DIANCHI ART SEASON is located by the shores of Dianchi Lake in Kunming, Yunnan Province. Dianchi is a beautiful alpine lake and has been home to ancient human settlements for over three thousand years. To protect the natural and cultural heritage of Dianchi, the Kunming Municipal Government and the Shanghai Ruan Yisan Urban Heritage Conservation Foundation jointly launched the "2024 DIANCHI ART SEASON."
The natural and cultural heritage of Dianchi serves as a model for the poetic dwelling of humanity. This year's art season, themed "Home and Future," interprets Dianchi as an ideal home through the works of artists, using traditional villages and natural landscapes as spatial carriers to initiate a dialogue between Dianchi's traditional culture and contemporary art. The residency works of nearly a hundred artists aim to spark collective attention and reflection on the history and future of Dianchi.
The art season is divided into three main thematic sections: "Rural Art," "Garden Art," and "Wetland Art," featuring a total of 129 art and architectural works, including sculptures, installations, photography, multimedia, sound-visual interactions, oil paintings, murals, architecture, and gardens. These works will be displayed across seven venues along Dianchi Lake: Haiyan Village, Shicheng Village, Wolong Ancient Fishing Village, Daguan Park, the World Expo Park, Laoyuhe Wetland Park, and Baofeng Wetland Park.

The name "Dianchi" carries profound emotions for the people of Kunming. Many locals mention that Dianchi once "disappeared," becoming a nostalgic memory deeply rooted in the hearts of Kunming residents. As a blue gem on the red soil plateau of Southwest China, Dianchi has attracted countless people with its unique landscape and pleasant climate. From ancient times to the modern era, the relationship between people and Dianchi has remained closely intertwined.
Dianchi is not only a natural landscape but also a microcosm of everyday life. It serves as the backyard of Kunming residents, embodying moments of simple happiness such as "picking mushrooms," "boating," "watching red-beaked gulls," "lantern festivals," "Jiama prints," and "sunset viewing." The ever-changing lake reflections, mist, and colorful clouds add a touch of mystique to Dianchi.
In our eyes, Dianchi's beauty and the emotions it evokes are far more complex and profound than many other places.

As "new Kunming residents" who have relocated to Yunnan, we have always looked forward to undertaking design work in Kunming. However, past experiences made our designs appear overly "urbanized," prompting us to seek a path that better reflects the essence of Yunnan.
To move away from the "urban feel" in commercial design, we focused on keywords such as "humanity," "land," "nostalgia," and "joy" during our research. We also delved into the works of Yunnan writers, including Kunming poet Yu Jian. He once described Dianchi as follows: "Dianchi is not a lake that alternates between 'howling winds and raging waves' and 'calm waters under a vast sky.' It is relatively tranquil, with gentle ripples, where seagulls come and go freely. It is expansive but not boundless, vast but not endless... It is neither a hermit's lake like Walden Pond nor a cultural lake like West Lake. Instead, it is a virgin lake, still in a state of primal chaos in many ways..."
Therefore, we aimed to create designs that convey the unique warmth and humanistic spirit of Dianchi, breaking free from the constraints of existing art festival designs and instead reflecting the relaxed and joyful atmosphere of Yunnan.

Inspired by our preliminary research, we re-examined the proposition of "designing for Dianchi." The final main visual logo and typography drew inspiration from Yunnan's Jiama patterns and the Cuanshu script. Jiama is a traditional folk art unique to Yunnan, often used in rituals to express the simple wishes of local people. Although its inspiration may stem from Central Plains New Year paintings, its form is more relaxed and natural.
The Cuanshu script used in the logo also possesses a distinctive character. While its charm echoes the style of the Wei and Jin dynasties, its structure is more casual and its strokes more free-spirited, aligning with the temperament of Yunnan locals. Based on the "Cuan Baozi Stele," we refined the script to achieve visual balance and harmony with the graphic style.
The main visual graphics were inspired by the topographic maps of the art season's seven venues. Additionally, we drew inspiration from Japanese designer Kiyoshi Awazu, whose works in the 1970s extensively used repetitive and intersecting organic lines to create striking visual impact. Therefore, we arranged the seven venues in relation to Dianchi's actual geography, repeating and enlarging their outlines while incorporating gradients of each venue's theme colors. As the repetitions increased, the layered relationships became more complex, culminating in a spectacular visual effect. These graphics resemble ripples on the water, surrounding Dianchi, influencing each other, and continuously responding. The use of high-purity gradient colors further enhanced the relaxed and psychedelic atmosphere of the main visual.
The curatorial team consistently emphasized that "wind represents culture, and soil represents environment." Through the Cuanshu script logo symbolizing culture and the topographic maps representing the environment, we echoed this concept in our design.

The project, running from January to May 2024, garnered widespread attention and acclaim within Yunnan Province. The unique main visual design attracted significant interest, with locals recognizing the graphics as highly representative of Yunnan—joyful, psychedelic, and imbued with ethnic characteristics.
As a major tourist destination, Kunming primarily attracts visitors for its natural scenery, but cultural and artistic events are relatively scarce. However, the extensive online dissemination of this art season and its main visual drew a large number of tourists to view the artworks, significantly boosting local tourism and the economy.