Hans Ulrich Obrist of London’s Serpentine Galleries and Yongwoo Lee from The Shanghai Himalayas Museum have been named as the artistic directors of the inaugural edition of the Shanghai Project. 100 participating artists and organisations will be unveiling projects for the 2016 Shanghai Project. The future of ‘Creative China’, art and culture takes an integral role for their imagination and harmony. The future aims for the construction of spiritually healthy cultural society, and culture is front runner in the age of cultural economy with its high added value. Culture and art should become the daily commodities that improve the quality of life, as well as the source of power that creatively unite the civil society.
Shanghai Project is an audience-centered biennial form of artistic festival. Shanghai Project is also a multi-functioning public space where audience, arts professionals, patrons and administrators discuss, relate, communicate and participate together in the name of arts festival.
It aims to facilitate audience-understanding on arts and their participation into artistic and cultural production and consumption. It also differentiate its context to existing biennials around the world by inviting multi-genres of artistic practice that includes art, performance, architecture, film, design and academic lecture series for 70 days. Shanghai Project is a global platform of artistic practice with locality and is also designed to optimize Shanghai’s unique identity and competence.
Shanghai is the center of the world’s economy and the heart of Chinese and Asian finance. Like New York, Shanghai requires a proactive opportunity to maximize its cultural competence. New York’s economic competence witnessed a significant growth in the recent 40 years in the course of the introduction of culture’s added value to its economic policy. It has also carved a platform for industries and international organizations concerning culture to successfully establish in New York. Shanghai’s policy making for the next 20 years would give Shanghai a critical chance to become not only an economic leader but also world cultural hub equipped with cultural competencies as well.
The Mission and Direction of Shanghai Project is a citizens’ platform to relate and participate their life into biennial art festival. It focuses on cultural industry that simultaneously maximizes high value economic products and cultural pride.Shanghai Project endorses a comprehensive art festival that is not solely preoccupied with elite form of contemporary art in order for civil society to take a step closer to art and culture. While the half of the event is contemporary art, such art genres as film, architecture, design, performance and lecture provide an arena for citizen’s interest and participation. The Shanghai Project cultivates an opportunity for Shanghai to revitalize its economic city as a cultural hub and serves as a catalyst to become the New York of Asia. Like other international art festivals such as Venice Biennale, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Canne Film Festival, aims to increase the competency of the city, as well as develop and reflect cultural DNA that can serve the urban economy.
The Shanghai Project researches the configuration of Shanghai’s cultural industry and cultural topography through its undertaking in the expansion and redevelopment of exhibit spaces. Also, it invigorates a demonstration program to foster tourisms by promoting a high value-added handcrafted design industry and to revive artisan markets along the Huangpu River. In conjunction with art event such as Venice Biennale, Italy’s design industry in delicate handcrafts that has high added value (Venice Murano’s glass art) has flourished.
Date and Venues: 2016. 09. 05—2016. 11. 13 *Shanghai Himalayas Museum *Shanghai Century Park *West Bund Art Center Area
*Minsheng Road Port *Vacant spaces and building in Shanghai Huangpu River basin *Wai Bai Du Bridge
*Public and Private Museums/ Galleries in Shanghai The Shanghai Project will be on view at the Shanghai Himalayas Center and other locations around the city September 5–November 13, 2016.