In 1969, the old sugar factory in Yangshuo was transformed into a new space for arts and literature. How did the sugar shed evolve?

In June 26, Yang Xiaodong and his younger brother traveled by car through Yangshuo, passing through the former site of the local sugar factory. He inexplicably remembered the scene in Tarkovsky's film Homesickness, and his mind moved, taking down the old factory and transforming it into a sugar house with a famous name.

in November, 22, Dai Jinhua, a professor from Peking University, came to the sugar house to give a lecture on Tarkovsky's Homesickness. This lecture, entitled "Poetic Lines of Images", attracted many listeners from all over the world, including Zhou Rong, a professor at the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University, Li Honggu, editor-in-chief of Sanlian Life Weekly, curator Ou Ning, filmmaker Ye Jing, cellist Song Zhao and folk musician Xiao Juan & Residents in the valley, radio host Chun Xiao, architect Dong Gong and architect Guo Liao Hui were all present.

Dai Jinhua's lecture is part of the two-month "Sugar Fire Art Festival" in the sugar house. Since October 31st, 22, a variety of artistic activities have been held here, from lectures, photography exhibitions, back-shaking specials, folk songs nights to three-dimensional projection art exhibitions of mountains, until December 31st, when the New Year's Eve ushered in the climax-burning a fire pit, which means to go to the old to welcome the new year and pray for the new year.

after half a century of wind and rain, this old sugar factory in 1969 has been transformed into the most popular art space in Yangshuo.

Sugar House

How was the sugar house made

In Yangshuo, Guilin, Guangxi, there was once a sugar factory that was a smash hit, facing the Lijiang River and surrounded by mountains.

The sugar factory covers an area of 3, square meters and was put into operation in 1969, with a daily output of more than 2 tons. More than 2 workers in the factory work in three shifts every day, and there is a lot of traffic around the sugar factory.

At that time, sugar was a planned supply of tight goods, children's favorite, and maternal supplements. As a pioneer and model of socialist construction, the sugar factory has always made the people of Yangshuo proud.

in the past 3 years, the national economy has taken off, and imported goods are pouring in, so the ancient squeezing methods of sugar factories have not adapted to the needs of the times. In 1998, the government stopped the large-scale operation of sugar factories to protect local water resources.

Sugar Factory

Sugar Factory withdrew from the historical stage, but the story continues.

Yang Xiaodong and the sugar factory met in 26. When traveling with my brother by car through the sugar factory, they saw a big chimney from afar, driving straight to the Lijiang River and stopping at the old truss. "It just rained that day, and when I looked back, there was a reflection of an old building in the water, and I was shocked."

This scene reminds Yang Xiao Eastern Union of the last scene in Tarkovsky's film Homesickness: the protagonist is sitting in an abandoned Gothic church in Italy, with a pool of water in front of him, reflecting Russia's hometown, and his mother, wife and children are coming face to face.

When I first saw the movie, Yang Xiaodong was shocked by this picture and even broke the film for a few minutes. Later, he also went to Siena, Tuscany, Italy, to look for the church in the movie.

"The sugar factory chose us." Yang Xiaodong is a hotel enthusiast. At that moment, he found that the sugar factory had the makings of a good hotel and decided to buy it. At that time, many factories along the Lijiang River were waiting to be dismantled. Thanks to the efforts of Yang Xiaodong and others, the sugar factory was rescued because of its unique architectural style and magnificent surrounding landscapes.

Old buildings

In 27, Zhao Chongxin, a designer who once renovated the old workshop in Shanghai in 1933, came to the sugar factory and began to repair the old buildings that were on the verge of falling down and disappearing, carving this huge artwork like a craftsman.

From the water pump house, truss and chimney to the press workshop, large boiler room, small boiler room and refining workshop, the production process of the sugar factory has been completely preserved and transformed into a brand-new space. From "thinking of the motherland and looking at the world" to "hardship, struggle, diligence and building the country", the slogans engraved with the imprint of the times on the outer walls of sugar factories have also been maintained as they are.

"The folk industrial buildings are so beautiful! We keep the old buildings, which is actually more expensive and takes longer than building new ones. " The restoration of the old building lasted for eight years. Yang Xiaodong remembers that when repairing the roof, because they were inexperienced, they purchased a batch of new wood from the mountain, and just waited for them to dry until they were no longer deformed, and waited for three years.

Only when the old buildings are preserved can the soul of the sugar house exist. Until now, the local people are used to calling this place a sugar factory, and the bus stop sign across the street also says Sugar Factory Station.

Old building

In 213, based on Zhao Chongxin's idea, designer Dong Gong added a new building outside the old building, and completed the design of the main guest room building, the guest room building in the villa area, the fitness center, the spa and the landscape pool.

