… Don’t ask what China can do for you…
but what you can do… for China
Wu Ming

The “made for china” exhibition tackles a theme linked to development.
The aim is to reason, through a design project, about geopolitical change and markets, products and lifestyles brought about by the re-awakening of the sleeping giant.
China’s productive and commercial explosion has upset the east-west economic balance provoking consequences on a geopolitical level that will soon start to have a big effect on our everyday life.
What OPOS would like designers to do is gauge this immense social, cultural and economical change.

So, the idea is to imagine that the huge transformations caused by the Chinese development process lead to more than just a crisis in raw materials and general alarmism in the great capitalist nations that see their economic leadership in danger.
The question that OPOS put to its designers is:
what would happen if we imagined that the 21st century was the Chinese century?
In fact, if we imagine that markets, production and resources are moving eastwards, what happens to those who have to come up with new ideas for the merchandise system?
The theme, therefore, is to come up with design projects for the new Chinese situation, ones that are thought to be or are capable of adapting to this context.

OPOS is asking its designers to reason about the fact that China’s progressive conquest of the economic leadership could be transformed into the conquest of a cultural and aesthetic leadership, or rather that, this time, instead of witnessing a process of cultural imperialism and colonisation from West to East, the process could be reversed from East to West.
Besides Chinese goods, would we also be invaded by Chinese style, culture and idealism?
It is now inevitable and urgent to confront the idea that such a swift shift of the world’s geopolitical and economic centres means that we need to readdress the nature of goods and, therefore, their reference world.

But how do you begin to think Chinese?
Would it be enough, perhaps to just crossbreed our culture with theirs or defend it to the hilt, thinking that this is precisely what they want, namely the legend of a western lifestyle, now entirely globalised, as a unique luxury which to aspire to?
Once again, OPOS does not have any readymade answers but, as always, it is not slow in coming forward when it comes to asking all the right questions.
In fact, OPOS believes, undoubtedly, that the answer to this challenge is also to be found in design projects.

The event was held in the OPOS Gallery Corso Garibaldi 104.

 

CHINESE LOOK
STUDIO X – OSCAR BRITO E LARA RETTONDINI
Orthoptic jewellery
Chinese Look addresses today’s paranoia that sees us westerners just standing there impotent to the imminent advent of a Chinese future. It is a piece of jewellery made out titanium that westerners can wear to take on the most obvious oriental somatic features and flaunt fascinating almond-shaped eyes. Chinese Look is also a sight-correction tool so enabling westerners to look at the world through Chinese eyes and help them to face a hypothetical form of new world order.

DRAGOSTE
ANDREA MEREGALLI AND MADDALENA MERLO
The new Chinese era will, finally, free western countries from the embarrassment of having to add the words “Made in China” to products sold by prestigious labels.
The ostentatiously Chinese wording will actually be something to flaunt. “Dragoste” has conquered the market. This ‘cheap’ label, in itself, is capable of making any garment fashionable: just buy one and stick it on.
Just a few months after being launched, all nostalgia has gone for the crocodiles as they slowly fade into the background.

TRIBACCHETTA | CUTTLERY CROSSING-CULTURE
GIANMARIA SFORZA
A tool for everyday use but revolutionary,
new for eastern and easier to use for westerners.
A design that crosses cultures and rituals,
popular, economic and innovative.

CHINA PAK
MIKI ASTORI E LINDA BIGATTI
GRAPHIC: SIMONE SCARSELLINI
Dispenser-pack containing 50 pairs of disposable chopsticks. It can also be hung from the kitchen utensil rack just like tinfoil or cling film. The packaging wrapped around every individual acts as an indispensable stand for the chopsticks.

B-SIDE
ALESSANDRO BUSANA
Disposable fork/chopsticks.
From fast food counters to tables at your local fete, B-SIDE is a new object, the coming-together of different cultures. It is basically is a tool that has two uses: one side for eating in keeping with western traditions, the other in line with eastern culture.
It not only saves you any embarrassment at the table, but also shows that you have an open mind when it comes to new and exciting lifestyles.

CUTLERY “ORI-OCI”
CARLO CONTIN
The culture of the table and food is one of the most well-rooted and distinguishing elements of any country or even entire geographical areas.
ORI-OCI is the coming-together of different worlds in a melting pot of table utensils “borrowed” from different cultures.
ORI-OCI is a product that brings Eastern and Western traditions together that are just so varied.

