Artists
• Iñigo Bilbao • François Chalet • Thomas Charveriat • David Estes • Lucas & Olivia Gurdjian •
• Allard van Hoorn • Jean-Pierre Hurel • Rose Tang • Alexandra Verhaest • Zou Shu Shu •

Bits, Bytes & Pixels

Space invaders, the classic 80s shoot-em-up arcade game raved the playground of my youth. Car phones were high tech, portable phones, weighing over 10 kilos, were only used by top-notch businessmen. “Doom” was the favorite pastime of all of the boys and the “Prince of Persia” was the subject of all of my dreams. Only 2 decades after space invaders, technology seems to have permanently invaded our daily lives. Almost everybody has their second life in RPG games, posts pictures on blogs or communicates with worldwide friends through skype. Eternally reachable on those cell phones and always accompanied by our portable offices called laptops, we seem to have become more mobile than ever. 
Thanks to the Internet, globalization not only manifests itself in the economical field, but above all on our cultural perspectives. It becomes more and more difficult to visit a place like China, remote as it seems to most Europeans, without having any idea about how it looks or how people live. Asian pop music has a great influence on Western music and vice versa and somehow, that one architect who designed that right-angled bleu-glass building seems to have been everywhere around the globe.
The new generation grew up with electronic devices. Some of us were lucky to have an Atari or a commodore 64 to get through those rainy Wednesday afternoons. Maybe some dreamed of electronic racecars or remote controlled airplanes. And most of us got that microwave to warm up the meals mum insisted us on taking to our student dorms.
Having been surrounded by these devices all of our lives; it seems inevitable that they invade our way of working. We’d like to let communication through technology evolve into communication with technology and invite you to participate in this conversation that links the world.

Alexandra Verhaest, Shanghai 2007. [ ↑ ]

Artists

Iñigo Bilbao Lopategui
Iñigo Bilbao Lopategui (Oviedo, 1975 – lives and works in Barcelona).
Coldness, distance, loneliness, perfection and frustration are some of the emotions linked to the inhabitant of a metropolis. In his piece "White Collar", a life size self-portrait, Bilbao uses 3D software as a mean to express these feelings. In it, the artist appears alone, awaiting for something or someone that will never arrive, an occurrence that will never take place. His work was exposed in the Museo Barjola de Gijón (Asturias) and in the CCCB (Barcelona). [ ↑ ]

François Chalet
At the edge of animated film, the Swiss graphic designer François Chalet is inspired by Tex Avery, the rigor of Swiss graphics, techno and Japan. Chalet's ultimate weapon is humor. In 1998, he directed two spots for MTV which lead him to create the visual identity for the MTV Europe Music Awards 2001. Later, the prestigious German publishing house Die Gestalten Verlag paid tribute to his illustrations with a book entitled "Chalet". He has been commissioned for campaigns notably by Escolette, Mistubishi or Expo '02. His animations always tell a story and follow the rhythm of the music. In 2005, he took part in the "Serial Killer" show / installation (production Maison des Arts de Créteil). He presented a piece of visual music during the exhibition “D.Day” at the Centre Pompidou from June 29th to October 17th 2005. In his graphic work Chalet creates an expanding universe of minimal, often abstract characters, all based on a very tight geometric framework. Although he references a clear, almost archaic formal language, his characters radiate charm and loveable emotion. [ ↑ ]

Thomas Charveriat
ThomasCharveriat (Paris, France, 1974 – lives in Shanghai) creates animatronic installations with GPS, SMS, video, sound, electronic data and humor that interact with the viewer. Complexity and elegance are combined to create sensorial atmosphere associated with vulnerability and apprehension. The artist currently exhibits on a regular basis in international new media arts shows, such as Art Futura and Observatori, and has collaborated with various art institutions such as Museo de las Ciencias Prìncipe Felipe, Museo Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso and the Museo Maritimo de Barcelona. [ ↑ ]

David Estes
David Estes is a multi-disciplinary artist interested in people and their relations to the world. Estes' most recent work amusingly explores the disparity between who we are and who we want to be. He is currently working on a project about happiness, So Glad You Are Happy to See Me and has recently exhibited his work in New York, San Francisco, and London. Estes lives in Ithaca, New York. [ ↑ ]

Lucas & Olivia Gurdjian
Lucas & Olivia Gurdjian like to define themselves as "un-static & creative people".
Based in Shanghai, the team covers graphic design, photography, video, fashion and performance art. Together they co-founded Warehouse Studio as the extension and evolution of what they have developed for more than 10 years. They combine image, sound, and conceptual ideas into a flowing stream of fresh work with a strong personal vision. [ ↑ ]

