Architect Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects, designed “The City of Time" to house the Aranya Theater Festival’s Migratory Birds 300 residency program. The Aranya Theater Festival is the first seaside theater festival in China. The event takes place in Beidaihe, a coastal community and district of Qinhuangdao, a city in northern Hebei, China.
A metaphor for avian migration, Migratory Birds 300 is the centerpiece of the Aranya Theater Festival. It is described as “the most romantic, imaginative, and polyphonic of the Aranya Theater Festival programs.” First introduced in 2021 by Director Liu Chang, Migratory Birds 300 is an immersive 300-hour artist residency program that brings together 300 creators from diverse fields and backgrounds.
From 12–25 June 2023, Ma Yansong’s “The City of Time” hosted 300 artists, 131 group works, and 194 individual works for the Migratory Birds 300 residency. The program included a mix of shows, installations, sculptures, body art, performance art, paintings, and videos.
Ma Yansong designed a temporary, demountable maze-like structure to house “The City of Time”. The large, open oval structure consists of a range of sandy spaces. Separated by walls, each space hosts a different artwork or event and is entered via a small opening; several of the spaces are covered with tented pavilion-style roofs. On one geometric tent-like structure, a large digital clock counted down the residency’s 300 hours. “‘The City of Time' dissolves after 300 hours,” says Yansong. “Revolving around an axis perpendicular to the sea, it offers a spiritual roost for creators.”
The 2023 Aranya Theater Festival focused on themes that included environmental protection and sustainable development. The festival’s approach is both artistic and philosophical in nature: as an event, it explores the art of life, the public role of art, and the social topics art can tackle. “In real cities, the need for functionality suffocates spiritual spaces,” says Yansong. “Building a fanciful city by the sea allows the substance of theatre and art to breathe natural life into this space.” He continues: “Taking flight and transcending reality, it is a place dedicated to time, human behavior, and nature. [It inspires] contemplation on our relationships with ourselves and the world.”
The Migratory Birds 300 residency promotes novel cooperation between previously unacquainted artists. It encourages a diverse group of creative minds to test the boundaries of their work and complete innovative group works.
