Meditations On The Urban Spectacle

 

The exhibition “Meditations on the Urban Spectacle” co-organized by Shanghai Minsheng Art Foundation, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, and Shanghai Vanke, is on show in Sunke Villa, a preserved historic building in Shanghai. Unlike the conventional exhibition that takes place in a white cube gallery, this exhibition fits a variety of art works into a former private residential building. Through the situational narrative constructed within the exhibited art works, including photography, installation, multimedia works by numerous artists and architect groups, “Meditations on the Urban Spectacle” invites the audience and artists to discuss the relationship between contemporary art and the urban environment.

 

“Meditations on the Urban Spectacle” Closing Forum: spectacles in art and architecture

 

2021.12.11 Saturday 14:00-17:00

 

Guests: Li Qing, Wu Wei, You Yang, Zhang Qi, Yang Yong

Host: Li Xiangning, Wang Yiquan

Date: Saturday, December 11, 2021

Time: 14:00-17:00

Venue: Shanghai Columbia Circle Tsutaya Books

Location: Building 7, 1262 Yanan Xi Lu, Changning District, Shanghai

 

During this exhibition, we organized various lectures and public events, including the opening sound art performance by DJ Cavia and artist Huang Cheng, the themed talk+street walking experience featuring Big Fish Community Design Center’s site-specific curator, store owners, 1m2 Action Tutor, etc., “In Shunde: on-site, research, collab, writing” sharing organized by “Shundeology Group,” and “Practice of Drawing Weeds” workshop by Zheng Bo. Through these events in the form of performance, lecture, 15-minute community walking experience, walking + painting workshop, etc., different cosmos and sites overlap, and we discuss the cultural phenomena that appeared during the development of art and urbanization. In interpreting contemporary art and urban living in a diverse perspective, we hope to bring in new energy to our present life.

 

At the end of the exhibition, we organized a closing forum featuring Li Xiangning, the academic leader of “Meditations on the Urban Spectacles” and curator Wang Yiquan, artists, and press. The forum focuses on topics of “spectacles in artists’ perspectives” and “spectacles in architect’s experience” and opens the conversations via both online live streaming and on-site discussions. Together with the audience, we talked about how to understand, find, and transform the urban spectacles.