The old Yangshuo sugar factory in 1969 was transformed into a new art and cultural space. How did the sugar house evolve?

In June 2006, Yang Xiaodong and his brother were traveling by car through Yangshuo and passed the former site of a local sugar factory. Inexplicably, he remembered the scene in Tarkovsky's film "Nostalgia", and with a sudden thought, he took down the old factory and transformed it into a famous sugar shack.

In November 2020, Peking University professor Dai Jinhua came to Sugar House to give a lecture on Tarkovsky's "Nostalgia". This lecture titled "The Poetry of Images" attracted many audiences from all over the world, including Zhou Rong, a professor at the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University, Li Honggu, editor-in-chief of Sanlian Life Weekly, curator Ou Ning, filmmaker Ye Jing, cellist Song Zhao, Folk musician Xiaojuan & valley residents, radio host Chunxiao, architect Dong Gong, architect Guo Liaohui, etc. were all present.

Dai Jinhua’s lecture was part of the “Tanghuo Art Festival” that lasted for two months. Since October 31, 2020, a variety of art and cultural activities have been held here, from lectures, photography exhibitions, post-rock specials, folk nights to mountain three-dimensional projection art exhibitions, until the climax on New Year's Eve on December 31 ——Burning the fire pit means getting rid of the old and welcoming the new, and praying for the new year.

After half a century of ups and downs, this old sugar factory from 1969 has been transformed into the most popular art and cultural space in Yangshuo.

Sugar House

How the Sugar House was made

In Yangshuo, Guilin, Guangxi, there once was a very popular sugar factory, facing the Li River and the mountains. surround.

The sugar factory covers an area of ??30,000 square meters and was put into operation in 1969, with a daily output of more than 200 tons. More than 200 workers in the factory work three shifts every day, working enthusiastically, and there is also a lot of traffic around the sugar factory.

At that time, sugar was a commodity in short supply, a favorite of children, and a tonic for pregnant women. As a pioneer and model of socialist construction, the sugar factory has always made the people of Yangshuo proud.

Thirty years have passed, the national economy has taken off, imported goods have surged, and the ancient squeezing techniques of sugar factories have no longer adapted to the needs of the times. In 1998, the government stopped large-scale operations of sugar factories in order to protect local water resources.

Sugar Factory

The Sugar Factory has withdrawn from the stage of history, but the story continues.

Yang Xiaodong met the sugar factory in 2006. When traveling by car with my brother and passing by a sugar factory, they saw a large chimney from a distance, heading straight to the Li River, and stopped by an old truss. “It had just rained that day, and when I looked back, I saw the reflection of the old building in the water. I was shocked."

This scene reminded Yang Xiaodong of the last scene in Tarkovsky's film "Nostalgia": the protagonist is sitting in an abandoned Gothic church in Italy, in front of him. There is a puddle of water, and the Russian hometown is reflected in the water. Mother, wife, and children are coming towards me.

When he first watched the movie, Yang Xiaodong was so shocked by the scene that he even cut off the film for a few minutes. Later, he even went to Siena in the Tuscany region of Italy to search for churches in the movie based on pictures.

"It was the sugar factory that chose us." Yang Xiaodong is a hotel enthusiast. At that moment, he found that the sugar factory had the qualities to become a good hotel and decided to buy it. At that time, many factories along the Li River were waiting to be demolished. With the efforts of Yang Xiaodong and others, the sugar factory was rescued because of its unique architectural style and the magnificent surrounding mountains and rivers.

Old Buildings

In 2007, the designer Zhao Chongxin, who had renovated the 1933 Old Factory in Shanghai, came to the sugar factory and started to restore the building that was on the verge of collapse based on the design plan of restoring the old building. , the disappeared old building, like a craftsman carefully carving this huge work of art.

From the water pump room, trusses, and large chimneys to the pressing workshop, large boiler room, small boiler room, and refining workshop, the production process of the sugar factory has been completely preserved and transformed into a new space. From "Keep the motherland in mind, look at the world" to "hardship, struggle, thrift, and nation building", the slogans engraved with the mark of the times on the outer walls of the sugar factory have also been maintained intact.

