CLEAR VILLAGE founder, artist and strategy director Thomas Ermacora has been invited as a guest lecturer to the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou to guide and curate the development of a series of novel installations to change public perceptions of the Grand Canal.
The Grand Canal, which is the longest canal in the world and was completed in the early 7th century under the second Sui emperor, almost rivals the Great Wall itself as a historical landmark. Yet it is primarily used for transport nowadays and does not play the role in the public imagination to which its long and rich history entitle it. To alter views and perceptions and support the City of Hangzhou in its goal to have the Canal included in the World Heritage list next year, Ermacora is giving a one-month lecture series as part of the regional regeneration course taught by Professor Chen, Public Arts Director of CAA.
Through twice-weekly 2-hour lectures, Ermacora equips students with the tools of tactical urbanism and supports them in considering questions of concept, location and impact in order to develop installations that have the potential to build new meaning and new relationships towards the Canal. Installations currently being planned range from recording the stories of Hangzhou’s boat bus drivers to transforming disused steps through historical graffiti art. In all cases, they aim to show that public interventions can serve as a vector for wider regeneration and to demonstrate the value of igniting China’s tremendous grass-roots cultural potential, which could prove to be one of the game changers of 21st-century culture.
