Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Focusing on the first European exhibition staging independent Chinese architects “TU MU: Young Architecture of China”, I investigate the process in which overseas architectural exhibitions instigated the recognition of the neglected, marginalized, and suppressed Chinese experimental architects both at home and abroad. Curated by the Europeans, the exhibition appropriated the peripheral Chinese practices into the discourse of world contemporary architecture, established the architects’ advantaged position in the design market and academic institutions and ultimately empowered the creative class, instead of the state-owned institutes, to represent China on the world platform. In this research, architectural production is approached as a mediated culture phenomenon rather than the construction of physical buildings, in which the ‘signifier’ overwhelms the ‘signified’ to construct a media-based reality that in turn dictates practices. Overseas exhibitions and the attached media activities are framed as transnational media events. The media assemblage constitutes the pivotal moments for practices to be represented and communicated, for individuals and entities to confront, and for discourse to emerge under asymmetrical power dynamics. Through the narrative analysis of archival materials and the theorization of architectural production through the lens of media studies, I intend to unpack the role of media events by looking into three processes: first, how the scattered, immature practices were wrapped into an ‘image’ that represented the generalized concept of ‘contemporary Chinese architecture’ in a European context; second, how the ‘image’ circulated within and between different media systems; third, how canons were established and continue to routinize paths for younger generations today.