People who are familiar with Anaya will be familiar with Dong Gong. The local landmarks of online celebrity-Lonely Library and Anaya Auditorium-are all created by this designer. When he received the design invitation of the sugar house, it was earlier than Anaya.

new building

when designing a new building, Dong Gong always takes the old building as the core, making the main guest room building and the guest room building in the villa area encircle and wrap up the old building.

In order to echo the old building, the facade of the main guest room building is made of fair-faced concrete with strong graininess, and a sloping roof is also designed. In order to echo the style of folk houses in northern Guangxi, a zigzag brick wall was set up outside the main guest room building, which looked like a hollowed-out and exquisite handicraft from a distance. In order to echo the surrounding karst landform, the main guest room building has also specially "dug" three bamboo caves, which instantly makes this long-shaped building smart and transparent.

Dong Gong also built three landscape pools to introduce the surrounding mountains indoors-the mountains are reflected in the water. Even indoors, you feel like you are in the mountains and rivers.

As the origin of the whole sugar house, the original abandoned truss site was transformed into a swimming pool, which, when you look up, is similar to the church in Homesickness.

Homesickness

Swimming pool

In July 217, the sugar house opened. In 218, Dong Gong took the sugar house to the Venice Architecture Biennale. Combining the beauty of nature, architecture and deformity perfectly, the sugar house quickly went out of the circle and became popular in the design circle.

In January, 218, the supermodel Du Fu came to the sugar house, boated on the Lijiang River, strolled in the mountains, and filmed a group of fashion blockbusters for the magazine File. In January 219, at the Ahead Global International Hotel Design Award, Sugar House PK lost Tokyo Hongxi Noya, which participated in the competition, and won the "Best Resort Hotel" and the "Global Ultimate Award". In July 219, the French architectural professional magazine "A'A" took the sugar house as the cover, and the French title directly stated that "the fundamental function of architecture is to discover and reveal the spirit of a world".

The cover stories of British architectural book PHAIDON, German architectural magazine DETAIL, Italian architectural design magazine CASABELLA》…… ... are not novel for sugar houses, but they win prizes frequently, which is a complete surprise for Yang Xiao East.

"All the efforts are worthwhile. Others may not do it for more than three years. We spent twelve years from beginning to end. When sailing, everyone else can jump, but you can't. The boat is yours! Finally, it was a miracle. " Yang Xiaodong admits that many international judges have never been to the sugar house, and they are often moved by a few photos or a video.

The sugar house with history and story has become a landmark building in Yangshuo. At the moment when nostalgia is blowing strongly, it attracts waves of people to punch in, which is all-round for northern Guangxi and even the whole Guangxi.

Because of the success of the sugar house, Yang Xiaodong even got the nickname of "the factory director", and the old factories in Guangxi invited him to renovate one after another. For two years, he visited more than forty or fifty factories everywhere.

How did the art festival come about

Besides being a venture capitalist, Yang Xiaodong is also a standard literary youth.

In 2, because he liked large-format photography, he went to the Beijing Film Academy to study photography with Feng Jianguo. Mr. Feng said that good photography should be learned from movies, and he took the opportunity to learn a lot of art movies, and the most impressive one was Tarkovsky's Homesickness.

Yang Xiaodong is a travel enthusiast. Later, he changed his travel ideas and began to travel with movie scenes. At first, he would bring his own photographic equipment. The tripod and camera added up to 25 kilograms, and he was fined several times. He never dared to take the equipment out of the country again.

"A Brief Introduction to the Old Shadows of Sugar House"

The seeds of literature and art have already been planted. Therefore, after the advent of sugar houses, in addition to daily functional areas, many artistic and literary spaces have been opened up.

For example, there are three installations in the lobby, which respond to the landscape of Guilin, and then talk to the old sugar factory and the new building respectively, and they are customized by the young sculpture artist Wu Wei.

Liu Chuanhong's series of paintings "A Brief Account of the Old Shadows of Sugar Houses" are displayed in the gallery. The painter made up a character of the Republic of China, Liu Shiqiao, and described his family story of opening a sugar factory after he returned from studying abroad from the perspective of diary. These diaries look just like old photos. History is interesting and not so heavy when told by fictional characters.

In the screening hall, Sanjie Liu will be shown at 3 pm every day, and Homesickness will be shown at 8 pm every day: The former was shot in 1961 and set in Yangshuo, which is a well-known folk music feature film in China; The latter was shot in 1983, which is the initial intention of the sugar house and can help every visitor understand the origin of the sugar house.

In July 22, under the conscious planning, the sugar house had a brand-new art section, and performances, exhibitions, poems and other activities came one after another. In the first performance in July, the 1969 bar welcomed singer Chace, guitarist Xiao Jun and drummer An Yu, and the three big boys had a good time. At that time, the second season of "Summer of the Band" had not been aired, and they had not yet become popular on the Internet under the name of Mandarin.

