众  / Together

What stroke us most when we first came to the factory were the typographic signs placed on the walls. With the little knowledge that we had about Chines characters we still could read one of them. It said “together” and was placed in far the most sleepy place we have visited in here in Chongqing. The symbol itself can also mean “multitude” and “masses” and points to it’s Maoist roots. The factory found itself in difficult context of gentrification (others prefer to think of it as “displacement”), where the market and political movement play a bigger role then human relations. In our work, playing with a typo- graphical sign and industrial materials, we try to capture this deep contrast and vivid contradiction.

site–specific installation at Hewei Iron Crafts Factory in Chongqing, U-TURN exhibition, China

2017

collaboration with Barbara Janczak and Marta Niedbał

Special thanks to Asa Roast who enlighten us on some aspects of gentrification and the nuances of Chinese typography.