Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (BCAF) has been supporting and working with new Chinese multi-ethnic folk arts since its inception. In March 2022, BCAF and VOGUE jointly launched the “Preserving Handicrafts” project of the China New Folk Art Series. After nearly half a year of communication, planning and deep collaboration, BCAF invited craftsmen from 8 autonomous regions and provinces across the country to carry out co-creation cooperation with well-known designers at home and abroad.
Through collaborations between domestic and foreign master designers, we continued to promote the development of traditional Chinese crafts and improve the international industry’s understanding and work around Chinese crafts.
Traditional Chinese handicrafts shine like bright stars in the long river of history, and each innovation and development also creates a new “living” history, which not only receives inspiration from tradition, but which also serves as a kind of speculation for the future.
Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (BCAF) has supported the innovation and development of traditional handicrafts nationwide since 2015, and has successively supported the Dulong(also known as “Derung”) ethnic group in Yunnan blanket weaving series, the Hunan linen series, Qinghai Tibetan felt products, Tibetan wool blankets, Fujian lacquered leather goods, Nanjing brocade, Shanxi Shangdangdui brocade, the cross-stitching of the Guizhou Dali Dong ethnic group, the silver jewelry of the Sichuan Liangshan Yi ethnic group, Sichuan Chengdu bamboo weaving, the machete cloth of the Yunnan Jinuo ethnic group, the Xilankapu brocade of the Tujia ethnic group, and other traditional Chinese handicrafts and contemporary design integration innovation.
Creation is not without tradition—without tradition, the foundation of life will be lost. In the same way, tradition cannot be without creation, because without creation tradition loses its vitality. With the continued harshness of the global living environment, and the economic downturn, long-term design and sustainable concepts are becoming an unavoidable trend. Using innovative forms and carriers to present traditions, along with continuous and uninterrupted vitality, is precisely the meaning of “Making the Most of It: Long-Term Vitality.
