Check-in Project

The Check-in project is the brainchild of two Shanghai-based artists, Xi Xi and Lu Jiawei. Their renovation essentially transformed old residential houses not only into bed and breakfasts, but into art installations. The goal of the artists was to shatter preconceived notions that art could only be exhibited in museums and galleries. At the same time, they also wanted to explore the relationship between people and their surroundings objects. They wanted to create art that wasn’t only meant to be experienced visually, but also something physical that people could interact with. Their installation would also be something that their guests could own for twenty-four hours. Descending, and their more recent installation LSD Project, has in effect transformed old residential spaces into unique pieces of art.

Check-in是上海艺术家兮兮和卢佳炜于2015年发起的旧房改造项目。两位艺术家通过以室内艺术装置和民宿相融合的方式，尝试打破艺术画廊和美术馆模式中个人和艺术品之间的传统关系，一方面探讨并引人思考人和周遭物件的关系，另一方面则尝试着为任何普通人提供欣赏并拥有一件艺术品24小时的可能性。《下沉》，加上近期完工的《LSD Project》，这个项目已经完成两处住所改造。

The first Check-in project, Descending, is a white room filled with white styrofoam balls. In the space, there are also white walls, white windows, and white pieces of furniture scattered in a sea of styrofoam. During the day, light falls in through the windows from the tree-lined street outside, illuminating the alabaster white room. The art space is a striking contrast to the bustling metropolis that lies just outside.

Check-in项目的第一个作品，《下沉》，是一个填满白色泡沫球的白色房间。白色的墙壁，白色的门窗，白色的家具散落在白色的泡沫中。光线透过面向绿荫和旧街道的窗户，洒在满目的白色上，形成与窗外繁拥忙碌的大都会截然不同的景象。

LSD Project, the artists’ second piece of work, is similarly also located in an old residential building. The main concept of this project revolves around a peculiar system of lighting. Metallic silver is the main color palette of choice: every single wall, object, and surface is completely wrapped in tinfoil. Custom neon light tubes are hidden along the edges of walls, while other tubes are arranged overhead in a seemingly random arrangement. The multicoloured tubes of light intersect and criss-cross one another, reflecting off the metallic walls, enveloping the entire room in a diffused multichromatic glow.

而另一个作品，《LSD Project》，同样是在老旧居民楼中，却拥有着截然不同的面貌。这是一个以灯光装置为主题的空间。银色是这个空间的基调，所有墙体和可能的物件被贴上了锡箔。定制的彩色灯管交错悬于上方，也有藏在墙角边线上，在反射和漫反射之间，各种色彩的光错综交汇，包裹起整个空间。

Xi Xi graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London with a Masters degree in Design Features. After graduation, she returned to Shanghai and tried her hand in various fields, from photography to fashion design, even operating her own bed and breakfast at one point. Throughout all of that, she never stopped working on her own personal art projects. She worked independently, much like her friend Lu Jiawei, a sculptor and a former classmate at Fudan University. The main issue that this creative duo wanted to confront was the current inevitability of using galleries and museums as mediums when an artist wanted to exhibit their artwork to the public. Xi Xi and Jiawei believe that galleries and museums are rigid environments that have limitations, in the sense that those spaces restrict the level of interaction people can have with the displayed art.

从伦敦大学Goldsmiths的Design Features硕士毕业后，回到上海做过摄影、服装设计、民宿经营的兮兮并未间断过当代艺术创作。与她在复旦大学本科时期就相识的校友，雕塑艺术家卢佳炜一样，他们都是以独立艺术家的身份在进行创作。而画廊作为一个艺术家/艺术品传播媒介的角色，是他们作为艺术家不得不面对的。但是画廊也好，美术馆也罢，都决定了普通人和艺术品之间不可能有过于亲密的接触，或者充足的交流。这正是两位艺术家想去挑战的问题。

Xi Xi has always believed that every individual is the sum of their own experiences. Experiencing new things, and the memories left over from those experiences, are most important. “We wanted to create a space where the artwork is tangible, and the audience is able to interact with it, and experience the artwork and our unique space, but privately”, Xi Xi says. This idea of creating interactive and tangible art was the inspiration for their Check-in project.

兮兮一直认为，一个人是他经历的总和。体验，及其伴随的记忆，都是最为重要的东西。“我们想做这样一个空间：它的作品是真正和大众是发生关系的，让人在保有私密性地去体验作品本身，体验这个空间。”这就是Check-in项目的初衷。

In the future, they hope to be able to collaborate with others who may come from different backgrounds, and to create new spaces with differently styled themes. For Xi Xi and Jiawei, they are open to whom they want to collaborate with, whether they are artists, dancers, hypnotists, philosophers, or even economists. Being able to combine ideas from different disciplines and fields with the goal of ending the notion that art can only be experienced in a public gallery setting is something that the two artists strongly believe in and want to keep pursuing.

在未来，Check-in项目希望有来自不同领域的人可以参与合作，创作具有不同类型行为的住宿空间。艺术家也好，舞蹈团队也好，催眠师也好，哲学家也好，经济学家也好……不同类型的学科和艺术以及居住空间相结合，打破传统的私密体验正是Check-in的艺术家们所期待的。