The First China Design Exhibition (2012) was held in Shenzhen from December 7, 2012 to February 26, 2013. Jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Shenzhen Municipal Government and organized by the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture, Publicity Department of Shenzhen Municipal Committee of CPC, Shenzhen Publicity Office of the “City of Design”, and Shenzhen Bureau of Sports and Tourism, it is a national professional design exhibition, also the largest design project since Shenzhen was named the “City of Design” by UNESCO.
The First China Design Exhibition (2012), once named the “National Exhibition of Art and Design”, with the theme “Times Creation”, “to encourage design innovation, and hoping to promote the progress of social life” through the exhibition. The exhibition started at the beginning of 2012, and the press conference was held in Beijing in May, announcing the program, poster, and logo of the exhibition, issuing an invitation paper to designers across the country, especially Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The collection of works was arranged from January, 2008 to September 30, 2012, preliminary selection ended in early October, and the final selection ended in mid-November.
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The exhibition is composed of a main exhibition, peripheral exhibitions and academic activities, etc. As the core content of the design exhibition, the main exhibition is divided into four parts, including graphic design, product design, space design and cross-over design, in accordance with the practice of international industrial design and professional divisions. Due to the complexity and the self-contained nature of the architectural design and fashion design, as it is difficult to grasp in a short time, this exhibition temporarily ignores these two aspects.
After the preparation of more than a year, the First China Design Exhibition had a grand opening on the second floor platform of the Civic Center Plaza on December 7, 2012. Guests presented at the opening ceremony included Dong Wei, Vice Dean of the Ministry of Culture, Hans d’ Weiler, Assistant of General Director of UNESCO, Du Yue, General Secretary of the Chinese National Committee for UNESCO, Liu Dawei, Vice Chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, Fan Di-an, Director of the National Art Museum of China, Wang Jingsheng, the Shenzhen Municipal Committee, Minister for Publicity, Wu Yihuan, Vice Mayor of Shenzhen, as well as representatives of the design communities and all walks of life from across the country, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions. At the beginning of the ceremony, the Choir of Shenzhen Senior High School sung, “the Themed Song of Creative December”, which was exceptionally grand and attracted a big crowd. The opening ceremony was presided over by Chen Wei, Secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sport and Tourism.
Wu Yihuan, Vice Mayor of Shenzhen, Hans d’ Weiler, Assistant of General Director of UNESCO, Dong Wei, Vice Dean of the Ministry of Culture, Director of the Organizing Committee of the exhibition each spoke respectively at the opening ceremony. Subsequently, Zhu Di, Deputy Director of the Artistic Department of the Ministry of Culture announced the Award winners of the China Design Exhibition 2012, awards were given to the award-winning designers by the guests. After the preliminary selection and final selection, repeated selections by well-known experts from the design community, 14 pieces of work ultimately stood out from more than 10,000 entries, representing the highest level in the design community.
As an important part of the exhibition, the first China Design Exhibition Forums were respectively, held at the Civic Center and Shenzhen University on December 8 and 9. The forums were organized by the Artistic Department of the Ministry of Culture, the Publicity Department of Shenzhen Municipal Committee of CPC, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Shenzhen University.
The forum was constructed as a main forum and four professional forums (divided into graphic, cross-over, product, and space), the aim was promote academic exchanges between experts and designers from across the country, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, to analyze and reflect the status of the Chinese design community, to sum up the advanced thought of modern and contemporary design, forecasting the direction of Chinese design development in the future. Under the framework of the overall theme of the Forum, its contemporary proposition, “China Design” was constituted by the related themes extended from different parts of the exhibition. Meanwhile, as the extension and supplement of the exhibition, the academic forums also discussed the fields which were not covered by the exhibition (such as architectural design and fashion design), as well as topics that were barely presented (such as design education).
The first China design exhibition lasted more than a year from the preparation, solicitation to exhibition and the opening, bringing together 644 pieces of works by the designers from across the country (including 77 pieces from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), displaying the latest achievements in design development in China in recent years, representing the direction of Chinese design development, embodying the concepts of people's livelihood, the high-tech, the ecology, and the environmental protection, leading the transformation from made in China to created in China.
The exhibition will be free to the public on February 26, 2013, exhibition spaces start from the west and east halls (indoor pavilions) of Area B in Shenzhen Civic Center and the industrial exhibition hall on the second floor, towards the north and across the rooftop promenade of the Center Bookstore, reaching the Lotus Hill Park (outdoor), and then transferring to Guanshanyue Art Museum (indoor hall). In total, the indoor exhibition areas are more than ten thousand square meters, the outdoor areas are fifteen thousand square meters, there is twenty thousand square meters in total.
Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
