Who We Work With | 我们与谁合作

Individuals & Bands & Collectives 个人 & 音乐团队 & 艺术小组 | Organizations & Publishers  组织 & 出版社

ATLAS is Ahti Westphal, Jenny Chou, and Catherine McMahon—three designers who met while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. Their shared interest in culture, history, and place leads them to mine various contexts for unexpected stories, details, or overlooked materials and techniques. The result is an ongoing exploration that at various points in time takes on the form of spaces, products, or installations. In addition to an investigation of place, they take a process-based approach to design that aims to capture the both marks of time and technique as well as the experimental potentials of materials. Each project the studio takes on is an opportunity to articulate a contemporary narrative that bridges between cultures and contexts. ATLAS contributed the article, 'The Dali Project' to 八家 Bajia House 2.

China Residencies is non-for-profit organization whose mission is to map, research, and create a free online directory of opportunities in mainland China & Hong Kong for creative people from all over the world; fund excellent creative people and projects through residency programs and nurture the next generation of organizers and administrators through fiscal sponsorship; and support and advise existing and envisioned residency programs across the region to foster foster sustainable creative exchange. They believe diplomacy shouldn’t just be left up to politicians. Artists are cultural and social change-makers, and, in a world where people sometimes forget to listen to and learn from one another. China Residencies is passionate about creating opportunities for artists to bring a broader cultural understanding into their work and communities. Bactagon collaborated with China Residencies on the second FemFeast 女宴.

Chutzpah! is a literary magazine that provides in depth readings laid out within a visually pleasing design of international standards. With an internationalized vision and design, brand new concept and editorial method, and new media platform that parallels the magazine, Chutzpah! explores new ideas and forms within the context of literary magazines, so to reshape the experience of reading literature. “Chutzpah” is derived from Yiddish and pronounced as “khutspəә”. Its original meaning was ‘unbridled’ or ‘arrogant’, but after being introduced into the English language, evolved into meaning ‘reckless courage’ and ‘the spirit of challenge’ amongst others. Soon after, it started to imply that which was of ‘bold innovation’ or was a ‘break from routine behavior’. Chutzpah! along side 天南 (meaning ‘South’) constitutes the magazine’s bilingual title, but also defines the magazine’s external image and spirit.

Commonplace is a non-profit magazine and publishing house presenting new artist writings. Based in Beijing, it was founded in 2017. To date it has published one issue, "Disappearance"; its second is forthcoming in Winter 2018. Commonplace publisher and founding editor, Yuan Fuca, participated in the Distribution Assembly East workshop. 

Concrete Flux 流泥 is a multi-media, multi-disciplinary journal which takes as its subject matter China’s hyper-fast merging urban spaces, their meaning and one’s everyday experiences of them. They believe that a new configuration of space through urbanization will lead to a new configuration of society. Their aim is to contribute to some understanding of or gain insight into what these spaces may mean. All four issues of Concrete Flux were presented as part of the exhibition “Teetering at the Edge of the World.”

Doooogs is a city blog and press based in Berlin & Beijing, offering greater visibility to local urban culture and art publications. Since 2016 doooogs focuses on cultural exchanges between China and Germany by organizing Art Book Fair in both countries. Doooogs founder, Yi Zhi ( 一只) brought her distribution expertise to the Distribution Assembly East as the intensive’s moderator.

Electric Sheep 电子羊 is a independent film watching and WeChat group in Beijing. Ranging from niche independent films to larger film festival selections, Electric Sheep collectively curates and screens an eclectic mix of domestic and international films of acclaim. With screenings every Wednesday, the Beijing-based film club has an equal mix of foreign and local audience attending their meetings. Electric Sheep curated a selection of films for “The Bibliorium.”

fruitypress is a fRUITYSPACE book publishing project based in Beijing.

I-Project Space is the home of the following on-going research projects: Beijing22, an open, independent, long-term curatorial project, which will investigate the dynamics of Beijing’s urban space in the five years preceding the Olympic Games in 2022. Feminist South, which together with Kelly Doley, is a curatorial project and research platform spanning across 2017-2019 that aims to generate discussion on contemporary feminist practice located in and around Asia, Australia and the Pacific regions. Independent Art Spaces, a festival. Tria, a publishing platform based between Zurich and Beijing. Overwhelming Imagination, a conference designed to push back on traditional notions of art, history, and culture from multiple methodological and geographical perspectives, often revealing antinomies but sometimes unearthing unexpected congruities. Bactagon collaborated with I-Project on the first and second FemFeast 女宴 and also presented a paper at the Overwhelming Imaginations conference.

Jiazazhi Press 假杂志 is a one of China’s only independent photography book publishers, Jiazazhi releases limited edition publications in collaboration with China-based photographers. Publisher, Yuan Yanyou, works with emerging photographers to capture their work as a unique narrative, he adds new dimensions to each of the photographer’s projects. Translated as “Fake Magazine,” Jiazazhi serves as a platform to juxtapose the photo books produced for a commercial market and is devoted to exploring the possibilities of photography in the various formats books can present. Their practices include blogzines, photo books of varying shapes and sizes, photo bookshops, and magazines. 

Lava Design Beijing 熔岩设计北京 is an international operating Dutch design agency. Lava focusses on design for change. We work for brands, companies and organizations who are in a process of changing and innovating their identity. We advice on brand strategy and we design visual and corporate identities. After a brand and new visual identity is created we make it come alive in on- and offline media and 3 dimensional environments. Lava Design was founded in 1990 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices in Amsterdam and Beijing. The founder and principal designer of Lava Beijing, Céline Lamée is the graphic designer for Bactagon Projects, including 八家 Bajia House 1 and 2 and the Bactagon logo.

LEAP 艺术界 is the international art magazine of contemporary China. Published six times a year in Chinese and English, it presents a winning mix of contemporary art coverage and cultural commentary from the cutting edge of the Chinese art scene. Through incisive, carefully curated criticism and commentary, LEAP strives to provide its readers with profound and professional insight into the workings of art from right here in Beijing to the world at large. Averting both dogma and trend, LEAP gives clarity to the increasingly blurred complexity of the things that surround us. At once witness to culture’s development and its recorder, LEAP is a publication that aims for posterity.

New Territories is an experimental studio for the research, development and production of innovative cultural projects. Based in Shanghai and Los Angeles, New Territories serves as a laboratory for new ideas, a curatorial platform for programming and exhibitions, a consultancy for forward-thinking brands and institutions, and a production base for the creation of films, installations, editions and events. New Territories seeks to support emerging, risk-taking artists in China and beyond, and act as a catalyst for interdisciplinary collaborations and original work. For the Printed Matter LA Art Book Fair in 2015, Bactagon Projects partnered with New Territories to present the China Indie Library.

Opera Bombana is the restaurant concept of three-Michelin-starred Chef Umberto Bombana. The word “OPERA” in Italian can be used in multiple contexts describing an outstanding masterpiece or creation, related for example to design, ideas, recipes, arts, sports and craftsmanship. Opera Bombana is the expression of Chef Umberto Bombana’s culinary passion for the basic elements of Italian gastronomy and culture, delivering a unique interpretation of great Italian food in the forms of restaurant, bakery, pastry, cocktails and coffee.

Nestled in Beijing's hutongs is The Other Palace, a cozy siheyuan (courtyard) space prime for a morning coffee, afternoon work session or relaxing evening gathering of friends. The Other Place has partnered with bāc-tā-gon to serve as the venue for the monthly A.M. Brainstorms.