Made in Baishizhou:
UABB Biennale, China 2016

A collaboration with a knitting factory in the urban village of Baishizhou for the UABB Biennale in Shenzhen. The exhibition was a collaborative design process to give the workers in the factory an opportunity to express themselves, their situation and their dreams.

This exhibition, ‘Remake – We make’ was designed and produced through a collaboration with textile workers of M&L factory in Shenzhen and students from Shenzhen University’s Department of Architecture. The exhibition focused on the social and human resources of the factory workers as they have been making fabrics for decades but had little personal relationship to the clothes they mass-produce. By making their own individual textile installation for the exhibition, the factory workers rediscovered their own work through fabrics they make, communicated their own situation and a message that they would like to tell the world. The students became their supporters, empowering them to step out of their comfort zone and express their own opinions. The positive relationships formed during the intense and personal engagement over two weeks between the 11 factory workers and 16 architectural design students inspired several of the students to come back to support the factory after the exhibition ended. The process became a catalyst in building relationships among the factory workers, inspiring some to receive training and engage in other aspects of textile production. The workshop also inspired others to engage with the factory – among these was Design Society, the new design museum in Shenzhen. Design Society partnered with the factory workers and made another exhibition.

Team: Alexander Eriksson Furunes,
Ivar Tutturen & Lucy Bullivant
Partners: dotA architects, Shenzhen University
and M&L knitting factory
Sponsors: DOGA & The Royal Norwegian Consulate
General in Guangzhou