Chinese UNESCO Creative Cities, guests of honour of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2019

For its 2019 edition, the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne has focused on Chinese design. Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan – the 4 UNESCO Design Cities from China were the guest of honour of the event. In total, 115 delegates from 14 Chinese cities participated to the Biennale, and showed the common grounds between this huge country and the international design stage.

During one month, the Biennale’s visitors had the opportunity to discover the vitality of Chinese design, a blooming creative field, through multiple proposals:

 

A central exhibition EQUI-LIBRE on the main site a Manufacture- Cité du design

Curator: FAN Zhe, director of the Sino-French Contemporary Art Center in Chambon-sur Lignon.
This exhibition was the result of an important cooperation between the curator and the great Design Awards organizers, architects, artists, companies, main Design academies and Universities of China. For the firest time in Europe, it presented a great panorama of Chinese design through history and cities:

• Design in the Past: the Road to Chinese Design
• Design in the Present: a blooming Chinese design
• Design for the Future : Shenzhen-ness ; Shanghai Future Lifestyle, city, citizens, creators; transportation design in Wuhan ; smart city in Beijing.

 

Exhibitions in Parc International Cévenol, Chambon-sur-Lignon 

Ceramics, contemporary artists, architectures, design windows for the Chow Tai Fook jewelry brand – the Sino-French Contemporary Art Center presented and overview of the Chinese contemporary creation and cooperations with French creators. A première of the programme developed by this centre, designed as an “utopy in the wood” to foster inter-cultural exchanges.

 

Common works of Chinese and French Art & Design Schools in the exhibition Stefania

Together with the projects developed between Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art and Design and its partners schools from Beijing, Hanghzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan, 25 other French and Chinese schools showed their common works.

 

Conferences by Chinese Design experts 

Some 15 professionals from cultural institutions, designers, and architects told the impact of creative industries in their cities during the Forum Cities UNESCO of Design. Chairmen of Red Star Awards and Design Intelligence Award ; designers working between France and China; Deans of Design Colleges, sinologists… a dozen of speakers shared with the audience their experience of design in China and its relation with the society, the economy and the education.

 

A “Chinese Night”

Gathering the international guests of UNESCO Cities of Design Forum , companies and institutions from Saint-Etienne and more than 100 delegates coming from China for the Biennale, this event marked by intercultural exchanges allowed its participants to see the creations of the jewelry group Chow Tai Fook and textile group HKS during a fashion show, to taste the Chinese wine from Shiwan group and discover a part of Chinese culture with a Guangdong Opera show.

 

 

Photo Gallery