Dashilar
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Video project (2018), I: project space, Beijing, China

Installation view

​Dashilar is a project investigation urban childhood and how children experience public environments. It is made in collaboration with artist Zhangbolong Liu (CN) and Micro Yuan’er, a children’s library and art space powered by ZAO/standardarchitecture, a non-profit architecture team who explores micro-urbanism and symbiotic renewal in Beijing old city renewal. It is located in Dashilar, a historical neighbourhood south of The Forbidden City, heavily effected by gentrification.For the project we invited the children of the neighbourhood to jointly explore the urban spaces of Dashilar. The outcome of the process is a 19 minutes long one-channel video, where the children themselves lead the viewer through the streets, while interacting with each other.

The conceptual source was the works of English Anarchist writer, architect and teacher Colin Ward (1924 – 2010), who spent half a century experimenting with and writing about environmental education. His approach was to educate children to realize they can play a part in shaping their surroundings, that what they say about where and how they live will be listened to, and that the key to their future lies in their own awareness. 

I: project space

Financial supported by the Danish Arts Foundation