Articles by Collin Chen

Luchao Kulangsu Art Park, located on the west coast of Kulangsu Island, used to be the Kulangsu Campus of Xiamen Academy of Arts and Design of Fuzhou University which was known as the “Huangpu Military Academy (previous outstanding military school in China) of Fujian Fine Arts”. In July 2017, with the glory of “Historic International Settlement”, Kulangsu was exalted as World Cultural Heritage. Once known as “the cradle of modern Chinese education”, the art island once again attracted the world’s attention. It was the very time for Xiamen Luchao Kulangsu Art Park to shoulder the mission of “bringing culture back to Kulangsu and reshaping Kulangsu with art”.

Conversation between the Building and the Site. The art center in the mountain locates on a ridge line. It stands beside a winding path that starts from the foot of the mountain. It connects the typical boundless northern mountains, also the community in the valley on the other side of the ridge line. When residents or visitors go up along the winding path, this art center will greet them first. Its east and south sides face the mountain road below it and enjoy a view of the continuous mountains. Its north side oversees the villas spreading down along the hillside. Its west side is next to the community and acts as an end of the street. Due to this special location, the art center is both an entrance landmark and a hub for the community.

The World Horticultural Exposition was held in the “spring city” of Kunming in 1999, under the theme of “Man and Nature–Marching into the 21st Century.” The ‘99 Expo has had a profound and lasting impact on the growth of Kunming as a city, and the development of the tourism industry in Yunnan Province, and stands as an unforgettable memory for a generation of Kunmingers. Twenty-two years later, the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (COP15) is being held in Kunming. On this occasion, Contemporary Gallery Kunming selected a vacant venue within the original World Horticultural Expo Garden for an artistic revitalization project, to construct a small art museum dedicated to the art of Zeng Xiaolian, a long-time scientific illustrator for the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The World Horticultural Exposition was held in the “spring city” of Kunming in 1999, under the theme of “Man and Nature–Marching into the 21st Century.” The ‘99 Expo has had a profound and lasting impact on the growth of Kunming as a city, and the development of the tourism industry in Yunnan Province, and stands as an unforgettable memory for a generation of Kunmingers. Twenty-two years later, the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (COP15) is being held in Kunming. On this occasion, Contemporary Gallery Kunming selected a vacant venue within the original World Horticultural Expo Garden for an artistic revitalization project, to construct a small art museum dedicated to the art of Zeng Xiaolian, a long-time scientific illustrator for the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Like The Heart Archive, which is hidden in the woods by the sea, the artist hopes that the Heartbeat Museum will also be “hidden.” The site of the building is located on the side of the mountain in the canyon, and the architects sink the entire building into the mountain only through a curved road in the woods can you enter The Heart Pavilion. A road winding from the woods into the Heartbeat Museum, with the sound of synchronized ventricle heartbeats in the woods on both sides of the road.