Sichuan Railway Worker, Japanese Expo Granny, French Architects... All Win
with Touchmedia's Eco-Art China 2010 at the Expo

    
    Local Green Idea Fuels Global Eco Passion

    

SHANGHAI, China, Sept. 7 /CNW/ -- Artworks made from trash were crowned at the Montreal Case Pavilion, Expo 2010 as winners of Touchmedia's Eco-Art China 2010 competition. Tan Lu from Sichuan won 1st place and a trip for two to Montreal with his work made of soda cans, cotton flannel, foam and cardboard. Mr. Michel Bissonnet, Member of the Executive Committee for the City of Montreal and Ray Lui, the Honorary Chairman of Touchmedia presented the awards. The 1st and 2nd place winners will be exhibited at Montreal Case Pavilion until October, 31st.

    
    (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100907/CNTU006 )
    (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100907/CNTU006 )
    

    
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1st place winner Tan Lu, a 33-year-old hearing-impaired railway worker, spent 10 days working on a delicate and intricate cutting and engraving artwork called Peony & Phoenix. It was a piece he felt represented the spirit of his community, Mian Yang City, an area still rebuilding from the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan. "I hope my work can be exhibited at the Expo to be enjoyed by visitors from all over the world. Let them feel the passion and wisdom of Sichuan people in rebuilding their beautiful homes."

Lu will fly to Montreal and will officially be welcomed by the City of Montreal. Mr. Michel Bissonnet said, "The City of Montreal is delighted to welcome the Eco-Art China 2010 winner and shall be officially received by the Mayor. He will also tour the Environmental Complex of Saint-Michel, the state- of-the-art case that Montreal is proudly presenting at the Expo 2010. Montreal is known worldwide as a vibrant, creative and sustainable city; that is why a partnership between Montreal and Eco-Art China 2010 was obvious! Montrealers appreciate that a better city means a better life, and this way of living is reflected in our daily actions and initiatives."

For Mr. Louis Dussault, Official Representative for the City of Montreal to Expo 2010, "Eco-Art China is a great and creative initiative, the Montreal Case team and I are proud to be related to this project promoting eco- responsibility for everyone, and most of all to contribute to its success. We wish long life to Eco-Art China!"

Old, Young, East to West, Amateurs and Professionals: All Turning Trash into Treasure

Eco-Art China campaign aims to motivate the public to rethink their attitude towards garbage and discover the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle by turning 'trash into treasure'. A local green idea inspired by the 2010 World Expo's Better City Better Life theme, and developed by Touchmedia, has helped to fuel global eco passion. With Touchmedia's in-taxi interactive touch screens as the key vehicle to promote the Eco-Art China 2010 campaign, passengers interacted directly with the screens to find out about the contest, request entry forms, learn about industry eco initiatives, download Eco-Art digital wallpaper, view the top works and help decide the winner. In six weeks, 39,599 email addresses were entered by taxi passengers requesting contest entry forms. After a panel of 10 judges from 5 countries shortlisted the top 4 works for public voting, taxi passengers cast about 90,000 votes in two weeks. The 3 1/2 month long campaign reached over 75 million people in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The response demonstrates an extremely high level of public interest in environmental protection combined with artistic creation at the local, domestic and global levels.

Contest participants ranged from 8 to 72 years of age from 13 Chinese cities plus France, Japan and Taiwan resulting in a variety of personal stories and unlimited inspiration.

Two Shanghai artists, Yang Yan and Jun Wang, who won 2nd and 3rd prizes respectively in Eco-Art 2009 both collected 2nd prize honors for their 2010 works which used clay, wire mesh, wax, glass, paint, canvas, boxes, insulation and paint. Two eight-year-olds from Zhang Jia Gang, Hao Huang and Yibei Wang, claimed the third 2nd prize spot with their pair of birds pieced together from Tetrapak milk boxes.

Claiming the five 3rd place spots included Tomiyo Yamada from Japan, known as Expo Granny, who entered her ukiyo-e (Japanese typical prints) of FUJI Mountain. Also winning 3rd place was a group of architects, designers and artists called YA + K, based in France, who submitted a mobile city kitchen made from recycled plastic, wood, metal, old gas cookers and sinks. Three other 3rd prize winners were from the Chinese cities of Jinghua, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Multiplying the Eco Impact Through Collective Corporate Efforts

Micky Fung, Founder and Chairman of Touchmedia said, "In addition to the huge response from the general public and the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau's involvement as official supporting body, many other companies including Skoda and Tetrapak extended their support to the campaign. I hope that Eco-Art China becomes a catalyst to drive widespread participation and responsibility in protecting our environment through individual actions and industry initiatives."

Said Carol Yang, Vice President, Tetra Pak China, the world's leading food processing and packaging solutions company, "At Tetra Pak, we design our packages to be environmentally advantageous. The involvement with Eco-Art China falls into our agenda to continuously increase the public's awareness of environmental protection. Encouraging more people to turn 'trash into treasure' mirrors our commitment of recycling post consumed cartons, which can be made into useful products such as the benches installed in the Expo park."

Peter Miling, executive director of Skoda Sales & Marketing, Shanghai Volkswagen expressed, "At the individual level, choosing fuel efficient vehicles over normal vehicles is a significant factor in reducing collective C02 emissions; GreenLine uses Eco-Art China's platform to showcase the green GDP environmental idea we always pursue, which is the insistence on the Green concept, design requirements on energy saving and the relentless pursuit of low power high dynamic performance."

About Touchmedia

Touchmedia was founded in 2003, by its Chairman, Micky Fung, to develop state-of-the-art touchscreen media technology in China. It is the largest in- taxi interactive media company, delivering innovative digital media solutions for clients and the out-of-home advertising industry in China, at a time when reaching affluent consumers on traditional media is increasingly challenging.

For further information: for Eco-Art or Touchmedia, Tina Han, Senior PR Manager of Touchmedia, [phone] x1277, [email protected]; or Montreal Case Pavilion, Kim-Tien Huynh, Director of Public Relations, [phone], [email protected]