“Our chairs installation is about celebration of the moment that family is gathered for a formal "family picture" during the Chinese New Year.”

——

Jovana Zhang, the chief designer of New Year, New Chair

During Chinese New Year, many families choose to take a formal "family photo." Every year, family photos capture the traces of time, and behind the photos tell many stories about families. Jovana and Zhang Lei launched the Qingshan Village New Year group Photo campaign in 2018, inviting new and old villagers' families to come to the Rong Design Library of Qingshan Village to take a family photo during the New Year. On that day, the villagers dressed up and the library was full of laughter, so the New Year family photo activity has continued to this day.

The chair is an essential prop in the family photo shooting, so the design team takes the chair as a starting point, hoping to design a chair that can be used during the shooting of the New Year family photo, and hopes that the elaborate chair can also be like a photo to freeze this precious moment and carry their own New Year memories in everyone's heart. The number of five in the New Year has five "blessings" meaning - longevity, wealth, health, good morality, a good death. Lead designer Jovana wanted to gather five old chairs that had been used for a long time in Qingshan Village homes.

In the process of searching for chairs, the design team found many old chairs with traces of time in different families. They have unique shapes belonging to different eras and surface textures generated after repeated use. In conversations with the villagers, the design team harvested the stories of generations behind the chairs that are full of rich emotions.

Many old chairs have outlived their owners. Some chairs are treasures left to their descendants by their ancestors, some chairs have been used for a long time and are not willing to throw away, sewing and repairing continue to use, there are also many beautiful old chairs because they do not meet the modern decoration style, are destroyed during demolition...... One of the baby chairs, because of its specific size, although destined to belong only to children's chairs, but the elders in childhood to use, passed on to the next generation of newborns, the cycle, like blood to continue.

Although the five chairs were ultimately collected from five different families, Jovana believes that each chair represents a character, and when the five chairs are put together, they can create a new family. Therefore, through the shaping of shape, materials and processes, the design makes the chair and the chair have a related part, but at the same time, it can also show their unique temperament characteristics. It is hoped that through new design and conception, the value of these old chairs will be preserved and new life will be given to them.

In the design of the Chinese New Year art installation jointly organized by Maison Margiela and PINWU, Jovana was influenced to some extent by John Galliano's use of humorous and bold ideas and techniques in the design. This is also the design value that PINWU has cherished for a long time.

At the same time, weaving is the eighth material process research topic of the Rong Design Library, because it has been presented in changing forms and endless combinations, and also affects the design expression of the shape of PINWU. Weaving is the method of weaving and weaving, without the need for adhesives, the same or different materials interspersed and overlapping together. A soft yarn can be turned into a solid surface by weaving, and weaving turns an independent individual into a connected community.

Each family is made up of different members, and there are interwoven relationships among family members, which make us more inseparable. As we go through life, it's like we're slowly knitting giant sweaters with our families. Exploring the subtleties of the family, we naturally think of the craft of knitting, and these connections can be strong, unexpected, subtle, ordered or random, and even disordered. The different forms, materials and colors in the design can also be seen as different states and differences between family members.

Ceramic Chair is the more gentle character in the family, she is delicate, gentle and tough, but occasionally fragile side. She is the "mother" who weaves and repairs her broken shell, making her tougher and stronger.

The baby chair is decorated with vivid children's fun, which holds the child high, which is the proof of the continuation of life. At the same time, it also makes the children's curious sight level with other family members, becoming the latest recorder of family memory.

Benches and wooden chairs are always flexibly placed so that families can always snuggle up to each other. The bench symbolizes the head of the family, the father, and warmly invites other family members to sit together and share some intimate moments. But when the person at one end of the chair suddenly gets up and leaves, the person at the other end will feel the corresponding shift in center of gravity or imbalance. The wooden chair is small and exquisite, like "grandma", handy, softly spoken, and always appears in a gentle and elegant gesture.

The design team used recycled fabrics, yarn, leather, rattan, bamboo strips, pulp, cardboard, acrylic paint and other materials to try to make traditional weaving crafts more experimental and forward-looking. The materials of the old chair are hard wood and ceramic. The design team recreates the old chair with softer materials and weaving techniques. The new materials cover the old surface of the chair, giving it new vitality and blessings, telling the story of the old and the new, the past and the future.

In the New Year, Jovana and Zhang Lei's family and those New Year's new "chair" be together to take a family photo and send their expectations and wishes for the New Year.

· Jovana ·

Reality sometimes breaks my dreams, but I try to invent new ones.

· Mango ·

I love the chair my mom made for me,

When I grow up, I will make so many beautiful chairs for my mother!

· Grandma ·

May our family be as tightly knit as this chair.

· Grandpa ·

Wish the rabbit family in peace, the world in peace.

· Zhang Lei ·

Let the past become a memory, and may we continue to weave a wonderful life in the New Year.