‘Amsterdam Guest City’ at Beijing Design Week

(Press release)

13 Sep 2013

‘Amsterdam Guest City’ will be bringing to life ‘Design Goes Dutch’ at this year’s Beijing Design Week. Stretched across the city, ‘must see’ programme elements include Marcel Wanders’ launch of a Stedelijk Museum exhibition at the Capital Museum; Peking Express, a Dutch-Chinese fashion design project, at the Beijing Temple of Confucius & Imperial College Museum; and much more. The City of Amsterdam’s ‘Design Goes Dutch’ programme will run from 26 September until 3 October 2013.

Serving as Amsterdam Guest City’s figurehead at the Beijing Design Week, Dutch Design icon Marcel Wanders, said: “Amsterdam is such a wonderful, creative city, and I am thrilled to represent my hometown as Guest City at this year's Beijing Design Week. The theme 'Design Goes Dutch' addresses the increasing demand in China for innovative and sustainable solutions to the challenges of a globalised world. The city has created a diverse programme which will serve as a platform for the exchange of ideas between Dutch and Chinese designers and businesses, and the development of shared strategies for a sustainable urban future.”

Design Goes Dutch events

The event Towards 2050 will be discussing and developing scenarios and models on how to turn challenges into opportunities for sustainable urban development. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam's exhibition will focus on creatives, including iconic chair designs by Marcel Wanders (from 1995 to the present, including a world première) and five recent projects by Benthem Crouwel Architects. The Chinese fashion designs in Peking Express will showcase a remarkable collaboration between students from the China Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) and the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology (BIFT), produced under the guidance of renowned Dutch fashion designer Alexander van Slobbe. Another fine collaboration is featured in Starting Something, this time between the alumni of the Sandberg Institute, Dutch designers and again students of CAFA. SALON/BJ will also excite in its own right, as it will serve as a platform for design, fashion, art and culture for a number of designers across various locations in the Dashilar neighbourhood. While Made by US, a collaboration with the China Museum of Digital Arts, will showcase an interdisciplinary programme of e-culture, design, architecture and planning. Lastly, nobody should forget the Rubber Duck that will be on display at the Beijing Garden Expo and Summer Palace.

* please see in attachment for Dutch version of this press release.