Landscape architecture for the Hai River Revitalization in Tianjin, China, 振兴天津海河
The landscape architecture of the Hai River Revitalization Design (completed September 2010) is new and inspiring. I had a long walk along the river from Hexi District to Hedong District to Tianjin Central Railway Station. The early winter weather in Tianjin was sunny and cool, I indulged in the wonderful view of the river embankment, and guessed the old trees were saying: ‘welcome to Tianjin’ while the skyscrapers are telling me that Tianjin is a cosmopolitan city. But when I arrived at the thematic sculpture group near Jiefang Bridge, this ‘dialogue’ between environment and me was terminated. The five pairs of nude Asian ladies and gentlemen kissing, greedily and insanely, struck a strange note in the landscape melody, especially with the famous century-clock on the other side of the river. So the questions are: Why have these Kiss-Sculptures been placed in a in central public open space in Tianjin? Do they symbolise the history, the spirit or the future of Tianjin? If they tell a story for local residents and tourists, could it be about a ‘Blue Revolution’? Were they conceived as new art for the city? Should they be more artistic, abstract and designed? Are they degraded ‘Human Bodies’?
The sculptor (of the group, called the ‘ Romantic Heart-Port’) is unknown.
The landscape architecture is by AECOM( HongKong)
Thank you for an interesting post. The sculpture on the right is a copy or cast of The Kiss by Auguste Rodin (and therefore a European lady, rather than an Asian lady!). I don’t know about the other kiss sculptures in the group but they may have been inspired by Rodin. Wiki explains the sculpture as follows: ‘The sculpture, The Kiss, was originally titled Francesca da Rimini, as it depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman immortalised in Dante’s Inferno (Circle 2, Canto 5) who falls in love with her husband Giovanni Malatesta’s younger brother Paolo. Having fallen in love while reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, the couple are discovered and killed by Francesca’s husband. In the sculpture, the book can be seen in Paolo’s hand. The lovers lips do not actually touch in the sculpture to suggest that they were interrupted and met their demise without their lips ever having touched. When critics first saw the sculpture in 1887, they suggested the less specific title Le Baiser (The Kiss).Rodin indicated that his approach to sculpting women was of homage to them and their bodies, not just submitting to men but as full partners in ardor. The consequent eroticism in the sculpture made it controversial. A bronze version of The Kiss (74 centimetres (29 in) high) was sent for display at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The sculpture was considered unsuitable for general display and relegated to an inner chamber with admission only by personal application.’ But this does not explain why the sculpture has been placed in Tianjin. It could be a mark of respect for Western culture, just as the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park in London is a mark of respect for Eastern culture (‘Pagoda’ is a Chinese version of the Indian word ‘Stupa’). Or it could be a statement that ‘Tianjin is the equal of a European capital’. Or it could be, though I doubt it, an encouragement to a liberal attitude to sexual pleasure. Or it could be that the designers were working to a tight deadline and did not have enough time to think about the symbolic aspects of the sculpture!
Comment by Tom Turner — November 28, 2010 @ 7:11 am
I think the correct answers to the questions are only known by the designers. But here is an article about the Jiefang Bridge, which is quite close to these sculptures. It might be a clue to help find an answer. It is said that “If you were to take a boat trip on the Haihe river, you would likely hear the guide tell you that this bridge, which runs from Tianjin Station to the old British Concession area, was designed by Gustave Eiffel – he of Tower fame – and, as such, it is cherished as the most ‘historic’ bridge in Tianjin”. The sculpture group may have some relationship with the history of the British Concession in Tianjin.
Comment by Tian Yuan — November 28, 2010 @ 8:10 am
Was the sculpture in Tianjin before the Hai River Revitalization?
Comment by Tom Turner — November 28, 2010 @ 8:56 pm
The sculpture development was one part of Hai River Revitalization from 2005. So, it made after the masterplan of Hai River Revitalization.
Comment by Tian Yuan — November 28, 2010 @ 11:33 pm
The English-Chinese garden at the Museum Palace at Wilanow in Poland is an interesting essay in cultural interpretation. [ http://www.wilanow-palac.art.pl/index.php?id=377&menuid=167 ]
Tom can you identify the particularly English characteristics of the garden? Tian Yuan can you identify the particularly Chinese characteristics of the garden?
Comment by Christine — November 29, 2010 @ 2:22 am
It’s a great idea to set questions for Yuan and for me! But le jardin anglo-chinois (the Anglo-Chinese Garden) is a French idea which has never been popular in England. It arose from the theory that English eighteenth century gardens were inspired by Chinese models. The English might very well have drawn inspiration from China if they could have – but no visual information about Chinese gardens was available in Europe at the time.
At Wilanów there is definitely something of the Classical (Augustan) Landscape about the composition of small temples with woods, water and landform – and my belief is that this derives, ultimately, from a shared Chinese and English heritage in Central Asia. I would also say that there is something Chinese about some of the structures at Wilanów.
