From 30th of March to 1st of April 2011 we had the Banyan Workshop with 12 participants, Chinese and Swedish people. The TCG Nordica is a very big space like an factory hall. It was very cold in the space, that makes the working situation difficult, also the asian definition about time… many people came much to late….We asked all people about there experiences and knowledge about the Banyan tree and trees generally. Everybody wrote his ideas on a paper and presented it in front of the group.
Brain storming
After this brain storming we split the people in 4 groups. Fortunately some of the participants spoke Chinese and English language, so every group had one translator. Very often participants of our workshops develope themes about politics enviroment and ecology. Not so much this time here in Kunming. Maybe good luck for us….??? Later we realised: in exactly this time many contemporary art exhibitions in China got closed, journalists and artists were arrested, the most famous example was Ai Weiwei.
On stage with Luo Fei and Alfred Banze
At the end we got 4 good results and made a presentation in the evening of 1st of April.
Group photo with all participants
Sunny Saturday, 2nd of April 2011 The last day in Kunming/China. Now, at the end of our stay, the warm and sunny spring time comes back. We set down the Banyan exhibition and sayed good bye to Luo Fei and Zhu Xiaolin from TCG Nordica with a warm hugh. Later, we visited the Zoo behind our apartment. It was our plan for days. Every morning, we saw the elephants in the morning from our apartment, red colored from the dust of this area.
View from our apartment
The zoo is a park between all the concrete in Kunming and a meeting point for many people. We saw much more people as animals: a lot of grandma´s and grandpa´s with children, couples in love, older people with music instruments playing together, an advertising event, souvenir stalls… Later we red in internet about a terrible flood in the south of Thailand.
3.4.2011 We had to leave in the early morning at 6 am. Jay catched a taxi for us: our lugguage was very heavy, we needed the car it in front of the house. Goat, Jays girlfriend, came down too to say good bye. We were all greatfull for this good time together and happy about continuing our collaboration. And a new project was born during this time…. Later in the morning we arrived at cloudy Bangkok, very unusual for this month. The circle of my 3 month travelling is almost closed. We entered the guesthouse we like so mutch, we went to our favorite restaurant to enjoy the great Thai food, we bought some books for our last holidays.
4.4.2011 Meeting in the German Embassy with Mrs. Tiedt, the culture attache and Prof. Amrit Chusuwan from Silpakorn University, talking about a new project in Bangkok. Mrs. Tiedt will leave Bangkok in June and don´t like to make decisions for the next year. So we have to wait for the following person. In the evening we met Ji and Yin, an artist couple from Nakhom Phatom to prepaire the upcoming project. They sayed, the weather in Thailand during our travelling to China was very strange, cold and rainy. Actually this time is the very hot summer time, without rain or flood. The clima change arrived in Thailand too. How to deal with it as an artist? We make the Banyan Workshops and try to make people more sensitive about nature. We ask people about there experiences with trees and nature. Very often people decide to make a work about enviromental issues.
