MIT's first exhibition of work by Yung Ho Chang, head of the Department of Architecture, and his Beijing-based firm, Atelier FCJZ, opens at the Wolk Gallery (Room 7-338) with a reception tomorrow (Feb. 15) at 5:30 p.m.
Chang joined the MIT faculty in 2005. He is internationally acclaimed for a broad range of work, including urban design proposals, large structures for government use, private residences and a number of exhibitions at international art venues, including the Venice Biennale.
"DEVELOP: The Architecture of Yung Ho Chang/Atelier FCJZ" is displayed in three PowerPoint presentations, superimposed with the popular 2002 Hong Kong film noir trilogy, "Wu Jian Dao" ("Infernal Affairs"), which was produced in 2006 in the United States as Martin Scorsese's "The Departed."
According to Chang, the title of the three projections could literarily suggest "infernal construct."
"While symbolically the title may imply our constant struggle," said Chang, "the real purpose of the overlap of architecture and cinema is to place our work in a context, geographically, temporally and culturally, a context that blurs reality and fiction yet is not far from our frantic experience in China. Furthermore, it reveals that our anchoring in basic architecture is ultimately strategic and it is a preparation for more involvement in making the broader contemporary Chinese cultural landscape."
The exhibition will be on view through April 13. Gallery hours are weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 14, 2007 (download PDF).
