around 2007 continuing a trend in China to recreate great cities around the world throughout Mainland China. This trend of recreating existing cities of importance in other locations, while strange to some, is one that dates back to China's dynastic period. Tianducheng is a gated community near Hangzhou, the capitol of China’s Zhejiang province. Its central feature is 108-meter (354-foot) tall replica of the Eiffel Tower and 31 km² (12 square miles) of Parisian style architecture, fountains and landscaping. It opened in 2007, and can accommodate more than 10,000 residents.[2]
Demographics
Originally planned as a city for around 10,000 inhabitants, the current population of Tianducheng is estimated at around 2,000 people, many of whom are "working on" a nearby French-themed amusement park.[3]
http://gizmodo.com/chinas-replica-of-paris-is-now-an-eerily-depressing-gh-1055641763
◇ Tianducheng - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianducheng
