Beijing Project n.17 Raphaël Uhrweiller, Mayumi Otero

Raphaël Uhrweiller and Mayumi Otero run an independent graphic design and illustration studio in France. Visiting Beijing, they were intrigued by the chance to take part in the Social Sensibility programme; knowing they had no time for a long intervention, they ran a one-day workshop based on humour and reaction.

Taking as their subject the state visit of French president François Hollande to Bernard Controls China, which had just happened before they arrived, they asked every worker and manager in the factory to draw an ink portrait of Hollande. In exchange they photographed the whole staff, to make a portrait of each person and send it to China, where it would be shown next to that person’s portrait of Hollande.

Their humorous workshop is a direct, engaging and provocative way to stage delicate and complex questions of colonialism, foreign influence and legacy in developing countries.

Icinori, the studio of Raphaël Uhrweiller and Mayumi Otero