On January 1, 2021, A8 Design Center presents the POP-UP exhibition "Heterotopia: The Kingdom of The Other". This exhibitin collaberates with the brands of "plants+lifestyle". While exploring the relationship between self and others, it fully reflects the creativity, plasticity and diversity of plants for lifestyle creation in a scene-based exhibition form. The exhibiton lasts from January 1 to February 28. A8 Design Center invites you to explore the mysterious kingdom created by a cactus.

Gardens, Kingdoms, Ruins

The word “Paradise” comes from the ancient Persian word “pairidaeza”; In Arabic, heaven is called "al-Janna," which literally means “garden”.  Everything in the Persian Garden is derived from nature, but it is manipulated, endowed with meaning and divinity through the combination of space shaping and religious rituals, and spiritually connected with a broader cognition beyond the limits of physical space. Regarding the dimension of time, the Persian Garden builds its own complete system, which is often described in the literature as a microcosm, integrating everything into itself -- the totality of the world. What's more, the garden is separated by the high wall and distinguished from the surrounding space -- being stripped from daily experience again reinforces its divinity. Based on these dimensions, the Persian Garden constructs the classical form of the subject, heterotopia, that this exhibition seeks to expose. This may even be one of the most ancient and interesting types of heterotopia.

Heterotopias (other spaces / heterotopias) are particular places that are separated from and connected to the rest of spaces in a certain way, such as cemeteries, colonies, art galleries, cinemas, hospitals, and the Cyber Space which has appeared today. Utopia sacririces reality pursuing faith and perfection, while Heterotopia attaches to it, absorbs it, and devours it: it interconnects a series of "illicit" occurrences, creating a "legit" but perishable totality. In Foucault's study, the “mirror” is a perfect analogy to heterotopia: the mirror itself is objectively present, while the image inside the mirror, generated by projection, is a “placeless place”. This is the form that Heterotopia realizes the existence of utopia in the objective and real space.

The exhibition seeks to expose the path between Heterotopia and Utopia, and brings in a pair of eyes for observation and scrutiny. First, unlike the Persian Garden, The Kingdom of The Other is free from the power and divinity shaped by rituals. This is a clear and specious kingdom, where sense of trespassing and alienation arises spontaneously. For the viewers, “The Kingdom of The Other” is independent and isolated; however, in any case, the overlap of objective relationships makes the viewers also become the “other”, invader and outsider involuntarily. At the same time, the viewers are consciously endowed with the right to "gaze"  : a “limited space” and “shaping with boundary conditions” is fully exposed -- weird, calm, but open: it invites the viewers to see the superposition of different tenses and spaces. It encourages the viewers to have a communication with themselves and reflect on the relationship between themselves and their surroundings: Heterotopia created an ideal space through rationalizing a series of relations, but at the same time, it is also always latent with imperfection and impermanence. Everything is fleeting, just like Persian poetry “Halt Paykar” in the 12th century: when the architect Shida proposed to the Bahram V, the ruler of Sassanid Dynasty, to build a palace with seven domes for his seven wives, King Bahram replies:

were I to build

an iron-gated house of gold;

Yet, in the end,

since all must die,

why go to this trouble? Why

—— Curator Zeng Ziluo

A8 Design Center Prensents

Producer: Liang Rui

Curator: Zeng Ziluo

Curatorial Assistant: Liu Keqin, Gao Ziqi, Zhong Xianli

Execution: Na Na, Gan Hanxu, Zhao Lingzhi, Xie Lingxi

Brands: Zhijue, BO & Plants

Artists: Joaquim Motte dit Falisse, Shen Chunyi, Liu Keqin

Meida: 

Time: January 1st, 2021—February 28th, 2021, Monday to Sunday, 10am--9pm

Venue: A8 POP, LUXELAKES Eco-City

About A8 POP

A8 POP, designed and built by the designer Zhang Hetian, blew away a trace of haze for this freezing cold winter on the shore of LUXELAKES. This is a dynamic experimental space which will provide fashionable, interesting, and futuristic experiences for A8’s various cross-border “pop up” events. The appearance of the “POP” aims to awaken childlike innocence of everyone, to regain the imagination of youth and curiosity about the outside world, and to explore unknown areas with talented creativity.