BEIJING, March 20, 2013 (City Weekend) — Luma Lu, a self-described “creative studio of visual arts, technical training and VFX for movies,” is pedaling its Mobile Studio onto the almost exhausting list of things to do on JUE Festival’s 24-hour civic arts event, Bai Ye (White Night) starting at 10pm on Friday, March 22.
The Mobile Studio, an iconic Beijing rickshaw outfitted with electrical wiring, video screens, tablets and a projector, is sure to draw a crowd—then leave it in the dust.
“Luma Lu Mobile Studio is only one of the 24 exhibitions. Therefore, we will have a space especially for it, and people will discover it at a given point,” says Gareth Repton of Luma Lu, staying pretty tight-lipped about specifics.
Without even divulging information on the space for the pop-up exhibition, Repton says, “We are currently preparing the content of it, but all I can say for now is that it is going to make sense with the space where it will be displayed, and that it will be mainly new media, videos, projections on it.”
Inspired by the traveling Mobile Museum, in which the entire exhibition is stored in a small, wooden container that can be folded and unfolded and easily moved, the Mobile Studio is much larger, but more inherently mobile, which makes it perfect for pop-up exhibitions and large umbrella events like Bai Ye.
With all the effort they’ve put into making the exhibit, though, Luma Lu won’t just use it this once. “The objective is to travel with it, around festivals, events in Beijing and maybe elsewhere in China,” Repton says, adding that the content will constantly change.
The mobility also offers Luma Lu the chance to encounter people they probably wouldn’t be able to pull into a museum or a gallery. Repton explains that for people who aren’t regular museum-goers, the scene can seem intimidating but, “if art comes closer to people, you can create a proximity with them and share your ideas.”
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