Gold Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design · 2024
Omni Chang’An Site Concept Show Cultural Travel Performance
by Funshine Culture Group Co., Ltd.
- A' Design Award 2024 Gold Winner in Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: Funshine Culture Group Co., Ltd.
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 171,904
- Verification code 64588B6DCA · Verify this award
About Omni Chang’An Site Concept Show Cultural Travel Performance
Omni Chang'An is a large-scale site-specific conceptual theatre performance staged in Xi'an, China. The show is based on the intangible cultural heritages of Shaanxi and lasts 90 minutes. The performance is composed of eight original parts, each carried in a different dimension and style. More than 20 stage technologies are used, including matrix screens, wall projection, an elevating stage and holographic projection. Seven traditional heritage art forms are combined with modern technology. The aim is to present traditional culture to younger viewers in a new form.
OMNI•Chang'An Site Concept Show's Cultural Travel Performance emerges from the rich tradition of shadow puppetry, an art form recognized for its delicate craftsmanship and narrative power, here monumentalized and recontextualized within a contemporary theatrical framework that honors ancestral techniques while expanding their experiential possibilities, the production achieves a remarkable synthesis of scale and intimacy by positioning seven towering illuminated panels featuring traditional flat-cut puppet figures against a live ensemble of musicians, creating a visual dialogue between preserved cultural forms and their ongoing reinterpretation through performance, the technical accomplishment evident in the shadow figures themselves demonstrates mastery of the translucent colored medium, with intricate pattern-work articulating costume details, ceremonial regalia, and expressive gesture with the precision characteristic of master craftspeople working within this centuries-old tradition, the chromatic sophistication of the presentation deploys a carefully orchestrated palette moving from the warm amber and crimson of the backlit panels through passages of turquoise, cobalt, and viridian that activate the figures with jewel-like luminosity, while the cool azure and rose theatrical lighting bathing the musicians introduces contemporary production values that frame rather than overwhelm the heritage content, compositionally the work establishes a compelling vertical emphasis through the tall panel format and rhythmic repetition, balanced by the horizontal arrangement of the musical ensemble and the interplay of monumental puppet scale against intimate human presence, thematically this Cultural Travel Performance invites contemplation of how traditional art forms might find renewed life through thoughtful contemporary presentation, suggesting that cultural heritage exists not merely as preserved artifact but as living practice continuously reanimated through creative engagement, viewers are encouraged to consider how such productions might bridge temporal distances while honoring the irreplaceable knowledge embedded in traditional craftsmanship.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Omni Chang’An is China's first large-scale site-specific conceptual theatre, a whole piece of stage performance based on the intangible cultural heritages of Shaanxi and driven by the most state-of-the-art stage technology. The theatre is composed of 8 original parts carried in different dimensions and styles, Heming (Harmony), Nichang (The Rainbow Skirt), Yingren (The Imagined Man), Wanxiang, Chang’an, Chongyuan (The Reunion), Gongsheng (Interdependence), and Chuanqi (The Legend).
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The performance lasts 90 minutes
Fewer than 150 people performed - Tags
- Cultural Heritages, Performance, Stage, Technology, Creative Idea
- Production Technology
- The theatre is composed of 8 original parts, Heming (Harmony), Nichang (The Rainbow Skirt), Yingren (The Imagined Man), Chang’an, Chongyuan (The Reunion), Gongsheng (Interdependence), and Chuanqi (The Legend). Over 20 kinds of advanced stage technological means are leveraged, including but not limited to, matrix screen, wall projection, elevating stage, holographic projection, mechanical arm, photo shooting and video recording, and stage mechanisms developed in-house.
- Design Challenge
- How to reconcile traditional culture with modern technology, design the creative way of presentation, and make sure that viewers would understand and accept this new form of performing are considered the most challenging part of working out Omni Chang’An.
- Project Duration
- The creation team was formed in July 2022 and after more than 500 days of creation, the premier show staged on 15 October 2023, and the formal show was opened to the public on 9 November 2023 in Xi’an, China.
- Operation Flow
- In more than 700 sessions convened by over 300 members of the programming team to discuss how to create the work, 35 packages of creative programs were submitted, and more than 5,000 visual design drafts were prepared. After more than 80,000 hours of production and rendering, hundreds of rehearsals were conducted by an ingenious combination of 7 traditional non-heritage artistic means and over 20 kinds of stage technological means, until the desired results are attained.
- Research
- What the community currently demands for cultural experiences tend to be personalized and diversified, and traditional culture needs to attract the attention of modern viewers, especially younger viewers. This show opens up a new way to transmit and develop traditional culture, and further provides a new field where traditional art infuses with modern technology. This crossover innovation is expected to herald an important trend in the field of culture and art.
- Inspiration
- As the chief director Mr. Zhang Yimou shares the core idea: Xi’an links with the rest of the world, the present, the future and the past in the form of conceptual, ideological performance, combined with the distinctive stage design and the rendering of technological elements. The way to express beyond physical space on the stage of this time-honored ancient city spans 5,000 years of history.
Colors of Omni Chang’An Site Concept Show Cultural Travel Performance
Get Omni Chang’An Site Concept Show Cultural Travel Performance
Innovative Cultural Performance Creation
We transform cultural heritage into spectacular live experiences through cutting-edge stage technology. Our team blends traditional arts with modern innovation to create site-specific theatrical performances that captivate audiences and celebrate cultural narratives.
G0E23 Shop