China Tujia Brocade Art Museum

Intricate geometric patterns and rich hues distinguish the  woven textiles of China’s Tujia people, who call the Wuling Mountains home in western Hunan. In the nearby city of Zhangjiajie, the new China Tu­jia Bro­cade Mu­seum will be dedicated to the art of Xi­lan Kapu, or Tujia brocade, to celebrate the culture’s distinctive creativity and preserve an endangered craft. In a remarkable architectonic installation called “The Flower of Tujia,” 150,000 meters of red brocade thread creates an awe-inspiring centerpiece for the main space.

Designed by Yi Chen and Muchen Zhang of Beijing-based design studio YI+MU, the artwork spans more than 1,000 square meters along a grid of 20 beams, allowing the fiber to alternately reveal and conceal the geometry of stairwells and windows as one moves around. “The di­a­mond-shape struc­ture in­spired by the iconic pat­tern of the Tu­jia bro­cade is clearly vis­i­ble from all an­gles,” the studio says. Symbolically interpreting the 30-step process of Xi­lan Kapu into a three-dimensional piece, the design unifies and highlights the museum’s interior and sparks a sense of wonder that verges on the spiritual, a key aspect of YI+MU’s philosophy.

The museum building was completed in 2022 and an opening date is yet to be announced. Find more of YI+MU’s projects on the studio’s website.

China Tujia Brocade Art Museum-The Flower of Tujia

_)  Cul­ture is the su­per-ge­netic mem­ory of hu­man be­ings; it pre­serves every­thing from the past.
–Yury Ivanovich Borisov

_)  ​The way Xi­lan Kapu, also known as Tu­jia Bro­cade, makes peo­ple feel is sim­i­lar to that of the Tu­jia di­alect. That is, they are closely con­nected to the rich­ness of the land and daily life. Per­haps more im­por­tantly though, they are both head­ing to­wards ex­tinc­tion if left un­pro­tected.

_)  The main area of the China Tu­jia Bro­cade Mu­seum in Zhangji­a­jie, Hu­nan Province, was com­pleted in 2022. The gi­ant cen­tral in­stal­la­tion, the “Flower of Tu­jia,” is 8m wide, 13m tall, and 8m deep.

It is made by 150,000 me­ters of red bro­cade threads. It reaches all the way from the floor to the ceil­ing, com­pelling peo­ple to come closer and ex­plore this tra­di­tional hand­i­craft that has re­mained silent for thou­sands of years.

_)  The China Tu­jia Bro­cade Mu­seum is ded­i­cated to the Tu­jia bro­cade hand­i­craft, which is con­sid­ered to be part of the coun­try’s na­tional in­tan­gi­ble cul­tural her­itage. Zhangji­a­jie Guaiyaomei Tu­jia Bro­cade asked YI+MU De­sign Of­fice to de­sign the in­te­rior of the mu­seum. It took them four months to com­plete the cen­tral in­stal­la­tion. This col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween Van­cou­ver, Bei­jing, and Zhangji­a­jie is like a flower slowly bloom­ing across time and space.

Central Installation the “Flower of Tujia,”​ Born out of the earth and passion 

_)  For the Tu­jia women who weave these pat­terns, com­plet­ing the more than 30 steps to pro­duce Xi­lan Kapu is like breath­ing. They weave the an­cient Tu­jia peo­ple’s idea of the sun as the fire of life and their burn­ing and peace­ful long­ing for life into the “col­or­ful and vis­i­ble” Xi­lan Kapu. This loom tech­nique has been used for thou­sands of years.

_)  Cre­ated a sym­bolic three-di­men­sional ex­pan­sion of the sin­gle-sided pat­tern in the 14-me­ter-high space. The red bro­cade threads are at­tached and fixed to the frame, which is made of 20 steel bars. The di­a­mond-shape struc­ture in­spired by the iconic pat­tern of the Tu­jia bro­cade is clearly vis­i­ble from all an­gles.

_)  At the in­ter­sec­tion of the black bones and red blood is the in­her­i­tance of the Tu­jia peo­ple, whose fire of life bursts out of the earth. The “Flower of Tu­jia” is bloom­ing, con­nect­ing the prim­i­tive life scat­tered in the depths of time to the col­or­ful and en­er­getic com­mer­cial so­ci­ety.

Spirit of the Venue From Ancient Legends to New Imaginings

_)  The space around the “Flower of Tu­jia” is even more valu­able thanks to the clever com­bi­na­tion of the venue, util­ity, spirit, and artis­tic at­trib­utes.

_)  A ver­ti­cal pas­sage is cre­ated by two steel stair­cases, which are con­nected by two plat­forms lo­cated at the cen­ter of the in­stal­la­tion, bring­ing the stair­cases and the in­stal­la­tion to­gether. The lin­ear struc­ture of the in­dus­trial stair­cases is de­rived from the hexa­gon found in the Xi­lan Kapu pat­tern. It is also used in the hol­low shape of the outer steel struc­ture. When the sub­tle graph­ics emerge and un­fold, the con­tra­dic­tion and ten­sion of the space in­vite new imag­in­ings.

_)  The bot­tom of the stair­cases and the in­stal­la­tion are raised, and the floor is paved in Xi­lan Kapu pat­terns to al­low vis­i­tors to ac­cess the space and sit on the floor. The de­sign also echoes the stilted build­ings of the Tu­jia peo­ple and max­i­mizes the space for the en­trants to ful­fill the spirit of the venue.

_)  Out­side the cen­tral area, the de­sign in­cor­po­rates sim­ple ma­te­ri­als like white oak, tex­tured paint, metal mesh, and ter­razzo. Against the gray-black back­ground, a large num­ber of white spin­dles in­ter­sect with five-color threads across the fa­cade and roof to slightly shield the pe­riph­eral space and di­rect the vi­sual fo­cus to the cen­ter.

_)  It can be seen when tra­vers­ing the space that it is free of showy tech­niques, in­stead fo­cus­ing on a con­cen­trated and pow­er­ful dis­play. Every­thing works to­gether to cre­ate a space with a clear iden­tity, ori­gin, and aim that is tightly con­nected with the land­scape, cul­ture, and spir­i­tual at­trib­utes.

Value of the Space​ Journey upstream and reshape the language

_)  If there is a cur­rent, jour­ney up­stream.
The rise and fall of an in­dus­try is not eas­ily ob­served by the out­side world. Tu­jia bro­cade is no ex­cep­tion. The dili­gence and in­ge­nu­ity of the women who weave the pat­terns is re­as­sur­ing, but there is a gap be­tween tra­di­tional crafts and mod­ern life. The mod­ern lifestyle fa­vors ef­fi­ciency and con­ve­nience, re­gard­less of the de­sign, prac­ti­cal­ity, or mode of op­er­a­tion.

_)  The de­sign fea­tures mod­ern aes­thet­ics and art forms, skill­fully plac­ing tra­di­tional skills in the new space. The in­ter­est, emo­tion, progress, and faith that grow along with art will even­tu­ally re­shape the lan­guage and value of the craft.

_)  The ob­jects dis­played in the mu­seum will be life­less if they are not passed down to fu­ture gen­er­a­tions. We need liv­ing skills. This is also the orig­i­nal as­pi­ra­tion and hope of the client and YI+MU.

_)  “Tu­jia bro­cade, Xi­lan Kapu, beau­ti­ful flo­ral cloth, gor­geous pearl Weave, weave, weave, weave, a golden phoenix flies out of the ta­pes­try”

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