The Full Essay
Opening Day
From 26 to 27 October 2019, the experimental-art public-benefit project “Zhuangzi Project” initiated by the conceptual artist Mu Yuming held its first Opening Day at the old courthouse in Bajie Town, Anning City, Yunnan Province. This judicial building, abandoned for more than ten years, had been transformed by artists, monks, volunteers and local residents into an art centre integrating gallery, studio, tea room, garden, farmland and café.
East–West Fusion
The Opening Day fused the essences of Eastern and Western culture: the painting exhibition 《Shanshui》 used traditional ink to examine the contemporary environmental crisis; American director Ke Yahua's documentary presented the Hani culture of Xishuangbanna; French artist Genevieve Ameyom's 12-hour performance 《Human Clock》 stood motionless, her two arms imitating the hour and minute hands, exploring time's erosion of the body; the Russian woman Masha's “Zhuangzi Coffee” served freshly baked bread; the nuns of Sanhe Temple provided free vegetarian food; local children learned to play 《Twinkle Twinkle Little Star》 within two hours under the guidance of volunteers. The shared mural and graffiti and the “Evergreen” sculpture made of waste were open to the public; one hundred people together completed a collective creation.
Bauhaus, Black Mountain, Daoism
The Zhuangzi Project inherits the Bauhaus's cross-disciplinary collaboration and the Black Mountain College's teacher-student community spirit, but is rooted in the Daoist principle of “the use of the useless”: the old courthouse has been transformed from a space of judgement into a place of dialogue, waste has been given new life, and art has become a Chinese medicinal herb that reconciles the wounds of the human realm. Hundreds of guests broke bread there, experienced unfamiliar art forms and discussed creation. A building once symbolising punishment and retribution was completely transformed into a gathering place of art, dialogue and laughter.