Design for Asia Award 2011 is presented to companies and designers from around the world who have achieved business success through good design that reflects or impacts on the Asian lifestyle. The award is now calling for entry.

Farbwerte is one of the official supporting organizations.

Via The Flags Project

Chanmin Jeong:

“This is a public poster that simply expresses the environmental change each country is going through using national flags with strong symbolism. Each country is paying a high price for environmental pollution.

The period in which you could see a clear night sky is gradually disappearing due to air pollution in China; several japanese cities are being submerged in water from the rise of sea levels due to global warming; and the ice cap of the alps, which is the symbol of Switzerland, might melt away right before our eyes.

We are destroying the irreversible earth. It is regretful because it seems that we are living without thinking about the future. The protection of the environment is now a must and not an option.”

‘Vanish’ by Chanmin Jeong from Korea is one of the shortlisted entries from more than 4000 participants in the ‘iida awards 2010′ competition, organized by designboom in collaboration with incheon metropolitan city. Read on…

Under Wenda Guís fifteen-year ongoing global art project entitled United Nations is his most conceptually, methodologically, geographically, culturally, ethnically, and politically as well as artistically most inclusive and complex project — he has completed 21 national monuments. Edward Lucie-Smith explained Wenda Guís United Nations project in his new book Visual Arts In the Twentieth Century, in one sense, Wenda Guís project, with its all-embracing ambition, relates to European romanticism – to ideas inherited by the modernists from the culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In another sense, it is linked, as he himself points out, to growing self-awareness of regionalism and otherness.

Artist Biography

Wenda Gu was born in Shanghai, China in 1955 and graduated from Shanghai School of Arts in 1976. In 1981 he received his M.F.A. from China Academy of Arts where he studied under the classical landscape painting master Lu Yanshao and where he taught from 1981 to 1987.

Wenda Gu moved to the USA in 1987. He was an associate professor of Studio Art at the University of Minnesota from 1989 to 1990. He has been invited to lecture at various art academies, universities and institutions worldwide including Cooper Union in New York.

Since 1981, Wenda Gu has participated in numerous international solo and group exhibitions and biennales in countries and regions such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Korea, indonesia, Malaysia, Israel, Australia, Germany, Norway, France, Russia, The Netherlands, Italy, Britain, Mexico, Switzerland, Sweden, South Africa, Poland, Brazil, Canada, Turkey and the United States.

Gu is a co-author of Chinese Ink Painting in the Twenty-First Century published by Shanghai Fine Arts in China. His art has been included in numerous recent art history books including† Janet Marquardt & Stephen Eskilson, Frames of Reference – Art, History, and the World (Mc Graw Hill & Laurence King Publishing Ltd. London, 2004).

He has received many awards including the Canada Council for Visiting Foreign Artists 1987; His book, Wenda Gu – Art From Middle Kingdom to Biological Millennium, published and distributed by MIT Press won two awards in 2004: second place of The American Museum Association and the publications design award of The New England Museum Association. He has been selected as one of ten of Chinaís most influential visual artists of the twentieth century by the Committee of the Forum of Centennial Art of China.

Wenda Gu

ink not ink

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKA17jK18js

小花 Meng WU -- “Little Flower”
Farbwerte-Participant from Shanghai, China.

What are the rows of orderly houses?
What are the names of the residences in the dark?
There live impoverished father
Mother having nothing in the pot for a long time
Son as a thief
And daughter as a prostitute
It’s said that the odor of baby carcasses is permeating the air
It’s said that they have been accustomed to living in the abyss of darkness
What place is here?
The end of the world or gloomy graves
Where it was planned to be part of the city

What are the roads on which screeching vehicles are shuttling back and forth?
What are the construction sites on which rumbling machines are working tirelessly?
There are indignant father stuck in traffic jam
Mother unemployed for a long time
Son as an urban management assistant
And daughter as a nanny
It’s said that it’s dark and wet there
It’s said that they have been accustomed to be exposed in ozone holes
What place is here? The end of life or desolate dwelling places
Where it is still deemed as part of the city

Will the darkness come to an end?

