After staging a performance with Patti Smith in Milan, Bottega Veneta has tapped the Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua to collaborate on a poetry installation and performance in Shanghai.
The poetry installation, located at Shanghai’s Rowing Club, features 19,000 editions of Yu’s poetry collection “Yao Yao Huang Huang De Ren Jian,” or “In Such a Staggering World,” which is redesigned via a three-dimensional Bottega Veneta brandmark book cover art.
The book also contains a new poem commissioned by Bottega Veneta, inspired by its tag line, “When your own initials are enough.”
On Saturday, visitors can sign up for a slot on the brand’s WeChat Mini Program to visit the installation for free.
An unlikely literary sensation, Yu hails from a rural village in Hubei Province and began writing in her 20s.
In 2014, she rose to fame after her poem “I Crossed Half of China to Sleep With You” went viral online. Chinese netizens relished her raunchy verses that explored topics like female desire, rural life, disability — she was born with cerebral palsy — and feminine agency.
Yu Xiuhua
Yu’s work, known for its colloquial and confessional style, quickly caught the attention of the establishment — not long after she shot to fame, a leading Chinese literary journal called Poetry began reprinting some of her other works.
The 2016 documentary “Still Tomorrow” further delved into Yu’s personal life, highlighting her struggles with an arranged marriage, her pursuit of a divorce and her navigation of fame.
The prolific, 49-year-old Yu has published five poetry books and most recently turned her work into a contemporary dance number called “Ten Thousand Tons of Moonlight.” Directed by the British dance producer Farooq Chaudhry, the piece featured Yu herself and three other performers and premiered at Shanghai’s Theater Young Festival last November.
“For Bottega Veneta, Yu’s work is a powerful example of the self-expression that is integral to the brand’s founding values and ethos,” the Kering-owned Italian luxury brand said in a statement.
“Known for its iconic slogan ‘When your own initials are enough,’ the house has celebrated authentic individuality ever since it was established by a group of artisans near Venice in 1966,” the statement continued.
On Friday night, Bottega Veneta staged a special performance by Yu at the storied Union Church by The Bund.
Apart from the Rowing Club installation, through Saturday, fans of Yu can visit eight bookstores in Shanghai, including Tsutaya Bookstore, Sinan Books, Archipelago Books, Suhe Haus and more, to receive a special copy of the anthology for free.
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