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Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies

Association for Public Art
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Meredith Edlow, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Meredith Edlow, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.

The Association for Public Art (aPA), with guest curator Lance Fung of Fung Collaboratives, commissioned internationally recognized, Chinese contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang to create an interactive public artwork of 27 "fireflies"—luminous, kinetic sculptures inspired by Chinese pedicycles—which thousands of Benjamin Franklin Parkway visitors experienced in motion as carriage passengers, pedestrians, and motorists in fall 2017. Known around the world for his "explosion events," Fireflies was Cai’s largest public art project in the US in a decade, presented on the occasion of the Parkway’s centennial. Working with guest curator Lance Fung and Fung Collaboratives, Cai's sculptures were inspired by the traditional lanterns frequently displayed in public spaces and private homes during festivals in the artist's hometown of Quanzhou, China.


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uestions of ractice
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Video

Questions of Practice: Artist Cai Guo-Qiang on Audience Participation in Public Art

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Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, 2017. Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of Association for Public Art.
Video

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang on Public Art and Ephemerality

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Recipient
Association for Public Art

Association for Public Art

The Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association) is the nation's first private, nonprofit organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning. Founded in 1872, the Association commissions, preserves, promotes, and interprets a significant collection of public art in Philadelphia.

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