Earthquake is coming
Landslide is coming
Sandstorm is coming
Tsunami is coming
Tornado is coming
…
Maybe I’ll no longer exist,
Neither will people around me
Only with the little flower smiling willfully in the corner

(August 2010 at Dong’an Road in Shanghai)

梁钥 Yue LIANG - Farbwerte participant from Shanghai, China (Exhibition in Berlin)

Following is a casual dialogue written by myself about using the national flag of Germany to create a piece of work, with the two roles named as “a” and “b”.

A: After resting for several days, it’s the time to use the national flag of Germany to create a piece of work.

B: Well. But I have nothing but lousy ideas. Maybe they’re improper.

B: Germany is very open to allow people to create pieces of work by using its national flag.

A: Sure. I have no courage to present my lousy idea.

A: After receiving the national flag, I put it on my work table so that I could see it while using the computer. But there’s little significance. I could think of nothing but the lousy idea.

B: Yeah. Actually, I’m in a trance most of the time.

A: Exactly.

B: I just couldn’t imagine how a Chinese create works of art with the national flag of Germany.

A: Sure. I’m at a loss. My first plan is to hang the national flag in the balcony and expose it to the weather to see how much ash there will be on the flag.

B: You are really a fool of fools. Do you want to show how dirty the air in Shanghai is recently?

A: Well. It seems that my plan is unsuitable. The real estate industry in Shanghai is in full swing. There are too many construction sites. There’s even sandstorm in the city. If my plan is implemented, it will smear the city’s image.

B: I think the hot real estate industry is a lame excuse. No ash will spread as long as workers construct buildings in a more civilized way. You may walk around the construction sites in Germany. I found all building materials in the country were covered with cloth. It’s really a civilized practice.

A: There’s a slight digression. We may come back to the subject.

B: I have no idea.

A: Why did you agree to participate in the exhibition while you had no ideal plan?

B: I just thought there would be many workable ideas. God knows why none of them is presentable.

A: How about saying some unpleasant words?

B: Let me see. You know, unpleasant things are nothing but bygones.

A: Then it doesn’t make any sense to mention unpleasant things the world knows.

B: Say nothing? Then what can we write on the national flag?

A: Why?! It turns out that you still want to finish the task. Good or bad, anything can be written. For instance, Germany’s beer is palatable, but there are too many fats; vegetable dishes made by Germans are distasteful, but meat is very nice; I don’t understand German, etc.

B: Such sentences are anything but eye-catching.

A: Do you intend to tip off sensational news, such as porn, crime and drug abuse?

B: You’re convinced there are such pieces of news?

A: Nonsense! Sensational news can be found in all countries.

B: But it’s rare in our country.

A: That’s because you haven’t heard such news. Otherwise, the policemen in our country are omnipotent. It’s really a tough task to catch scoundrels in such a big country!

B: Why do you mention our country? Let’s come to the subject of Germany……

A: Oh. Do you want to talk about the sex industry? The sex industry in Germany is lawful. All sex workers pay taxes. People in red light districts are mostly visitors, with Asians accounting for the biggest part.

B: Asians?

A: Sure. All service industries in Germany provide invoice. So business in the country is booming.

B: OK. Let’s move on to crime. How about the public order there?

A: I haven’t been robbed. I always take a devious route upon seeing ill-intentioned guys. My wallet and mobile phone were both stolen while I was in Shanghai.

B: Wow, you shouldn’t mention that! You should never wash your dirty linen in public. Moreover, that’s all due to your carelessness. There’s nothing to do with the public order.

A: Well, I’ll take 5 yuan with me next time I go outside and leave my wallet and mobile phone at home. Oh, it’s also not safe. What if a thief seizes the chance to break into my home while I’m away?

B: I don’t think you will be the sucker. There are tens of thousands of households. It won’t be so coincidental that the thief breaks into your home. If you are the lucky dog, you may buy lottery tickets.

A: Buying lottery tickets? They are fraudulent. I have bought lottery tickets for several years, but haven’t won even 5 yuan.

B: Fraudulent? You might say that out of jealousy. Each time a rich man will be created.

A: Oh, no wonder there are so many wealthy people. Many of them get rich by drawing lottery tickets.

