In cooperation with the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) and Zcontemporary, the Chinese subsidiary of German heating technology manufacturer Viessmann initiated a pioneering art project to explore the dialogue between corporate design and art in China.

“Embedded Creation” brings together the individual artists Miika Benedetti, Ingo Bulla, Chen Kun, Feng Lianghong, Wendy Hack, Hu Qinwu, Hu Shenping, Li Gang, Jeffrey Stephen Miller & Thomas Schmidt and Yang Liming specialized and acknowledged in various fields as ceramics, photography, video art, painting, sculpture and installation – and Viessmann heating systems. Cultural antipodes between West and East influence this endeavor and cast a new light on the metamorphosis of a technical product into an abstract piece of art and an original artistic idea into corporate design respectively.

The intercultural context reveals that values like quality, sustainability and reliability may be represented by a multitude of symbols, icons and forms of expression – varying e.g. due to differing embedding in local cultural environments –, but nevertheless in their underlying meaning may be understood as universal after all.

Synthesis on a sustainable level

Defining identity in all its occurrences is a perpetual subject of actuality and significance. China’s cultural tradition inhabits one of the world’s oldest holistic systems of classifying and categorizing phenomena of all types. Namely the “Five Elements System” or wu xing where e.g. shapes relate to colors and the elements wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The roots lie in the heritage, prospect may be experienced in the process of re-traditionalization.

The dialogue between corporate design and art exposes a synthesis on a sustainable level: the creation of unique and distinguished awareness. Thus, specifically and strategically planned corporate design not only contributes to forming identity, it is pivotal for its strength. How you depict yourself determines how you are seen and experienced.

Pioneering corporate design

The corporate design at Viessmann has its origins already in the 1960s, when conceptual artist Anton Stankowski laid the foundations: “Concentration through omission” was and still remains an essential guideline. Viessmann has continued its close exchange with reputable designers – Hans Gugelot, Karl Duschek and Andreas Haug to name but a few – ever since. As a result Viessmann heating systems were the first to introduce “design” and “color” into the boiler room in the form of the new standard color “Vitorange” – an entrepreneurial pioneer and avant-garde achievement regarding the fact that prior to that boilers were gray or industrial green. Today, the defining colors of the Viessmann product range are silver and orange. The first one reflecting clarity, quality and innovation, the second symbolizing warmth – uniting innovation and tradition.

Corporate design and art permeate and complement each other being both source and essence. As pioneer undertaking “Embedded Creation” may be understood as inspiration to follow, a dialogue started whose continuation lives from its ongoing exploration.

Miika Benedetti approaches the project and transformation of a gas fired wall-hung boiler in a spiritual way. Like a shaman he employs the duality of the technology and the spiritual world to evoke a mystical, preternatural and nearly divine experience.

Chen Kun covers vacuum solar tubes, an icon for sun and warmth, with lofty shimmering and seemingly fleeting lines of color to resemble nerves or blood vessels – the lines of life.

In his large-format diptych painting, Feng Lianghong places an oil fired cast iron boiler into an endless ethereal space. Like two majestic god-like creatures and complementing opposites the components of the boiler’s combustion chamber float in an undefined translucent air, the objects are displaced in a surreal environment.

German photographer, painter and installation artist Wendy Hack recomposes parts of a wall-hung boiler into a kinetic mobile artwork. Playing with opposite physical states the installation rediscovers and enables a new reflection on the individuality of technological components and their aesthetics.

Hu Qinwu focuses on the aspect of elegance and minimalistic principles integrating traditional Ming style furniture into a gas fired wall-hung boiler, corresponding to the core principle of Western Bauhaus design: "form follows function".

Hu Shenping presents an installation consisting of a traditional South-Chinese scholar’s stone or gongshi with LED illumination and Viessmann logos to contemplate on the duality of tradition and innovation as guiding philosophy.

Li Gang experiments in his art with the objet trouvé – the “found object”. Inspired by the shape of a solar collector's header, he reconstructed this component into a musical string instrument resembling the traditional Chinese guqin. In Li Gang‘s second artwork especially two burner gauzes catch the attention as they are transformed into eyes of a bee sitting on a podium that previously was a hot water storage tank. The entire sculpture is at the same time a contradiction and a combination of nature and technology.

The ceramic artist pair Jeffrey Miller and Thomas Schmidt created an abstract sculpture consisting of old shards from Jingdezhen and the molten metal parts of a wall-hung boiler – original structures being reduced to their basic compound elements and recombined into a new existence.

Yang Liming‘s art is influenced by classical Western and Chinese music. His mostly monochrome works have a hypnotizing effect. The density of the color application, the subtle light and dark effects create a spatial effect. For this project, the artist integrated a vacuum solar tube into the canvas to combine the cosmic feeling of his paintings with a symbol for warmth and energy – the solar tube.

All artworks are put into scene by German photographer Ingo Bulla who captured the work process, the art and the artists in his own artistic way. His photography gives this project its finishing touch and enhances it.