YELLOW
LEFTLOFT
The Chinese economic predominance not only creates psychological subjection but also imposes an inevitable and obvious change in aesthetic canons.
Giallo is a brand that sells products for women with the launch of a range of beauty products and items of clothing that help to redeem the western woman, adapting her to the new canons of oriental beauty.

CHINA
99IC AND AAPA ARCHITETTI ASSOCIATI
“CHINA” – stainless steel with chemical
milling – 21 x 10 cm.
A stencil for the sole universal language in the West. A politically incorrect reflection that wipes out the last western stronghold, spontaneously handing the “brand”, a symbol of prestigious traditions and a never-ending source of added value, over to China.

MEMOLEE
ANDREA MEREGALLI AND MADDALENA MERLO
A card game.
Identifying, remembering and then, once again, finding a matching pair.
It helps your eyesight, improves your memory and just goes to show that Chinese people do not all look the same.

THE MANDARIN
JOEVELLUTO
Stickers for the members of “il Mandarino”, a real “association” consisting of Chinese people, aimed at Chinese immigrants living in Italy. It is a fundamental point of reference, a form of back-up for those Orientals who decide to move to Italy, so helping them to feel understood, protected and assisted. A politically incorrect reflection on the considerable increase of the migratory flow of the eastern population towards the west: so, why not have someone who directly pulls the strings of the host country, an entity that deals with the flow and “documents” the numbers?

MAGNA ITALIA
IM BAU DISSOCIATI: LORENZO AURELI, LUCA “BOLLET” BORTOLOTTI, FRANCESCO RICCI
Chocolate miniatures of all the main Italian monuments. Holiday souvenirs for Chinese tourists visiting Italy, to take home for family and friends as a reminder of this beautiful country. Looking at a famous monument and then eating it accentuates the cannibalistic, conquistador spirit that lies in every human being.
With irony, a taste of kitsch and crazy desperation on seeing how the world is destroying itself.

FUCK IN ITALY
IM BAU DISSOCIATI: LORENZO AURELI, LUCA “BOLLET” BORTOLOTTI, FRANCESCO RICCI
Condoms screen-printed with large monumental towers, architectural emblems of Italy’s phallocatric culture. The Tower of Pisa, St. Mark’s bell tower in Venice and the Mole Antonelliana in Turin are all examples which, when getting an erection, could be a way for them, whoever they may be, to get their own back on us.

SOFT ACUPUNCTURE
SAMUEL ACCOCEBERRY
Soft acupuncture for the demographic control program.
A “Made for China” dildo, made for the Chinese. An ironic object that acts as back-up for demo-graphic control, a very serious problem in China. The object is a mix of traditional culture references and archetypes that are typically European. A reactive object used as an aid for sexual liberation, freedom of choice and expression.

CHUCHOTAGE
LUCA NICHETTO & MARCO ZITO
As kids, the first example of “self-made technological” communication was a phone based on two plastic cups joined together by a piece of string. “Chuchotage” is a simultaneous translation method whispered in a person’s ear. The two “cups” pick up the dialogue and then simultaneously translate it into the language of both users.
The project is aimed at creating the interface, leading to an action and a form of behaviour.

TAS’CHINA
FRANCESCA DEGIORGI
Tas’china is an outfit for cups. A felt jacket, wrapped around a simple disposable cup, keeps it warm and gives off heat.
A looped strip of felt creates a hollow space for the hand, so keeping it warm and ensuring a firm grip in place of the classic handle. Tas’china befits a dynamic yet unrushed drinking style.
A spin-off of the decoration on bone-china style ceramic, the classic ornamental patterns have been kept but the support is different: the felt soaks up the ink and lets it expand, shading the contours and updating the result.
In collaboration with Francesco Rovaldi.

CLONED IN CHINA
CARLO FRANZATO, ROBERTO GALISAI AND ODOARDO FIORAVANTI
Classic objects ‘borrowed’ from Chinese culture that are divided up, by mitosis, into two identical specimens, just like cells. A range of objects which, in the third dimension, represent the genetic multiplication of cloned products which is something that happens every day in China.

TWIST & TASTE | SPIRAL DISH
GIANMARIA SFORZA
A saucer to keep between index and thumb, for aperitifs fast, in feet, of oriental food but not only.
In the center, the seasoning,
along the edge several small tastings.
Mixed with pleasure, the condiment runs along the spiral to the ends of the dish,
seasoning food.