Comment by Tom Turner — November 29, 2010 @ 7:10 am
Thank you for this interesting question. It does have a guess in China that English Landscape landscape has been influenced by Chinese garden in 18th century, but the evidence from Chinese academic level is unsure. Although there is a book named:China,Mother of Gardens.(Ernest Henry Wilson,1929), it may not very important to find the ” final answer”: whether English garden has been influced by Chinese Garden, or Chinese garden has been influnced by English garden. Because blending of culture ,art and history is good for global progress.
Re Chinese garden characteristics: I think I can also use Tom’s theory about six elements of Garden design to describe our Chinese garden design. Moreover, Chinese garden has a spirit meaning: Combining people and nature. I think it is little similar as ” genius of the place.’
Comment by Tian Yuan — November 30, 2010 @ 12:02 am
Thankyou both. Sometimes I think the differences are almost more important than the similarities…
My understanding of ‘genius of place’ is quite ephermeral. It is almost like a deep intuition about the uniqueness of a particular location (not particularly related to either people or nature but it could be.)
Tian Yuan I think that a spirit meaning of the chinese garden as combining people and nature is a lovely one. Perhaps if a similar expression might be found it might be combining nature and culture. But perhaps that would not adequately express all that is meant by the Chinese saying.
Tom the Augustan landscapes have the quality of ‘majesty’. [And in Poland they take on a vibrancy which is nowhere present in England.] However the Chinese ones have the quality of ‘mystery’. [And in translation something of the lightness and ethereal qualities disappear.]
Maybe it is easier for Tom to see mystery in Chinese landscapes and Yuan to see majesty in Augustan ones?
Comment by Christine — November 30, 2010 @ 6:11 am
I have never been 100% happy with the term ‘Augustan’ in this context and may ditch it when I have the opportunity. One of the problems is the association with Augustus. As your word ‘majesty’ reminds me, he was a king and an emperor and the spirit of England’s ‘Augustan’ gardens was not magisterial.
Re the Imperial gardens of ancient China, I think it is fair to say that the Emperors who made them saw themselves as the link between heaven, nature and culture, so that the gardens (or rather the imperial parks) were symbols of this linkage.
Comment by Tom Turner — November 30, 2010 @ 7:06 am
This may well be so. But what I was meaning to ask was not what was intended to be expressed by the ‘Augustan’ gardens…rather the qualities they convey to ‘other’ eyes. That is why I suggested this would be a perception you would disagree with but Tian Yuan might not.
This is the same for the Monastic gardens of Taoist China to a European sensibility. Consider:
“According to Taoism, in order to have the “happiness” and “long life”, one must follow the Tao, or the law of nature and must harmonize his own rhythm to the pulse of the nature, to the changing of the seasons, to the flow of the things. Taoism, which summoned people back to nature from mundane interests, has greatly influenced the layout of Chinese gardens. Contrasting with formal axial and symmetrical system of classical Chinese architecture, the Chinese garden expresses the formless, indefinable, asymmetry with a curvilinear layout derived from the nature.”
I am not sure I can think of m(any)European gardens concerned with the spiritual rather than the material qualities of ‘happiness’ and ‘longlife’?
Comment by Christine — December 2, 2010 @ 2:57 am
The Taoist monastic tradition, I believe, derived almost entirely from Buddhism – though there had been Daoist hermits since ancient times.
Re the spirituality of European gardens, it rather depends what one includes within the meaning of ‘garden’. I include monastic cloisters and see them as intensely spiritual places, despire their domestic role in the life of a monastery. I look forward to comments from Yuan re what she sees in Augustan gardens.
Comment by Tom Turner — December 2, 2010 @ 10:46 am
Mmm. Maybe a Cisterian monastic tradition would have some of these spiritual qualities. However the aesthetic seems to be more ‘hauntingly austere’ than mysterious.
[ http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG/22/2241/YFHZD00Z.jpg ] Senanque in Provence. Perhaps for Yuan the Cisterian monastery may be more mysterious?
The way of the Cisterian however is to seek ‘God’ and ‘eternal’ life. Consider:
“They frequently emphasized that discovering the truth about the self is always part of the path to encountering the truth about God. Cistercian spirituality thus follows the Benedictine Rule by insisting on humility, but complements this by defining the Cistercian community as a “school of charity” (schola caritatis), a lifestyle in which one must learn to grow simultaneously in the love of God, of neighbor, and of the true self.”
Comment by Christine — December 3, 2010 @ 3:56 am
Could it be that ‘monasticism is monasticism’ wherever it is found? It is an austere approach to uncovering the deep mysteries of death, life and the great American cities.
Comment by Tom Turner — December 3, 2010 @ 7:10 am