Allard van Hoorn
Allard van Hoorn creates a visual language made of signs, symbols and demarcations that indicate alternative routes in contemporary society. It is a visual code he co-develops with people he works with in all parts of the world and, specifically, in local communities. His complete body of work is aimed at assisting mankind in obtaining an other way of looking and seeing, discovering that we now have the option to make it work for all of humanity. His work has appeared in publications like the book On Barcelona, in the streets and in exhibition venues like the Stedelijk Museum CS in Amsterdam in November 2005 and CCCB in Barcelona in 2003. He has intervened with special projects during the biennales of Venice in 2003 and 2005 and has taken part in activities like the Design Science Summer Lab 2005 organized by the Buckminster Fuller Institute and the United Nations and has given lectures and organized workshops, like the one on temporary and mobile architecture and exhibition spaces, executed with kind support of Hans Ulrich Obrist for UIC / ESARQ in May 2005. With his Platform for Urban Investigation he participates as Project Collaborator of Urban China Magazine in Documenta XII's project Journal of Journals that is to be exhibited in Kassel in 2007. [ ↑ ]

Jean-Pierre Hurel
Jean-Pierre Hurel is a visual artist born in Paris in 1973. He studied Art at the University of Saint-Denis (Paris). Initially preferring drawing, he experimented with different media on paper. In 2000 he started practicing black and white photography and two years ago, adding to his great repertoire of media, he started engraving linoleum and zinc. Apart from his daily practice of painting, he set up a project of 80 photos on the statuary of the monumental cemetery of Milan (Italy). Recently he wrote and illustrated a children's book. Jean-Pierre is currently living and working in Paris where he exhibits in several cultural centers. [ ↑ ]

Rose Tang
Rose Tang was born twice; first as a boy on the beautiful hills surrounding Taichung (Taiwan) in 1967, and then, in Shanghai, at the turn of this century as the most promising Chinese artist of her generation. Rose is extravagant, rebellious and fearless, and she indiscriminately touches on all aspects of Chinese culture. In her work, Rose tries to understand the impact and influence that culture, relationships and family values had on the development of her sexual identity. Rose Tang's work captures much of the essence and uniqueness of her identity journey by presenting a delicate balance of sociological analysis, social perception, facts, style and history. [ ↑ ]

Alexandra Verhaest
Alexandra Verhaest received a BA in photography from Sintlukas school of Arts, Brussels. At the moment, she is fulfilling her MA graduating project in China. In her work, she explores the thin line between the collective history and the personal past. She questions authorship as well as the importance of photography as a medium to depict history, using urban legends, internet blogs as well as duff history books as a source of inspiration. In the past three years of her education she has been focusing on documentary photography. She is strongly searching for a new image language rebelling against documentary tradition.
Her graduating project is investigating the concept of Red Tourism. This new form of tourism is promoted by the Chinese government and encourages people to visit sights of revolutionary importance. She examines the relations between modern China and the bases on which it was founded, at the same time questioning the way in which tourism works. Completing the project, she is working in residence at Island6 Arts Center. [ ↑ ]

Yang Longhai
Yang Longhai, (Born in 1978, Guizhou, China), graduated from the Guizhou Institute of the Arts in 2000. Longhai has been collaborating on the organization of 4 contemporary art exhibitions for Island6 Arts Center. In the beginning of 2006, he founded the Chinese contemporary Art Files Project (CCAFP) [ ↑ ]

Zou Shu Shu
Linfeng was born in china, in 1977. He Graduated as master of fine arts at guizhou university in 2004. In his work he questions the self, trying to find a different way of experiencing identity. Through different media such as video art, laser installations and soundscaping, he dances on the thin line of the public representation and inner spirituality; During his education he set up Mandone Art Studio in 1999 with other five school fellow artists. [ ↑ ]

Special thanks to all who have helped to make this exhibition a reality.
Especially: Maurizio Cattelan, Ang Lee, Christopher Charveriat, Diego Raiteri, Margherita Salmaso, Zheng Guoyang, Kang Jingfang, Wang Junfeng, Yang Longhai, Yasmin Sabet, Nadia Wagner, Yu Wei, Zhu Yumei, Jerome Letens, Alexis Kouzmine, Ana Gonzalez & Cécile Barbier, friends and families.