Title: Chaoyang Men Nei Dajie [ URBAN CARPET: Cyan ], embroidery on canvas, 2009
Artist: instanthutong
Year: 2009
Description: URBAN CARPETS
8 pieces 200x200 cm, embroidery on canvas + street events + courtyard exhibitions
As part of Instant Hutong, the Urban Carpet project consists in 8 carpets embroidered by hand and several temporary public events taking place in the Hutong alleys. Each carpet represents the map of a
Hutong area with a size of approximately one square kilometer and a total population of about 30.000
people. These areas have been isolated and presented as autonomous towns within the much larger
city. The process of obtaining such detailed maps of the old Beijing Hutong areas from the Chinese
government has proven to be no easy matter. An extensive preliminary research work was crucial for
the development of the task and it was followed by a meticulous work which consisted in manually
remapping entire areas from scratch. These maps have been reinterpreted as spatial textures and have
been embroidered by hand with the same technique once applied in the propaganda tapestries of the
seventies. They were consequently further elaborated through the means of wool thread insertions.
Each carpet relates to a series of actions in the urban context. Starting from spring 2009, these alleys
have been explored and installations have been performed by hanging the carpets on ropes, wires,
threads and onto any other support commonly used by people on the public lanes to typically hang their
clothes out to dry. Once a carpet had been hung in the alleys, local people would gather around it,
recognizing their neighborhood, pinpointing familiar alleys and telling stories about their own daily life
and habits in the Hutong community. This was the very first time that the great majority of locals had the
chance to observe the aerial view of such a large scale map of their own district and it was exciting to
observe people comparing the actual map with the mental one engraved in people’s minds through day
to day experience and perception. Each event is a chance for surprising encounters, curious face to face
interactions and unforeseeable social adventures. The pedestrian nature of such old unique areas of the
city is perfectly suitable for this kind of interactive exhibitions which blend in with and in the meantime
offer the chance to rediscover the urban and social anarchic structure of the Hutong itself.