With more and more intensive arts and cultural activities, the "Sugar Fire Arts and Cultural Festival" came into being, which lasted from October to December in 22.

Dai Jinhua

"Movies are the greatest artistic heritage left to mankind in the 2th century, and in this heritage, Tarkovsky is the diamond in the crown. If you haven't met Tarkovsky once in your life, that's your shortcoming. " In November 22, Dai Jinhua's lecture set off a small climax. She analyzed many important scenes in the movie Homesickness, including the church similar to the sugar house swimming pool. "It seems to be covered in a hollow concrete frame shell, which is the most important modeling feature of Tarkovsky's film."

Tarkovsky is recognized as a "film poet". Homesickness, which was filmed in his later years, is highly poetic and has a high threshold. "What I didn't understand in the past 2 years, I will understand in a sentence or two from Teacher Dai." Yang Xiaodong remembers that the audience present on the day of the lecture were all big coffee in the literary and art circles, which was the attraction of literature and art.

Dai Jinhua, folk musician Xiao Juan & Residents of the valley, cellist Song Zhao and other folk musicians

Xiao Juan &; Song Zhao, a resident of the valley and cellist, also came: they played side by side in the 1969 bar; They boated on the Lijiang River and sang songs with the landscape as the curtain; They strolled on the stone steps of Stone Town, humming folk songs and playing the cello. The touching piano sound seemed to hide the old story of Stone Town. With the piano sound, Dai Jinhua came out from behind the stone wall, and he had a feeling.

"Tibetan incense"

In December 22, Feng Jianguo, who has become a professor at Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts, also came to the sugar house to open a large-format photography exhibition "Tibetan incense".

Feng Jianguo is the first artist who brought home a large-format photography course from foreign academic schools. Around 2, carrying an old and heavy camera, he went to Tibet to seek dreams, made a pilgrimage to the border and snowy areas, and fixed a large number of gelatin and silver salt photos in large format. Nearly 2 of them were exhibited in this exhibition.

"Going upstream"

Also in December 22, Liu Jiayu, a post-9s artist who graduated from the Royal College of Art, made a dream of "going upstream" on the exposed rock wall of the Karst Garden in Tangshe. This is a three-dimensional projection work of a mountain. The distant projection hits the rock wall, just like the smart water floating on it.

at the end of July, 22, Liu Jiayu came to the sugar house to collect wind for the first time. When she returned to her room, she suddenly found that the rock wall was facing the balcony, and was illuminated by a light white light in the dark, as if she saw the water flow. At that moment, she was inspired by generate and intuitively felt that this was the new work she wanted to do. It was discovered that the rock wall is 8 square meters, and the projection needs to go through a distance of 1 meters to hit it. After nearly half a year's long-distance work with the London technical team, Liu Jiayu finally achieved "upstream" with six high-definition projections with 28, lumens.

bonfire ballad night

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve, folk musician Chen Fei wandered to the sugar house and performed two bonfire ballad nights in succession, pulling bass and drummer, and he sang "Staying Green", "Amber" and "White Horse" ...

In front of him was a blue swimming pool, behind him was the quiet Lijiang River, fireworks all over the sky. Or dancing a passionate bamboo pole dance ... After so many concerts at home and abroad, Chen Fei is facing such a fireworks performance scene for the first time. Although his hands are frozen, he still can't help but feel, "The environment is so beautiful and fun!"

"into the wood"

The fireplace culture with a long history is spread all over the ethnic minority villages in southwest China, which can not only be used for heating around the stove, but also for offering sacrifices to the gods and praying for the peaceful future. On New Year's Eve, architect Guo Liao Hui's tailor-made device "Into the Fire Pond" for the sugar house, after standing in the wind for two months, ignited a raging fire, and people bid farewell to 22 and entered 221 in the hot flame.

"This is a temporary building, but I don't want to make it as exquisite as a gift box, but it should be able to connect with the surrounding environment." Guo Liao Hui finally designed a lightweight, abstract and skeletal fireplace device: three groups of wood squares superimposed on each other form a vertical skeleton; Three groups of black linen "skirts" cover the main structure, looking like fir trees from afar, like a shrinking roof, and like an oversized umbrella; The three-story roof provides a sheltered space where people can hide in the space under the wooden structure and sit around the campfire.

"A device is to a place what a building is to a city." After reading "into the fire", architect Dong Gong felt the importance of the installation.

"It is meaningful for people with different visions and roles to explore the characteristics of this site from their own artistic perspectives because art has gathered in such a land with precipitation." Guo Liao Hui commented on the "Sugar Fire Art Festival". After visiting museums and art galleries in Europe, Feng Jianguo felt that the vitality of art is the most lasting, and only art can be passed down from generation to generation.