This week I met Chi Chen in real life. Before I'd met her only online on the Node platform. Chi is a curator and writer in Beijing and New York. Since 2016, she's been working on a big project called Collecting Anxiety, which is about collecting recordings of people talking about their fears and anxieties. In Berlin, Chi and I have been brainstorming about a collaboration in writing. I like Chi's mindset: it has humour and fresh opinions. Just to give you a few examples:
- Art and Drugs
When I was complaining about immersive art and its quest for impact, Chi said it was a bit as if the artists want to mimic the effects of drugs, giving the spectators an all encompassing experience. "Like mushrooms," she laughed.
- Minimalism
Chi told me she'd been to the flea market in Prenzlauerberg. I don't go to the flea market anymore, I tell her. I want to keep things minimal at home. "Ah," she nodded understandingly, "you mean like Muji style? In China, it's known as the brand of 'unsexy arousal'."
- Internships
We're talking about women in the arts who start their own businesses and employ others. How cool is that, we both think, as long, of course, you don't exploit your employees. In New York we call that "slave interns," Chi informed me.
 |
| Chi and I brainstorming |