Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling back to earth

150 151 Children Da Vincis In 2010, I curated ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Peasant da Vincis’, which was exhibited in Shanghai during the World Expo. The exhibition featured the creations of peasant inventors in China, including artisanal aircrafts, submarines and robots. By showcasing the peasants’ courage and individual creativity, the exhibition explored their contributions to China’s urbanisation and modernity, manifesting the hope of a people seeking to live in a just and democratic society. The exhibition then toured throughout Brazil in 2013, showing in Brasília, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Da Vincis do Povo’, which provoked great reaction among the audience. The projects of passion in ‘Da Vincis do Povo’ displayed the faith and courage of the Chinese peasant inventor. While these creations were influenced by the experiences of living in rural Chinese villages, they were also eye-opening and inspiring to people in big cities. I also wanted to underscore the inventors’ creativity and pursuit of personal ambitions to Brazil’s children. To accomplish this, I added the UFOcina workshop to the touring exhibition. The workshop provided children with everyday objects and common art supplies with which they could realise inventions that existed only in their dreams. UFOcina grew into Children Da Vincis , a mobile collection of works created by children and included in the exhibition. As such, the works accumulated as the exhibition travelled to different cities. Children Da Vincis 2013 Installation incorporating children’s inventions, mixed media Collection: The artist Above Installation view, ‘Da Vincis do Povo’, Prédio Histórico dos Correios, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2013 Photograph: Joana França Below Installation view, ‘Da Vincis do Povo’, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2013 Photograph: Wen-You Cai Courtesy: Cai Studio We exhibited the children’s inventions in Children Da Vincis to encourage more children to participate in the workshop. By showing the creations of their peers, the gallery challenged children to break away from the mould — after viewing existing creations the participating child was invited to make something completely different. But this wasn’t a workshop on originality: it aspired to encourage all the children, just like those before them, to believe in their own imaginations and to execute their ideas. In my opinion, building a child’s self- confidence is much more important than fostering creativity. If they don’t have faith in their own ideas, they do not exercise their creativity. The main goal of the workshop was to let the children come to terms with their fears and encourage them to feel the desire and self-assurance to create. As the exhibition toured to Rio de Janeiro, the objective of the workshop expanded to acknowledge and actively incorporate the experience of living in the favelas , or shantytowns, of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro is situated between the mountains and the sea with a coast that stretches over 600 kilometres. Given the unique geography and pleasant climate, the city is a holiday destination for the rest of the world. However, a vast number of residents live in poverty. As a result, they often have no choice but to build unauthorised settlements on steep cliffs. These clusters provide shelter to hundreds of thousands of people, a number too great for the government to remove by force. After building these structures, the inhabitants of these favelas continue to have poor standards of living, particularly because these unlicensed structures are not eligible for the government’s hydropower and infrastructure. The favelas have become a distinct part of Rio de Janeiro’s urban landscape and one of its most intractable social problems. By contrast, Rio de Janeiro’s coastal plains are scattered with many luxurious residences and resorts. Helicopters seen hovering in the sky are often used by the wealthy to take quick ‘strolls’ in the air. I visited the favelas during my first trip to Rio. At the time, the sunset light was shining down and outside each household was a child flying a kite. Because the strong wind from the sea bounces off the hillside and swirls upward, residents of the favelas experience ideal conditions for kite flying, and their kites are able to drift afar. Christ the Redeemer stood on top of the hill with open arms and looked as if he were watching over the kites; meanwhile, cooking smoke curled from favelas and the villas on the plain. This sentimental yet beautiful image left a deep impression on me — these children were not limited by environmental constraints and retained their dreams and innocence. Inspired by this sight, I created Kites in the Night Sky 2013 in which children could decorate their kites with LED lights. Afterwards, we flew kites and dreams in the night sky. Cai Guo-Qiang talking to a local child during Kites in the Night Sky workshop, ‘Da Vincis do Povo’, Nave do Conhecimento, Madureira, 2013 Photograph: Joana França Courtesy: Cai Studio Cai Guo-Qiang watching as local families fly kites during Kites in the Night Sky , ‘Da Vincis do Povo’, Rio de Janeiro, 2013 Photograph: Shu-Wen Lin Courtesy: Cai Studio