The exhibition Verso Est. Chinese Architectural Landscape reflects the physiognomy of China’s architectural landscapes from the past decade.The MAXXI will present architects and artists who have developed and matured at the same speed as the processes of national growth, with projects that speak about the primary aspects of Chinese society and the life of the Chinese people.
Verso Est takes shape at a crucial moment: as stated by the English newspaper the Financial Times, in 2010 China invested over one trillion dollars in new construction, promoting and creating a real estate boom that transformed it into a superpower and leader in this field. Within this context the exhibition gains a precise historical meaning and intends to underline the role of contemporary Chinese architecture in the international panorama, pursuing the fil rouge traced by 12 themes presented on large banners running along the curvilinear walls of the Museum’s gallery:

Urban Transition
Rem Koolhaas and the New Architectural Wave
Emerging Chinese Architecture
Shan Shui City
Post-Disaster Reconstruction
Architecture and Memory
Architectural Rationalism
Poetic space and Architecture
Museum Building
Public Art and Landscape
Mankind and Nature
Architectural Photography

Models, animations, photographs, installations, videos, large digital prints and published material will illustrate the evolution of Chinese architecture and its complex processes of construction. What is more, the exhibition will also exhibit the work of a number of international architects, whose important projects have modified the Chinese skyline, including Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl and Rem Koolhaas.
To involve the general public in the transformation of the Chinese urban landscape, a number of multimedia stations and programmes developed for the occasion will invite visitors to interact with the themes presented in the exhibition.

29 July - 23 October 2011


Thursday 28 July, 16.30
Gallery 1 - admittance free

Two lectures providing an in-depth examination of contemporary Chinese architecture accompany the exhibition Verso Est. Chinese Architectural Landscape, open at MAXXI through to 23 October 2011.

Insisting on experiment
Wang Shu / Amateur Architecture Studio
Over the course of the last ten years, the Amateur Architecture Studio has developed an innovative and site-specific experimental method. The practice, combined with parallel research into contemporary urban and rural architecture, began with small-scale architectural experiments that were extended in specific metropolitan public spaces and residential skyscrapers. In a broad range of projects like the Xiangshan campus fro the Academy of Fine Arts and the Ningbo Natural History Museum, the Amateur Architecture Studio has attempted to spread the concept of “reconstructing local Chinese contemporary architecture”.

Chinese Architecture, at the turning point in World Architecture
Fang Zhenning
The conference aims to provide the European public with an overview of contemporary Chinese architecture, which has today reached a turning point, starting out with an in-depth examination of the contents of the current exhibition.

http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it