Flights of fantasy

The exhibition Peasant Da Vincis includes an aircraft carrier, aircrafts, robots and submarines created by farmers. ? Provided to China Daily     The 21 robots were invented by Wu Yulu, an inventor from Tongzhou ?district of Beijing. Wu Changqing / for China Daily    

A giant aircraft carrier, aircrafts, robots and submarines - these are some of the exhibits covering six floors of the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai.

But this is no science exhibition, for the displays defy even basic engineering principles. Instead, the amateurish creations gathered together for Peasant Da Vincis represent the dreams and creativity of nine ordinary Chinese farmers, flown in for the inaugural exhibition of the ongoing Shanghai Expo on Monday.

The man behind the exhibition, contemporary artist and curator Cai Guoqiang, says the slogan of the Expo should read, "Peasants - Making a Better City, a Better Life".

Contemporary artist and curator Cai Guoqiang.

"I have been reading reports about farmers' inventions since the beginning of 2000. At first, it was amusing," says Cai, acclaimed for the spectacular fireworks display of the Beijing Olympics, "But in 2004, I saw a photo of Twilight No 1, a submarine built by Anhui farmer Li Yuming, and was immensely impressed." Cai approached Li and bought the model, the first of his collection of farmers' inventions. In 2005 Cai was curator of the China pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where the artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu suggested inviting farmer Du Wenda to Venice to display his flying saucer. "Their suggestion had my full support, so I must admit that this exhibition, Peasant Da Vincis does have a certain connection to the China pavilion at the Venice Biennale," he says.

"I have been waiting for an opportunity to present my collection of designs by farmers and to take advantage of that to discuss such social issues as the creativity of farmers in China, their contributions to modernization, and the reality of their situation today.

"It is the hundreds of millions of farmers who have paid the price for the construction of a modern society and better urban life in the reform era," he says.

Li, who has spent most of his savings to build his submarine says, "I want every Chinese to see what it is like under water, for the price of a bus ride. This is what I want to achieve."

He has printed pamphlets introducing his invention, asked shipbuilding engineers to support him, and taken every opportunity to advocate his idea, hoping that one day he will win government support to put his invention to commercial use.

Li's submarine stands next to other inventions such as an autogiro made of planks and a plane with wings covered in cloth. The floor of the exhibition hall is covered in grass and has some 60 birds flying around or sitting on the models, to emphasize the real world of the inventors.

The third floor of the exhibition building looks like a robot workshop, and is the brainchild of Wu Yulu, a farmer from Beijing's Tongzhou district. There are small mice walking on thin legs of rusty wire, a robot Jackson Pollock splashing paint on a canvas, and a robot pulling a cart. On the opening day of the exhibition, Wu invited reporters to a ride through the hall. His cart-pulling robot is his greatest pride. "I can't afford to buy a car, but my robot boy can take daddy out for a ride anytime," he says. Once derided as a slacker for not working in the fields, his robots have now brought him money and fame.

Assured and confident, Wu also showed reporters how his robot Yves Klein can leap over a wall - with his knees bent just like humans.

A video projects the story of each farmer-inventor on about 50 kites displayed on the second floor.

"The farmers have been the greatest power behind the drive to build a modernized country in the past decades of economic reforms. They are the cheap labor force of exported goods and the builders whose blood and sweat have erected the high-rises that have sprung up like spring bamboo shoots," Cai says. "Their creativity and warmth have impressed me. They are genial, have open minds and a courageous spirits I often wonder why I collect their creations. Is it because they retain a handcrafted charm? Or, is it because they are born out of a desire to escape one's circumstances? "

"I believe I have been gathering the farmers' dreams, and within these dreams I see myself," Cai says.