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Back on track…
During the last few weeks a lot has changed for the nature and content of this project. Not only are we currently staying with three people at the MIM studio, we are also getting involved in more and more interesting projects.
After I survived Holliday week by visiting Foshan to meet up with Sue and some of her friends to see a local concert and visiting the local historical museum of the Nanyue King with Vincent, we still didn’t get any answers from Ms Chen at the Art Academy.
Even the whole week after she kept postponing telling us. Eventually on the day Hiroaki arrived form the Netherlands Sue informed us the academy was not willing to provide the space and time to arrange a workshop for the students.
The answer from Ms. Chen, to us, no longer came as a surprise.
Since we knew, we took time to really sit down and discuss the intents and expectations we had when we started to work on this project.
Therefore we have been able to reinvent our purpose for being here and making our stay a fruitful period in Guangzhou City!!
And here we are now! Elaine Ho, a Beijing based fashion designer, also a former student at the academy of visual art in Arnhem, has joined the reinforcements.
Through Elaine, Hiraoki and myself have been able to meet more interesting people who have been collaborating with us to make this project a great success and a lot of fun!
Today is the first day we took it upon ourselves to reach out for contact and communication with the people we pass and run into every day on the streets.
Picture this, me trying to make an effort to question people in Chinese!!
Hiroaki and I had to learn how to address people in a polite way and request them to answer a little questionnaire we had prepared on forehand. Currently we are working on realizing a few different aspects of our concept that are very exciting.
We also have received the opportunity form the Agricultural University in Guangzhou to have a workshop at their art department.
This means we will organize a short workshop for a selective group of students majoring in fashion design at the art department next weekend.
Besides the creative projects we have been working on so far, we are still meeting at a lot of interesting people to work with here now and in the future.
Our close encounters with different aspects of Chinese society are affecting our daily lives, communication and interaction.
Opening up to these experiences can change our creative processes in a profound way.
Elaine has been able to be here with us in Guangzhou for the whole week. After she returns to Beijing this Sunday, she will help us design and prepare a possible publication we would like to do, to report on the contents and results of the vibrant experiences we have had during this residency in Guangzhou city.
For now we are still diving in to everything we have to offer this city and vices versa as long as where in town! Thank you for reading this report and supporting our exchange of experiences…
For anybody who can read Dutch and would like to know more about my Guangzhou city adventures, please feel free to visit www.somtinels.waarbenjij.nu.
will be continued…