The Diameter Narrative team has consistently explored the meanings and possibilities of exhibition narrative across diverse spatial typologies. We never shy away from cultural intervention in any kind of space—be it museums, art galleries, communities, or ancient villages. Each environment poses new questions for creators. The RAIL IN project represents an unprecedented experiment in spatial narrative, and we are deeply grateful to RAIL IN for enabling Diameter to take its first step into the realm of commercial space.— Li Degeng
As the first commercial development within the Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base, RAIL IN is conceived around enhancing high-quality urban mobility and everyday life, aiming to establish a central hub of vitality for the Greater Bay Area lifestyle circle. Upon the completion of the district’s first commercial complex, Diameter Narrative was invited by Shenzhen Metro Group and Vanke Group to undertake the overall curatorial planning for RAIL IN’s opening exhibition season.
Taking Shenzhen as the “super protagonist,” the Diameter team launched the themed curatorial season Super Storyboard, offering diverse and renewed interpretations of the city from multiple perspectives. The exhibition is structured around three major themes: Storyboard of Nature and Humanity, Storyboard of History and the Future, and Storyboard of Multiculturalism. Through a storyboard-based narrative approach, the exhibition reveals Shenzhen’s boundless inclusiveness and vibrant vitality.All three themes are located on the ground floor of RAIL IN. By combining themed exhibition halls with cultural art corridors, Diameter Narrative aims to create a diversified and immersive experience, inviting visitors on a journey of cultural exploration through Shenzhen.
Natural and Cultural Mirrors – Theme Exhibition Hall “Resonance of Life in Mountain and Sea Cities”
The spatial shape of the natural and cultural storyboards draws inspiration from the continuous mountains of Shenzhen, creating a huge “mountain” structure. It can ensure both visual tension from an external perspective and immersion in the internal environment. The interior of “Mountain” is divided into two exhibition areas, hoping to view Shenzhen from a new perspective of integration and tell the life story of Shenzhen through montage style techniques.
The “Mountain-Sea City · Life Resonance” exhibition is located at the core of the main entrance of the shopping mall, making it visible to the audience at first glance. So, why do we want to extend the red structure outside the exhibition to the outside of the mall? Usually, exhibitions do not need to have an external appearance, as the exhibition hall building already gives the exhibition its appearance. However, the commercial atmosphere determines the lively atmosphere of the crowd, and a quiet and classical exhibition would be incompatible with the commercial space. Therefore, we hope to reflect an active, bold, and even exaggerated state in the external appearance of the exhibition, creating a personality and atmosphere for the exhibition, so that it can better integrate into the commercial space.
The “Mountain-Sea City” exhibition area will showcase the natural environment and geomorphic changes of Shenzhen from a macro perspective. An “Mountain-Sea Viewing Platform” has been set up in the indoor space, where visitors can overlook the natural landscape of Shenzhen by walking up the ramp to the platform. Three videos on the platform introduce the land, ocean, and wetland environments of Shenzhen to the audience from the perspective of the narrator. The changing images on the wall and the ground scenery are combined to form a series of “panoramic paintings” of Shenzhen. Two observation windows are set up on the ramp, showing the geological evolution of the Pearl River Estuary over millions of years and the advance and retreat of the coastline of Shenzhen Bay, respectively, allowing visitors to observe Shenzhen from an overhead perspective.
The “Life Resonance” exhibition area focuses on the micro level, showcasing the story of harmonious coexistence of life in Shenzhen. Here, visitors will see a device resembling a balance scale, with one end representing the people of Shenzhen and the other end representing the flora and fauna of Shenzhen. Images record various scenes of their lives in this city: labor and predation, clan inheritance and population reproduction… They all build their own beautiful lives in the city, collectively forming the “Shenzhen Life Community”. These vivid moments condense into dreamlike “bubbles”, and visitors can gently touch these constantly flashing “bubbles” to feel the breathing resonance of these lives. After touching, they can feel the subtle balance between humans and all things in nature through their slight tilting and shaking.
“Visitors to shopping malls will experience numerous scene changes, and viewing the exhibitions in the mall is merely a part of their shopping journey. Therefore, exhibitions in commercial spaces should not be overly complicated, and the content needs to be more relaxed, avoiding an educational and serious tone. Additionally, the behavior of visitors taking photos and checking in is more reasonable in commercial spaces, just like visiting scenic spots. Taking photos and checking in is an important thing to do. In a sense, exhibitions are also scenic spots in people’s shopping journey.”
Historical Future Storyboard – Theme Exhibition Hall “IN/OUT: Roaming in Shenzhen Metropolis”
The Historical Future Storyboard has invited the CABLE team to curate and design. Visitors can see at the entrance of the exhibition hall that the space is divided into two halves by black and white colors. By creating two distinct immersive spaces within the exhibition hall, the audience is invited to briefly escape from reality, listen to the dusty past of Shenzhen through retrospect, and construct the future vision of Shenzhen in their imagination.
