Arrow Factory is pleased to present 180 Canvases, an installation by architects Marcella Campa and Stefano Avesani that injects a vibrant color spectrum into the hutong environment. The work uses the existing neighborhood context and Arrow Factory’s previous installation (Void, by Liu Wei) to draw attention to both through radical contrast. 180 Canvases is part of Campa and Avesani’s continued series of hutong interventions entitled Theory of Moments–temporary site-specific installations that engage Beijing neighborhoods currently under demolition. Bold graphics and found materials are integrated into these previously private now exposed public spaces. Campa and Avesani’s works use art, social investigation and research to investigate urban spaces, and address ideas of density, unstructured re-appropriation, gentrification, spatial relationships, property speculation, disappearing communities and identity.

Marcella Campa and Stefano Avesani (www.instanthutong.com) are graduates of the Venice Institute of Architecture, Italy. They have been studying the urban growth of Chinese cities and their transformation since 2003. In 2005 they were awarded the international Archiprix prize in Glasgow for a project concerning historical districts in downtown Beijing and Shanghai and moved to Beijing the same year. Campa was the recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 2010. They have participated in exhibitions in China and abroad. They currently live and work in Beijing.

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