Our Museum Of Failure debut in Asia is in Shanghai. It’s so interesting to see how our exhibit designers and promoters at our SEE China office execute things in a totally different landscape. In the world of Large scale art exhibits, we go really large in China but not how you may think…
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In China, production of exhibit sets can happen a lot faster than in America. Their local production allows for temporary structures to be set up very cost-effectively and as a culture, they are already forced to think about how to maximize space at every corner.
The result is a very efficiently produced exhibit space with a quick set up & tear down. One that is not in the least built to last, but built to wow. LED lights line the showcased objects in what looks like a surreal neon world where everything is very precisely measured.
As a culture, Chinese view failure much differently. The actual Chinese symbol for FAILURE is a combination of Fear & Opportunity. That tells us a lot. It tells us that as a wise culture, they have embraced failure a long time ago as a stepping stone to success more than their Western counterparts.
When we launched in Los Angeles, our slogan was Come Fail with Us, which feels a lot safer than BE The Failure, our Shanghai fans are a lot more ready to FAIL in stand alone.
What can we learn about producing exhibit spaces from China? Don’t be afraid of low-cost labor and material, the art after all is temporary. Instead of spend $ on quality paint, lighting, or raw material like wood – spend in on creativity and concept work because that’s what fans will photograph in the end. With a digital media culture that we can learn from, we have scaled our selfie-ops to be Chinafied for all our exhibits to come. When it comes to snap-worthy-moments, they get it!