"The private industrial buildings are so beautiful! We keep the old buildings, but it is actually more expensive and takes longer than building new buildings." The restoration of the old buildings lasted eight years.

Yang Xiaodong remembers that when they were repairing the roof, because they had no experience, they purchased a batch of new wood from the mountains and waited for three years just to dry it until it no longer deformed.

The old building is preserved, and the soul of the sugar house is still there. Until now, locals are still used to calling this place Sugar Factory, and the bus stop sign across the road still says Sugar Factory Station.

Old Building

In 2013, based on Zhao Chongxin’s concept, designer Dong Gong added new buildings to the periphery of the old building to complete the main guest room building, the villa area guest room building and the fitness room. Design of centres, spas and landscape pools.

People who are familiar with Aranya will be familiar with Dong Gong. The local Internet celebrity landmarks - Lonely Library and Aranya Auditorium are all designed by this designer. When he received the invitation to design the sugar house, it was earlier than Anaya.

New Building

When designing a new building, Dong Gong always takes the old building as the core, letting the main guest room building and the guest room building in the villa area form an encirclement to surround the old building.

In order to echo the old building, the facade of the main guest room building is made of grainy wood grain fair-faced concrete, and a pitched roof is also designed; in order to echo the style of folk houses in northern Guangxi, a The zigzag tile wall looks like a hollow, exquisite and transparent handicraft from a distance; in order to echo the surrounding karst landforms, three bamboo-structured caves were specially "digged" in the main guest room building, instantly making this long building agile. , become transparent.

Dong Gong also built three landscape pools to bring the surrounding mountains indoors - the mountains are reflected in the water, and even indoors, you feel as if you are in the mountains and rivers.

As the origin of the entire sugar house, the original abandoned trusses were transformed into a swimming pool. Looking up, it looks similar to the church in "Nostalgia".

"Nostalgia"

Swimming Pool

In July 2017, the Sugar House opened. In 2018, Dong Gong brought the Sugar House to the Venice Architecture Biennale. Perfectly integrating the beauty of nature, architecture and imperfection, Sugar House quickly became popular in the design circle.

In January 2018, supermodel Du Juan came to Sugar House, went boating on the Li River, walked in the mountains, and took a series of fashion blockbusters for the magazine "Dossier". In January 2019, at the Ahead Global International Hotel Design Awards, Sugar House defeated HOSHINOYA Tokyo, which also participated in the competition, and won the "Best Resort Hotel" and the "Global Ultimate Award". In July 2019, the French architectural professional magazine "A'A" used the Sugar House as its cover, and the French title directly stated that "the fundamental role of architecture is to discover and reveal the spirit of a world."

The British architectural professional book "PHAIDON", the German architectural professional magazine "DETAIL", the Italian architectural design magazine "CASABELLA"... The sugar house has appeared on the cover of architecture, design and lifestyle magazines. It is no longer new to him, but winning awards frequently is a complete surprise for Yang Xiaodong.

"All the efforts are worth it. Others may not be able to do it after more than three years, but we spent twelve years from beginning to end. When sailing, others can jump, but you can't. "The boat is yours! A miracle happened in the end." Yang Xiaodong admitted that many international award judges have never been to the Sugar House and are often moved by a few photos or a video.

The sugar house with history and stories has become a landmark building in Yangshuo. Nowadays, the nostalgia is blowing, attracting waves of people to check in. It has a great influence on northern Guangxi and even the entire Guangxi. Oriental.

Because of the success of the sugar house, Yang Xiaodong even got the nickname "Factory Director". Old factories in Guangxi invited him to renovate them. In two years, he visited factories in various places and saw no less than 40 or 50 factories. indivual.

How did the Art Festival come about?

In addition to being a venture capitalist, Yang Xiaodong is also a standard literary young man.

In 2000, because he liked large-format photography, he went to the Beijing Film Academy to study photography with Feng Jianguo. Teacher Feng said that good photography should be learned from movies. He took the opportunity to learn about many art films and left an impression on him. The most profound one is Tarkovsky's "Nostalgia".

