Bird's Nest: Herzog and De Meuron in China
by Christoph Schaub, Michael Schindhelm, Switzerland 2008, 88'
SCREENPLAY: Christoph Schaub, Michael Schindhelm   MUSIC: Peter Bräker
  EDITING: Marina Wernli
PHOTOGRAPHY: Stéphane Kulthy, Matthias Kälin, Christoph Schaub   SHOOTING FORMAT: digibeta
  PRODUCTION: T&C Film
SOUND: Martin Witz, Marc von Stürler    

Schermo dell'Arte - Archivio Film
Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte Film Festival 2008

The documentary shows the work in China by the Basle-based star architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron (Tate Modern in London, De Young Museum in San Francisco, among other projects): the Olympic Stadium of Beijing and a district in the town of Jinhua. One is tailored to China’s international appearance; the other caters for the daily needs of the population. The architects, as for their other projects, study and explore local surroundings, culture, and traditions, collaborating, in this occasion, with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei as “cultural interpreter”. The aim of the directors is to show the contradictions emerged by this 4- years building process. The specific architectonic form that gives the stadium his nickname gives us a vivid image of the complex reality of China, the oldest culture of the world, but, at the same time, the most emerging and aggressive economic world power.

Christoph Schaub
Christoph Schaub is a Swiss film director, freelance lecturer for film/video making, member of Videoladen Zurich and contributor for Dschoint Ventschr AG (1988-94). He was artistic director of the ONOMA exhibition at EXPO 2002.

Michael Schindhelm

Michael Schindhelm started his career at the East Berlin Academy of Science. After 1989 he became a theatre director. His first film is from 2003; in 2005 he was appointed general director of the Opera Foundation in Berlin. He has published several novels and essays. He lives and works in Dubai.

Selected Filmography
1999 Die Reisen des Santiago Calatrava 2001 Secret Love; 2006 Young Love

www.tcfilm.ch

[close details]