Imagination triggered at OCT-LOFT Creative Festival

Rarely had the spacious C2 Space in OCT-LOFT exhibited only one single artwork at an exhibition. Now there’s a new exhibition there, showcasing Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa’s latest multimedia installation. It’s worth your lingering there for a few minutes to get immersed in it.

In his work — titled “s.asmbli[wall]” — images and videos of forests and architectural ruins are projected onto a huge box-like installation which is surrounded by an array of giant mirrors. You can stand on the front side of the installation to watch the projections or walk around it to see reflections in the mirrors. You don’t have to understand the meaning of the work; just enjoy the dazzling and immersive audiovisual effects.

Ryoichi Kurokawa’s “s.asmbli[wall]” (2020) at C2 Space. Photos courtesy of OCT-LOFT

Kurokawa is renowned for composing time-based sculptures with field recordings and digital-generated structures, and architecturally reconstructing the audiovisual phenomena. He has held exhibitions in many world art institutions, such as the Tate Modern in London and the Pompidou Center in Paris, and participated in performances at festivals including the 54th Venice Biennale and the Transmediale Art Festival in Berlin and the Sonar Barcelona. In 2010, he was awarded the Golden Nica at the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica in the Digital Musics & Sound Art category.

According to the “s.asmbli[wall]” profile, the image and video materials in the work were made through laser scanning of house ruins and forests. The dynamically superimposed images render a hybrid of natural and artificial components, enhancing the power of nature and art.

Kurokawa’s “s.asmbli[wall]” is part of his “s.asmbli/subassemblies” project which explores the relationship between nature and human-made world through the perspective of architecture and it will consist of multiple different media forms, such as concert, printing, sculpture and screening.

Visitors admire the artwork.

This imaginative artwork is being exhibited at the OCT-LOFT Creative Festival 2020, which opened Saturday. Themed “Imagined Community,” the festival, running until February 2021, also includes free talks on creative urban planning and community design and workshops of rubbing, illustration, coffee, handicrafts, children’s aesthetics and theater performance. Creative design companies in the OCT-LOFT will hold markets and open-day events to share their accomplishments and display their working environment to let visitors see how creativity is made and realized.

“In 2020, a year full of uncertainties and changes, we bring up the theme ‘Imagined Community’ in OCT-LOFT, a place with community vibrancy and urban influence, to expand our imaginations and seek a stable inner strength,” said festival curator Huang Yongmin, founder and CEO of TOPYS, a popular platform focusing on global cutting-edge creativity. TOPYS is the organizer of the OCT-LOFT Creative Festival 2020.

Schedule and sign-up information of the festival events can be found on OCT-LOFT’s WeChat account “oct-loft.”

Dates: Until Feb. 28, 2021

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., closed Mondays

Venue: C2 Space, North Area, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District (南山区华侨城创意文化园北区C2展厅)

Metro: Line 2 to Qiaocheng North Station (侨城北站), Exit B