Transformative architecture
At the center of the exhibition, The New World, is an area where lines on the ground represent the ring roads of Beijing. Surrounding it are the models of Zaha Hadid Architects' work to enrich the capital's urban landscape, such as Wangjing Soho Tower and the renowned and a widely-recognized wonder of recent years, the terminal of Daxing International Airport.
The exhibition presents a broad view of the dozen of seminal projects which ZHA, founded by the renowned architect and Pritzker winner Zaha Hadid (1950-2016), has completed or is carrying out in the country, beginning with its first building in China, the Guangzhou Opera House, unveiled in Guangdong province in 2010.
The New World, held at Beijing's Guardian Art Center through Oct 3, charts the evolution of ZHA over four decades since its establishment, and its influence on architecture worldwide. It offers perspectives into the cross-disciplinary approach ZHA adopted to reform the mindset of design and construction, embracing new technology and easing the pressure of human activities on ecological systems. Hadid once said, "technology's rapid development and our ever-changing lifestyles have created a fundamentally new and exhilarating backdrop for architecture, and in this new world context, I felt we must reinvestigate the aborted and untested experiments of modernism — not to resurrect them, but to unveil new ideas."
10 am-6 pm, closed on Mondays. 1 Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng district, Beijing.
Concerned voices
How will future generations feel about the environment in which they are living? What are their worries and visions of the future? The quest to find answers motivated the celebrated Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and his team to create the artwork called Earth Speakr, in which from 2020 to 2022, children around the world could record messages speaking up for the planet on an application. A special website was launched on which people could listen to the messages. This work is now on show at an ongoing exhibition at Today Art Museum Beijing. It gives an insight into how children view the inevitable influence of the crucial decisions made by the adult world. The exhibition titled One Tree, One World presents an immersive experience for the audience through interactive projects, with an emphasis on sustainable development, environmental protection and passing on of cultural heritage. It is an invitation for both children and adults to reflect on the relations between people, society, nature and the world, and to embrace a world of diversity. The exhibition ends on Oct 30.
10 am-6 pm, closed on Mondays. 32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5876-0600.
Women artists
The efforts to create and live independently made by women artists since the beginning of the 20th century have constituted an important part of, and enriched, modern Chinese art. The varying situations they face, and the ways in which they express their concerns and emotions collectively reflect the changes in Chinese culture and social development over the past century. Multidimensional Sensibility, an exhibition at the art museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts till Sept 1, puts the spotlight on the leading women artists active since the 1990s. The works on show are in the museum's collection and the featured artists mostly were trained at CAFA. It is an investigation into the evolving face of a new generation of female artists, who are encountering a world greatly different from the one that their predecessors experienced in the early 20th century. Benefiting from a globalized backdrop with intense exchanges, these artists enjoy total independence to explore individualism in the world of art.
9:30 am-5:30 pm, closed on Mondays. 8 Huajiadi Nan Jie, Wangjing, Chaoyang district. 010-6477-1575.
