Mutual Help Art Lab will be staying in I: project space in Baitasi as the new project Cooperation Lab from June 1 until July 1, 2019 for an one-month residency program. This program not only extends the Cooperation Lab project initiated by N Industry Collective in 2018, but will also be the first cooperation with the residency program of I: project space.

“Zhong Color”: the literal translation of these two words in Chinese indicates winning the lottery During the residency, the first groups of the Cooperation Lab will develop a new project in Baitasi community on the topic of “Color”, which is also the theme of “Zhong Color” project (the literal translation of the two words in Chinese indicates winning the lottery yet “Zhong” itself also means variety). Some of the materials collected in Weigongcun community from the previous project will also be put into use. Geographically, the two communities are not located far from each other, yet multiple factors such as differentiated development paths and inner-city functions have contributed to their different spatial patterns. The residency of Cooperation Lab this time will therefore take on a comparative research perspective. We pay attention to the limitations individuals face because of people’s changing conditions and emotions, different community ecosystems and the boundary of space, while at the same time bear in mind that the everyday life here is cultivated by a shared memory.

The interpretation of the theme “color” is about seizing a special power as readers “read” the “text” of the given community than merely to establish a metaphorical connection to the site. We are outsiders to the local residents, the potential content of the text. We find our way of reading the text by comprehending the rules of the space. Just like what the theme “Zhong Color” connotes, we read and rewrite the “text” using the contradiction between power and stability within the ideological synthesis.

During the residency, Cooperation Lab will extract the key words from the textual relation of the Batasi community through art practice and further reconstruct a combination of specific quantity and variables from this complicated textual relation. This inconsistency between us, the lately joined outsiders, with the community has always been our utmost concern. The relation also reflects the ever-changing micro-ecosystems of different communities of Chinese cities along the urbanization process. What we hope is that a short text based on the comparison of art practice researches in Weigongcun and Batasi communities can be written for public analysis and reference, so that partial sample patterns of various communities will be further exhibited.

The residency program will take the form as a group exhibition opening on June 24, 2019 and last till June 31. By the time, the outcome of Cooperation Lab during its residence will be on view.