The gift exercise / Invitation 5: Xintiandi, Shanghai

In The gift exercise / Invitation 5, Willimann/Arai explore interpenetrations of private and public, digital and analogue spaces.

Digital communication technologies make it possible to establish relationships and communication across large geographical, political and linguistic distances and thus to overcome boundaries of the analogue world. At the same time, they open up new potentials for misunderstandings and challenge notions of privacy.

During one week, Willimann/Arai embroider QR-codes of their personal WeChat* account with silk-thread** in the public space of the local Shikumen***. By scanning the QR- codes, the locals can connect and communicate with the artists through the integrated translation-App of WeChat. Encounters in the analoge world are unique – and so are the QR-codes which WeChat generates for every friendship invitation. Willimann/Arai emphasize this uniqueness by adding the value of an ancient and time-consuming craft.


*WeChat, China’s so called Super-App is chat service, social media, means of payment and translation program in one. Paying, offering, ordering and sharing happens via QR-codes, which serve as interfaces between the digital and the analog reality. WeChat is infamous for being monitored and censored by the Chinese government.

**According to Yuán, a concept from Chinese folk religion, silk thread is a metaphor for communication and fateful encounters.

***Shikumen are densely populated neighbourhoods 6. which have been emerging during Shanghai’s colonial
times, synthesizing European and Chinese elements of architecture.