B: Definitely. So you may buy regularly. Maybe you will win a prize in your lifetime. As an old saying goes, “Every thing goes to him who waits!”

A: Is that so?

B: Oh my! Catch the chance, or you’ll regret.

A: Alas! When can an office worker like me buy Audi? I’ll be lucky enough if I have a little pocket money to buy liquor after paying the home loan.

B: Liquor? You’re so easy to be content. They say the annual income of North Koreans is a little more than 100 yuan.

A: What a miserable life! That’s probably a rumour. Why? It’s the biggest adversity to live there.

B: Well, get back to the original point of Germany.

A: Alas! I have nothing to say. I’m rather vexed. I’m sleepy. When can I have the luck to draw a prizewinning ticket……?

B: You may stop daydreaming……

A: But you have advised me to catch each and every chance to be rich!

B: What I have meant is you’ll have a chance to draw a prizewinning ticket in your lifetime, but that’s only a chance…… Do you know probability?

A: Cut the bullshit…… hu~hu~hu~ (snoring)……

Invitation to the Vernissage and the Opening Event of the Conference “A World without Walls”

„Farbwerte – SchwarzRotGold“

„Color Values – BlackRedGold”

„色彩价值观—黑红金“

“Exploring National Identity in the Globalised World”

After been shown in Shanghai, Bejing, Tehran and Jakarta this exhibition now returns to Berlin and features new works from Chinese artists.

List with the participants from China.

Participant: 梁钥 Yue LIANG – “Dialogue”

Participant: 高铭研 Mingyan GAO – “Replacement”

Participant: 小花 Meng WU – “Little Flower” (Video)

Vernissage and Opening Event of the Conference “A World without Walls”, an International Conference on Peacebuilding, Reconciliation and Globalization in an Interdependent World.

Saturday, November 6th 2010, 7:30pm – 10:00pm

Program: Roland Meyer de Voltaire – Concert with songs from his upcoming solo debut.

Audio: Roland Meyer de Voltaire – Lauf, lauf

Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD)
Ku‘damm Karree (Third Floor – Hoch Tower)
Kurfürstendamm 207-8
10719 Berlin

During the conference “A World without Walls 2010″ Farbwerte will portrait conference speakers and participants.

For program and opening hours please contact us.

Supporters and Partners of this exhibition:

About the Conference

This year Bremen, State Capital of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen will host the celebrations. In addition, various celebrations are held in the federal capital Berlin, mainly based on the Straße des 17. Juni and around the Brandenburg Gate.

In cooperation with the embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany in China, Iran and Indonesia Farbwerte organized exhibitions during “The Day of German Unity”.

So if you will be in Beijing (China), in Tehran (Iran) or in Jakarta (Indonesia) in October 2010, there is a chance to see some Farbwerte photo portraits:

Tehran: October 3
Jakarta: October 4
Beijing: October 8

The next Farbwerte exhibition in Berlin, Germany will be in November. More informations to come…

In 2004 the magazine Grande Reportagem, a Portuguese news magazine, switched from being an independent monthly publication to a weekly supplement in the Saturday edition of the daily national newspaper Diário de Notícias.

The creative challenge of the campaign was to reaffirm the magazine’s unchanged commitment to serious journalism by focusing on topics that are important for people’s understanding of the world today.

The campaign encompasses eight fundamental themes. In addition to child labour and the war in Iraq, other subjects addressed the distribution of wealth in Brazil, child mortality in Burkina Faso, drug trafficing in Columbia, the abuse of woman in Somalia, the spread of infectious diseases in Angola and energy wastage in the European Union.

This led the creative team to the concept “Meet the world” and to the idea of using flags of different nations as vehicles to transmit it. In each case, the colours that appear on various national flags were used to symbolise a social or political issue that is specific to the country in question.

Icaro Doria, a 25 year young Brazilian who works for the magazine Grande Reportagem in Lisbon via FCB Publicidade (*the ad agency) created this poster campaign of flags together with Luis Silva Dias, Joso Roque and Andrea Vallenti.

Epica Award

Inspired by the great artwork by Brazilian designer Icaro Doria for the magazine Grande Reportagem in Lisbon, Portugal, Sven Assmann designed a German flag in 2006. He found the flags at anina.net.