The “IN” exhibition space, “Under the Surface,” has invited the Handshake 302 team to collaborate with the School of Architecture at Harbin Institute of Technology to create the research project “Urban Drift.” It showcases the humanistic and historical images and tour routes of early construction areas in Shenzhen. In the installation on the left wall, visitors can see selected urban nodes of Shenzhen. By selecting the corresponding tapes, they can listen to the corresponding humanistic stories on the radio. Moving forward, visitors enter the immersive viewing area, where they can lie down and watch the complete video story through the dome screen above. Through the content, the audience is given a perspective for urban observation, and together they record and perceive the depth and heritage of Shenzhen’s forty-year development.
The white space “OUT: Beyond the Future” invites the “META-SHENZHEN” project from the Shenzhen Urban Planning and Design Research Institute. Within the exhibition space, a future parallel world that breaks boundaries and connects the virtual and the real is created. Visitors peer into the black space from different heights, and lights and screen images present representative scenes of Shenzhen through infrared sensors. Visitors can adopt the perspective of virtual characters, experience the mangrove bay and Liuxian Cave from a weightless perspective, wander through the lush vegetation on both sides of Shennan Avenue, and witness the brand-new urban interaction methods of the future.
Multicultural Storyboard – Cultural and Art Gallery “Shenzhen Cultural Diversity”
The multicultural storyboard consists of five groups of cultural and art galleries, which are scattered throughout the first floor, telling the story of Shenzhen culture from diverse perspectives. As these galleries and shops are scattered and juxtaposed in the commercial space, the design aims to create a strong visual tension through the combination of bright and vibrant colors with wild and rough installations, allowing the culturally rich galleries to be easily and cleverly integrated into the commercial space.
“Exhibitions in commercial spaces are not suitable for overly traditional formats like those in museums and art galleries. The mindset and behavior of visitors to shopping malls are completely different from those of museum visitors. The original intention of visiting a museum is to broaden one’s horizons, while visiting a shopping mall is to experience a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. It is good to gain some meaning and inspiration in a shopping mall, but it is definitely not for learning or admiration. Therefore, when we integrate cultural elements into commercial spaces, we must pay attention to the balance between the two.”
In the “Tracing History” gallery, we aim to present regional diversity by combining local linguistic characteristics in three display windows: through “The ‘No Top’ Capital of Eastern Guangdong”, visitors can learn about the changes in Shenzhen’s administrative location over history; from “The ‘Very Impressive’ Coastal Defense”, they can learn about the evolution of coastal defense military; and through “The ‘Excellent’ Salt Story”, they can see the economic, trade, and daily life of ancient Shenzhen. Visitors can explore the connections between historical and contemporary Shenzhen through panoramic films of representative historical sites related to salt industry, administration, and coastal defense that are still preserved in Shenzhen today.
The “City Now” gallery presents various possibilities of the city: “Resurrect with Full Blood! Ancient City” showcases the Nantou Ancient City under the collision of traditional Lingnan culture and modern urban civilization; “Art on the Assembly Line” displays Dafen Village, which is mainly engaged in the reproduction of Western oil paintings; “Innovation is My Strength!” exhibits the high-tech zone renowned for technological innovation; and “Mangrove Forest, Thank You” showcases the mangrove forest with valuable biological resources. By observing the present, the audience can see a completely different Shenzhen.
The “Marine Culture” gallery presents the fascinating marine stories staged by humans in Shenzhen: “Mazu, Please Bless Me” tells stories related to marine beliefs; “You Come and I Go, Great Exchange” tells us about the culture related to maritime trade; “My Little Boat, My Home” shows how the Dan people coexist with the sea; “Where Do I Come From?” reflects the changes of ethnic groups in the Pearl River Estuary region; “Remember to Come Home Often” presents stories of Chinese people who have gone overseas for development and overseas immigrants returning home to visit relatives. Through these stories, we can feel the humanistic spirit and unique marine culture of Shenzhen.
In the “Born to the Sea: The Evolution of Shenzhen’s Coastline” exhibition gallery, CABLE documents the interdependence between Shenzhen’s urban development and its coastline over the past 40 years through engaging illustrations. Visitors can observe the expansion marks of Shenzhen’s coastline across different eras on the glass display. Moving from left to right, one can see the coastal areas in the west, the Shenzhen Bay area in the center, and the eastern coastal areas of Shenzhen, each showcasing practices in urban construction, the coexistence of urban core areas and natural resources, and the ecological protection of marine flora and fauna.
The “Future City Manual” exhibition gallery showcases “Future City Manual” co-created by Tencent Research Institute and DiDuHui, introducing Tencent’s WeCityX, a future city exploration program. It rethinks and explores from scratch how technology will impact and transform urban planning, construction, operation, and governance. Visitors are invited to understand the future city like reading a travel guide. The exhibition gallery, like a subway train in motion, leads visitors into the rich imagination of the future city.
Through this project, the Diameter Narrative team aims to find an exhibition narrative form that can blend into the business world with an easygoing attitude, without imposing cultural pretensions. We do not want the commercial environment and cultural exhibition in the project to become independent entities, “just like adding milk to coffee, the coffee ceases to be coffee, and the milk ceases to be milk, and they become a delicious latte.” These seemingly contradictory elements actually present a new opportunity. We hope this attempt can bring some new thoughts and possibilities to everyone. At the same time, we also hope that this super exhibition co-created with Shenzhen can not only meet the audience’s expectations and imagination for a better life, but also showcase the diverse perspectives, cultural vitality, and urban spirit of Shenzhen.
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