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HAIYUE TAO
OBJECT, 2021
“It is a piece installation in the shape of virus that reflects viewers. The message at the center ‘Humans are a virus’, seems to awaken viewers to the present moment and question themself.” Haiyue Tao
It looks decorative and arouses curiosity. The contour seems familiar; and the engraved writing confirms that the little shiny metal thing must be a “pandemic souvenir”. The short phrase reminds us of something that has been much discussed and even more fiercely argued about for a good two years now and which is still ongoing. Not to speak of the consequences everywhere and in all areas of life. Sometimes an evolutionary holistic perspective helps, but sometimes an object with a subtle sense of humor like this one is also needed – or both in one.
“Every mammal on this planet, instinctively develops a nature equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed, and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague.” Agent Smith, The Matrix / 1999
Haiyue Tao (Berlin/Germany and Hangzhou/China) studied product design at Bauhaus University Weimar. Together with Xinyu Weng, they co-founded YUUE Design in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. In 2015 she established MÍN Berlin – a concept store, agency and distributor to make European avant-garde design better known in China; so an office in Hangzhou followed. But vice versa she also took care of the reverse direction: During Corona, she set up the web shop NormalNormal, where she offers everyday things and design objects from Asia in the Berlin design scene.
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Dear Haiyue, Dear Xinyu, your studio is two blocks away from my flat and yet so far away at the same time.
Yours Dominik
