“What first appealed to us was the desire to enter into a city, Beijing, which throughout the world was rumoured to be undergoing huge urban transformations and pharaonic building projects, mainly in preparation for the Olympic Games. Together, we wanted to observe the city and let ourselves be carried into its flow, its movement. The eleven photographers of Tendance Floue and two journalists threw themselves into the midst of the city, contriving to paint a shattered and purposely subjective portrait. Thirteen nomads who were determined to turn their feverish wanderings into a magazine, “Mad in China”. They only had a fortnight to do it all, from the shooting of the first image to the final turnout in print. A wild challenge, almost beyond our stamina, carried away by the city’s energy.Our experiences had to be urgently put to paper. The project could not have existed without an ongoing exchange of views with the people of Beijing. Artists, poets and designers were invited to confront their vision with our own. We have seen Beijing; we have written about Beijing. Local writers have entrusted their texts to us. Their words and ours have been nonetheless poorly and partially translated. They merely reflect fragments of reality. Fragments that we perceive from one another. We have not understood Beijing. We have lived it intensely.”
Cécile Cazenave
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