2ND RING 2049 MOBILE THEATER was a Multimedia Installation Project for 2011 Beijing Design Week by OPEN Architecture to showcase one of OPEN’s urban research projects 2ND RING 2049. Two installations were designed and installed at two separated venues.
In The China Millennium Monument, the venue for the opening exhibition, OPEN designed a “Cinema Box” on a mobile metal frame. The Cinema Box had a black chamber in the shape of a miniature cinema, with two 50” LED screens at the back end. The 2ND RING 2049 movie were played continuously across two screens in an interactive fashion. Viewers are drawn to the horizontal opening placed at eye level on the front of the box, where they watch the presentation in a way not unlike the early peep shows. A special VIP window on the side of the box was designed as a tease which indeed drew a lot of interest from viewers.
In Dashilar, OPEN was given a small room in a dilapidated courtyard, surrounded by some abandoned factory buildings. OPEN turned the room into a special family theatre in the old times. The rusty walls and ceiling were painted bright orange to give it a new injection of life. One of the windows was replaced by a plywood box with an old TV embedded. This TV broadcasted to the courtyard. Another old TV was placed on an old cabinet inside the room against one wall. Two wooden benches were placed in front of the TV. Both TVs played the 2ND RING 2049 movie simultaneously, one to the outside, one to the inside. The existing sink in the corner of the room was also painted the same color as the wall, and was used for displaying the exhibition pamphlet. All equipment and furniture used were found on 2nd hand markets in Beijing.
About “2nd Ring 2049”
The 2nd Ring 2049 project is an anticipation of the final transformation of the 2nd Ring into a greenway that houses all of the cultural necessities that Beijing currently lacks. Our contemplation begins by looking at the history of the 2nd Ring, the present conditions of the 2nd Ring, the environmental catastrophe that our world faces, and the future of China as a world leader. From our contemplation we see the most radical transformation as being the most reasonable: Turning the most polluted, congested, dead place in the city, into the most clean, green and alive place in the city.
