MAD Architects have combined art and architecture for a public art project at the 2024 Aranya Theatre Festival. 

The project, called City of Time, includes a series of circular layouts made of low-rise walls, creating an exploratory space for events, performances, and exhibitions.

The 2024 Aranya Theatre Festival is currently underway in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, North China. Co-initiated by Liu Chang, Zhu Sha, Zheng Jing, and Chen Minghao, the "Migratory Bird 300" public art project, which invites 300 artists to live, work, and play within a specially constructed sand city for 300 hours, is a highlight of this year's festival. 

It promotes meaningful connections and creative teamwork. The festival dismantles the makeshift city's infrastructure after the 300 hours in order to return the location to its original state.

The Migratory Bird 300 took place at the 2024 Aranya Theatre Festival from June 18th to June 30th. 

After the success of last year's design, MAD Architects has returned to design the "City of Time" for "Migratory Bird 300" this year. MAD's method carefully combines art and architecture to create a dreamy, surreal 300-hour experience.

The 2023 City of Time was intended by MAD to be a single, gated community. The plan for 2024 has changed to incorporate a road that is dotted with separate settlements. 

Image by Aranya Theater Festival

Similar to the growth of ancient city-states, this more dispersed arrangement provides audiences and artists with more areas for interaction and more obvious routes for exploration.

The 2024 City of Time invites visitors to wander freely among the city's numerous settlements, taking in diverse scenes of daily life at different times of the day.

The room is kept open by the low walls that both divide it and help people find their way around. In order to facilitate navigation and help artists and participants find new routes and exits, the design provides visual cues. 

People are incentivized to discover new routes, which not only facilitates exploration but also improves accessibility to the City of Time. Participants and artists interact in this multilayered setting, which inspires creativity. 

A dynamic interplay between those watching and those being watched develops, resulting in a shared experience that encourages participation and connection. 

The distinction between participant and observer is blurred by this mutual observation, which promotes ongoing creativity and active participation while allowing one to grow in step with the city.

The City of Time design by MAD offers a synthesis of human creativity and natural elements. Here, human-shaped sand piles ripple and create organic sculptures, and the rough linen catches the breeze and catches the attention of onlookers. 

Each scene in this one-of-a-kind setting captures a priceless moment in time as nature, space, art, and human behavior are all seamlessly integrated. 

In this collaborative space, artists and audiences are invited to explore and create together to create a seaside utopia that goes beyond conventional artistic boundaries.

Image by Aranya Theater Festival

MAD Architects recently completed an innovation center with a "biomorphic, clover-like green roof" in Beijing. Additionally, the firm shared a construction update for its new museum in Hainan Province, China. Moreover, the studio unveiled design for a new sports center that features an undulating and reflective skin in Shijiazhuang, China.

Project facts

Name: The City of Time
Location: Aranya, China
Date: 2024
Principal Partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano
Design Team: Miao Si, Huang Juntao, Zhang Zhonglin
Collaborators: Aranya Theater Festival, Migratory Birds 300
Aranya Theater Festival Shooting Team: Zaiye studio (Wang Zhen, Wang Yong, Hou Xuefei, Zhao Weiyi, Hu Yiqian), Zhu Shi, Wang Zhe, Liu Jianhui, Yu Yang, Zhao Nan

All images © DONG Image unless otherwise stated. 

> via MAD 

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