Weichen Zhong and Davide Crippa talk about the exhibition and forum “Eight Immortals”, held at the ADI Museum during Milan Design Week.
Before we start with other questions, could you first introduce to us what are these special installations on site?
These are the peddler’s box and the “Eight Immortals”. These installations are made of recycled cardboard. Davide and I performed a cosplay. Peddler and peddler’s box were very popular themes in ancient Chinese folk paintings. Peddler carried his box and walked through the streets while hawking. Such scenes should be also quite normal in Europe. In the traditional peddler’s box, there are daily necessities and trendy items, like a treasure box. We took this treasure box, not only to carry, but also to create new items in the contemporary context. Davide and I two “peddlers” from the East and the West, jointly convey the design stories of China and Italy.
What are the “Eight Immortals”? Sounds they are related to mythology?
It comes from the Taoist mythology system. There is a Chinese folklore “The Eight Immortals crossing the sea, everyone showing their magical powers.” Which is a story talking about the Eight Immortals who came to the seashore after attending the Queen Mother’s Peach Banquet and saw the rough waves. Lü Dongbin said, “We can’t see the immortal powers today by riding on clouds, how about throwing an object into the water and each displaying their magical powers to cross the sea?” The Eight Immortals then transformed their magic tools into objects to cross the sea, and went to the Three Sacred Mountains in the sea to collect magical stones and herbs for use in making elixirs.
ART-72ROOMS always keen on how traditional themes, both well-known and unfamiliar, can be used and reconstructed in the contemporary era.
So are you bringing a themed event with “immortals” to this year’s Milan Design Week?
The Eight Immortals may sound like a story about immortals but they have very secular characteristics, “magic tools” all come from daily life. In the story, ordinary items have strange magic powers and can be free to transform.
He Xiangu’s Bamboo skimmer (or Lotus) – Self-cultivation;
Lan Caihe’s Flower basket -Widely communicate with the gods;
Han Zhongli’s Palm leaf fan – Back to life
Lü Dongbin’s Sword – Suppress evil and exorcise;
Han Xiangzi’s Flute – All things grow;
Cao Guojiu’s Paiban (percussion instrument) – Purify the environment;
Li Tieguai’s Gourd – Help all living beings;
Zhang Guolao’s Yugu (percussion instrument) – Fortune telling.
As an innovative project of REPUBBLICA DEL DESIGN at Milan Design Week 2025, “ART-72ROOMS Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea” transformed the Eight Immortals and Magic tools into speakers and their works, sharing the innovative concept of Chinese design that connects sustainable design on site. For example, Betsy Kopmar, one of the earliest “tenants” of ART-72ROOMS, She combined her own work with AI generation technology to create a series of visual works on the theme. Nowadays, the theme of sustainability is a common vision of the East and the West. All the on-site installations this time are closely related to this, such as the furniture products of Repubblica del Design’s “RE-DESIGN” and “Negativo/Positivo”. We also try to transform “magic tools” into daily wearable jewelry with sustainable materials. We used the “magic tools” pattern from last year’s “Yi Zhi Tu”. This is an interesting combination. All the magic tools can be composed of 15 puzzle pieces. The changing properties of the magic tools embrace the puzzle, transforming from a flat pattern into an ornament composed of discarded round tube modules. This includes the mutual transformation of different elements and produces new “magic power”. In addition, we are conducting experiments with traditional crafts, such as combining “magic tools” jewelry with filigree craftsmanship to make the jewelry smell.
Can you tell us more about Chinese traditional crafts?
“ART-72ROOMS Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea” is an innovative experiment on a traditional theme, and it pays great attention to the new “way out” of traditional Chinese crafts, which is also one of the common interests of the two “peddlers” from the East and the West.
In February this year, Yuan Zijia, founder of C-City Media, together with Repubblica del Design and Università IUAV di Venezia, organized a jewelry workshop in Shenzhen to exchange contemporary design and traditional craftsmanship. Mr.Du Jianyi, a jewelry designer from Beijing, showed us amazing filigree craft works, which also triggered future cooperation between China and Italy. During the Eight Immortals Forum, Yuan Zijia also shared her jewelry documentary “Designers Global Designer Series” Many traditional Chinese crafts have been listed as international or national intangible cultural heritages, most of which are derived from the remains of agricultural society and have the characteristics of sustainable development.
During the on-site exchanges, we and the guests also shared Chinese purple clay teapots, enamel glass, Suzhou embroidery, brocade, filigree inlay, walnut carving and redwood inlaid silver crafts, Qing embroidery, clay sculpture, tea opera, kesi, lacquer, pottery, silk carpets…
We introduced these traditional crafts on site this time in the hope that more people can understand them and find new ideas for co-creation. We hope to present in the design week project 2026.
In Chinese media, we often see Milan Design Week praised as the “Olympic Games of Design”. Interestingly, we know that Mount Olympus is where the Greek gods live. From another cultural point of view, Milan Design Week can also be regarded as the “Three Gods of Design”. So ART-72ROOMS conceived a contemporary version of “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea”, using the works transformed by magic tools, crossing the ocean to Milan, exchanging ideas and looking for inspiration, experience, possibilities… All of these will become “magic stones and magic herbs” and be cooked by the civil and military fires of the East and the West to refine new elixirs and magic weapons. In this process, there may be failures, repeated attempts, or some kind of inspiration. However, as people often say, “everything is Tao.” Let us use Jung’s view to try to explain it again: “Tao” can be interpreted as “consciously walking” from the composition of the word “Tao”. “If we understand “Tao” as a method or a conscious path to unify separate things, we may be close to the psychological content of the concept of “Tao.”
What is the project of Milan Design Week 2026?
“Appunti per 100 “cose” da non dimenticare” is an exhibition project in a bunker.
Distretto permanente di Repubblica del Design con Istituto Comprensivo Maffucci, Associazione ANPI, Associazione Bovisattiva, Associazione Astronove, Associazione Revel, Associazione Intra APS/ETS, Associazione Mami, Associazione Sheb Sheb con Politecnico di Milano, Università Iuav di Venezia, e Enea
Zhong and I will present a new version of “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea” related to the “Way Out” of China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in the “Integrated Design” part.
Betsy Kopmar
Betsy Kopmar is a painter, photographer, and director of experimental animations. Her work is rooted in the language of visual music, where light and color and movement open to a deeper communion with the natural world. Her award-winning abstract animations have shown in film festivals around the world where they were recognized for their unique combination of expressive graphics and arresting sound. Reverberations of Asian art flow naturally through these colourful images, balancing opposing energies of real and imaginary, new and time-worn. Her work is less a study of perception than it is an experience of feeling and spirit.Honored by Adobe as a Master Teacher for her contributions to digital education, she has taught motion graphics and 3D design and animation at Bay Area colleges. An early adopter of vj tools for live performance graphics, she continues to explore the synergistic and improvisational work-flow these tools provide to video and animation artists.
Du Jianyi
Jewelry designer from Beijing, more than 53 years of experience in the industry, specializes in the traditional craftsmanship of Chinese jewelry. He innovatively combines the two traditional crafts of filigree and inlay, and applies them to the special-shaped pearl series; family culture and the transformation of old objects; ancient porcelain jewelry; and kingfisher feather inlay crafts, etc. At the same time, he also reproduces the jewelry in the collection of the Palace Museum, his filigree works are collected in the Baoyun Building of the Palace Museum.
