Angeles Biennale. Many people will probably ask “The Los Angeles Biennale? Shouldn’t that be in Los Angeles? And Biennale? How can a biennale ever be a first time? Only the second time you can prove it is a biennale; a biennial should take place every two years and this is only the first time. Talking about breaking through scripts, it’s already interesting to see how biennales can start to travel -- to no longer just “indulge themselves” within the comfort zone of their own territory, in this case Los Angeles, but to travel and position themselves temporarily in other places, taking with them a certain mindset, a certain way of thinking, which I’m very curious about. It might be the Los Angeles way of thinking, maybe it’s the harbor mindset, maybe it’s the traveling spirit, maybe it’s the pioneering spirit of Los Angeles which it’s famous for, maybe it’s the filmic way of thinking of Los Angeles -- I’m just projecting some assumptions here. But it’s interesting to see whether these so-called “typical” Los Angeles qualities can be reinvented or reenergized in a different location, a location that has a certain kinship with Los Angeles because this is also a harbor city. We are only a couple of hundreds yards away from the ocean, from the river, and the harbor is very near. When you climb to the top of this building you’ll see all the harbor plans. So I’m very curious to see whether this experiment will travel -- bringing the Los Angeles way of thinking to another location that is welcoming and understands it very well -- how that will work out and produce new ideas and interesting overlaps.
years ago, and it’s already at the end of its industrial cycle and has to think about new programming. Only thirty years is enough for a complete historical era. Now we’re talking only about a biennale, and we’re here with people who are creating everyday, to come up with this idea of a biennale. I think you’re showing by coming all the way here and starting the LA biennale here, that this creative flow can’t wait for two years, and can just start somewhere. You come from LA, but you start somewhere, you start in Shenzhen, and I’m quite sure that this process after these two days will just continue. Maybe in two years you’ll have another moment, that you can call the “public moment” like the window to the world, with people invited, but I’m quite sure that in-between this one and the next one that you’ll continue doing things and presenting yourself and using your platform to get the message across. So I think in space, in location, or in time, this in itself is already proof of how you’re breaking the scripts, and how welcome you are in this particular place that is all about that. The whole thing that we’re trying to do is have a biennale in a different place -- to merge culture with industry, to reposition Shenzhen as a city of culture rather than a city of mass-production. So I’m very happy that Orhan, and through him, all of you, accepted the invitation and came all the way here to make sure that we can make this statement. And that hopefully, in the next two days, we can also prove some points, to make sure that this is substantiated with some worthwhile discourse, and hopefully we’ll get a lot of feedback through the internet as well.
Talking about biennial in terms of time and timing, I think what you see already in a few places and with a few other biennales … that to wait for a next installment for two years? If you’re doing a real energetic, innovative and creative event, to wait for two years for the next one is almost insane. A biennale that’s connected to a real creative energy can’t wait for two years. Especially in China -- two years is almost like a complete historical cycle. To think, that this factory was built less than thirty
So welcome once again, I think it’s a wonderful setting. It reminds me of a few great moments of architecture and design history, when people came back from their busy offices and sat down, to stop for a while and talk about what’s next. -- what’s the next stage and how can we develop our ideas in a thorough manner? Welcome, I hope the coffee is good, and that the visitors of the biennale every now and then join you and give you instant feedback on what you’re doing. Good luck.