Canal Street:

Chinese Tea House

Chief Curator "Canal Street": Klaus Littmann

"Chinese Tea House" Curator: Xiaokun Sunny Qiu

June, 2015

After working with Klaus Littmann on the "Rea Fiction Cinema" tour in China and its first stop in Dongguan, ArtsAgape collaborated with Klaus Littmann on one of his independent projects, "Canal Street" in one of the spaces: Chinese Tea House, in Art Basel, Basel, Swizerland. Rated as the most interesting independent art project in Art Basel by major European media, "Canal Street" will be completed by February 2016, which will take more than half a year. In this one thousand square meter old textile factory in the outskirts of Basel, Littmann has transformed the famous German contemporary artist Franz Burkhardt's European Old Street oil painting into a 3D postmodernist real street, facing the street stands two rows of independent art space, Littmann will continue to choose international artists to participate in each space. The overall design of the entire space was completed by Franz Burkhardt, and each individual space will be completed by individual artists. As an art institution participating in the project, ArtsAgape brings the essence of traditional Chinese culture to this old European street. "Chinese Tea House" presents not only the form of a teahouse, but also the essence of asethetics of the Chinese high culture. It integrates traditional antiques and paintings rich in Chinese spirit, tea ceremony, incense and other Chinese aesthetic extension into the space and conveys the real Chinese spirit, which has a subtle resonance with the spirit of Europe. During Art Basel, "Chinese Tea House" will have Chinese tea ceremony, incense ceremony and audience interactive performance every day.  Under the active recommendation of ArtsAgape, a ceremony of the Minister of Culture of Basel was held on June 17th, 2015 to accept the collection ceremony of Ma Long's landscape handscroll for the Basel Municipal Government.