Yang Xiaodong is a travel enthusiast. Later, he changed his travel ideas and began to travel following movie scenes.

In the beginning, he would bring his own photography equipment. The tripod and camera weighed 25 kilograms in total. He was fined several times and he never dared to take the equipment abroad again.

"A Brief Chronicle of Old Films in Sugar House"

The seeds of literature and art have been planted long ago. Therefore, after the advent of the Sugar House, in addition to daily functional areas, many artistic and cultural spaces were also opened up.

For example, there are three installations displayed in the lobby, which respond to the landscape of Guilin and dialogue with the old sugar factory and new buildings respectively. They were customized by the young sculpture artist Wu Wei.

The gallery displays Liu Chuanhong’s series of paintings "A Brief Record of Old Photos of the Sugar House". The artist fictionalized Liu Shiqiao, a character from the Republic of China, and recorded from the perspective of a diary how he started building a sugar house after returning from studying abroad. Factory family story. These diaries look just like old photos. Using fictional characters to tell history makes history fun and not so heavy.

In the screening room, "Sanjie Liu" will be shown at 3 p.m. every day, and "Nostalgia" will be shown at 8 p.m. every day: the former was filmed in 1961 and was shot in Yangshuo. It is a well-known folklore, scenery and music feature film in China; The latter was taken in 1983. It is the original intention of the Sugar House and can help every visitor understand the origin of the Sugar House.

In July 2020, with conscious planning, Sugar House has a new art section, with performances, exhibitions, poetry and other activities coming one after another. For the first performance in July, 1969 Bar welcomed singer Chace, guitarist Xiao Jun, and drummer An Yu. The three big boys had a great time. At that time, the second season of "Summer of the Band" had not yet aired, and they had not yet become popular on the Internet as the band Mandarin.

As art and cultural activities become more and more intensive, the "Sugar Fire Art Festival" came into being and will last from October to December 2020.

Dai Jinhua

"Movies are the greatest artistic legacy left to mankind in the 20th century, and in this legacy, Tarkovsky is the diamond in the crown. Throughout his life, If you haven’t met Tarkovsky once, that’s your shortcoming.” In November 2020, Dai Jinhua’s lecture set off a small climax. She analyzed many important scenes in the movie “Nostalgia”, including with Sugar. A church similar to a swimming pool "seems to be covered in a hollow cement frame shell, which is the most important styling feature of Tarkovsky's films."

Tarkovsky is recognized as " "Film Poet", "Nostalgia" filmed in his later years was highly poetic and the threshold was very high. "What I didn't understand in the past 20 years, I understood in just one or two sentences from Teacher Dai." Yang Xiaodong remembered that the audience was all present on the day of the lecture. Big names in the literary and art world, this is the attraction of literature and art.

Dai Jinhua, folk musician Xiaojuan & valley resident, cellist Song Zhao, etc.

Folk musician Xiaojuan & valley resident, cellist Song Zhao also came : They played side by side at the 1969 Bar; they went boating on the Li River and sang songs with the mountains and rivers as the backdrop; they strolled on the stone steps of Stone City, humming folk songs and playing the cello. The old days of Stone City seemed to be hidden in the moving sound of the piano. In the story, accompanied by the sound of the piano, Dai Jinhua walked out from behind the stone wall and expressed his thoughts.

"Tibetan Fragrance"

In December 2020, Feng Jianguo, who has become a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University, also came to Tangshe to open a large-format photography exhibition "Tibetan Fragrance".

Feng Jianguo was the first artist to bring overseas academic large-format photography tutorials back to China. Around 2000, he carried an old and heavy camera and went to Tibet to pursue his dreams and make pilgrimages to the borders and snowy areas. He framed a large number of gelatin silver photos in large formats. This exhibition displays nearly twenty of them. work.

"Swimming against the current"

Also in December 2020, Liu Jiayu, a "post-90s" artist who graduated from the Royal College of Art, was on the exposed rock wall of Tangshe Karst Garden , created a dream of "going upstream". This is a three-dimensional projection art work on the mountain. The distant projection hits the rock wall, like a flowing water floating on it.

Liu Jiayu came to the Sugar House for the first time at the end of July 2020. After returning to the room, she suddenly discovered that the rock wall was facing the balcony, illuminated by a light beam of white light in the dark, as if she could see water flowing. At that moment, she was inspired and intuitively felt that this was the new work she wanted to do.

After actually doing it, I discovered that the rock wall is eight to nine hundred square meters, and the projection needs to travel a hundred meters to reach the top. After nearly half a year of remote work with the London technical team, Liu Jiayu finally achieved "swimming against the current" with six 28,000-lumen high-definition projectors.

"Bonfire Folk Night"

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve, folk musician Chen Fei "wandered" to the Sugar House and performed two "Bonfire Folk Nights". Playing the bass and drummer, he sang "Zhan Qing", "Amber" and "White Horse"...

In front of him is the blue swimming pool, behind him is the quiet Li River, fireworks in the sky, and next to it is the burning There was a prosperous bonfire, and the audience either roasted sweet potatoes around the bonfire, or performed a lively bamboo pole dance... Having held so many concerts at home and abroad, this was the first time for Chen Fei to face such a pyrotechnic performance. Even though his hands were frozen, he could not help but sigh, "The environment is so beautiful and so fun!"

"Wood Fire Pond"

The long-standing fire pond culture In ethnic minority villages throughout the southwest region, people can not only keep warm by the stove, but also use it to offer sacrifices to gods and pray for peace and prosperity. On New Year's Eve, architect Guo Liaohui's custom-made installation "Wooden Fire Pond" for the Sugar House ignited a raging fire after standing in the wind for two months. People bid farewell to 2020 and entered 2021 in the scorching flames. .

"This is a temporary building, but I don't want it to be as exquisite as a gift box. It still needs to be able to connect with the surrounding environment." Guo Liaohui finally designed a light, abstract, full of bones. The firepit device: three groups of wooden squares stacked up and down form a vertical skeleton; three groups of black linen "skirts" block the main structure, looking from a distance like cedar trees, like a shrunken roof, or like an oversized umbrella; The three-story roof provides a sheltered space beneath the wooden structure, where people can sit on the ground around a campfire.

"An installation is to a place, just like a building is to a city." After watching "Into the Wood Fire Pond", architect Dong Gong lamented the importance of the installation.

"It is meaningful for people with different visions and roles to gather in such a land where art has accumulated, and to explore the characteristics of this site from their respective artistic perspectives." Guo Liaohui commented " Sugar Fire Art Festival". After visiting museums and art galleries in Europe, Feng Jianguo lamented that the vitality of art is the most enduring. Only art can be passed down from generation to generation and nourish the spiritual world of future generations. This is also the significance of the "Tanghuo Art Festival".

Although it is still in the exploratory stage, Yang Xiaodong has decided to fix the "Sugar Fire Art Festival" and hold it from October to December every year, creating a "local" art festival that "many People come to Yangshuo to see the mountains and rivers, and after seeing the mountains and rivers, they can also come to the Tang House to listen to a concert and see an exhibition."

Nowadays, more and more musicians will bring Tang when they tour in the south. Sugar House is one of the stops, and Sugar House’s daily performances have been scheduled until June 2021.

Sugar House even has a "residency program" for artists: when artists come, they create when they are inspired. If there is no inspiration, there will be no force. Music, dance, sound, installation, multimedia... Yang Xiaodong is not exclusive and tolerant of any form of art. "There are mountains, water, and old buildings here. There are many things to draw from."

Just like Liu Jiayu, her projection art is instant, fleeting, and cannot be collected. When Yang Xiaodong invited her, he didn't know whether she would have inspiration or creative results. As a result, she made the decision to "swim upstream" and caught her eye, "It's a surprise to me that one person out of a thousand people can give back."

Among the landscapes and buildings, Sugar House is using interesting arts and cultural activities to activate the lives of local people.

Proofreading: Ding Xiao