Envision 2116
Shanghai Project Chapter 2
April 22–July 30, 2017
Taking Envision 2116 as the theme of its first two chapters, the Shanghai Project has been a laboratory for testing out the boundaries of existing assumptions about what ideas can do and how they might expand beyond the silos of knowledge. Inclusive of public programs, publications, screenings, exhibitions, open calls, and architectural commissions the Shanghai Project continues to defy categorization to create a platform for inter-action. The Shanghai Project is directed by Yongwoo Lee and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Shanghai Project Chapter 1, unveiled last September, focused on public programs and audience engagement. The project’s events and research will culminate in the Chapter 2 exhibition Seeds of Time, launching April 22, 2017. The inauguration of the show will be complemented with a publication, and four series of public programs to be presented from now until August.
Conference series
Audiences, in collaboration with Rockbund Art Museum
March 25–26
The conference recognizes the impact of shifting global trends, modernization, and media consumed visitors on museums today, and therefore seeks to re-examine not only who the audiences of the 21st century are, but also how can we best serve their evolving needs. Audiences includes a series of free-form conversations and a symposium, which brings together 21 leading thinkers and practitioners from across China and the rest of world, with keynote speeches from: Richard Noble, Tan Boon Hui, Yongwoo Lee, Jiang Yuhui, Shen Qilan, Gao Peng, Marko Daniel, Larys Frogier, and Nikita Yingqian Cai.
A Vision for the Future: Challenging the Realties of Today and the Impossibilities of Tomorrow
April 21, 9:30am–4pm
As a response to the theme Envision 2116, the conference is a point of convergence for researchers from seemingly disparate fields; though artists, scholars, scientists, and humanitarians differ in method, they all seek to explore varying aspects of the human condition. Keynote speakers and panelists including Neal Benezra, Nikolaus Hirsch and Cai Qinghua, with roundtables comprised of researchers from Seeds of Time, experts from the fields of hard and soft sciences, as well as literal and abstract architects of the future. Together they will address collective and individual crises related to sustainability and ecology that threaten generations to come.
Workshops
On the occasion of Seeds of Time, the workshop Reset Modernity, led by the renowned scholar and one of the Shanghai Project’s Root Researchers Bruno Latour, will take place at Shanghai Himalayas Museum from May 4–7, 2017 (click here to register). Latour and his team of designers, architects, and artists will concentrate on a set of issues that modernity encounters at a time of deep ecological mutation, emphasizing a comparative perspective between Europe and China. We are also looking for dancers comfortable with performing in art gallery contexts for Sophia Al-Maria’s The Limerent Object. With the help of writers and choreographers Al-Maria’s video installation, dance, and text becomes a series of offerings and blessings for the future.
Lecture series on the future (streamed live online)
The Future of the Past
Every weekend, March–April
As an extended discussion of the Shanghai Project theme—Envision 2116—this talk series moderated by Tang Weijie from the Department of Humanities at Tongji University, Shanghai, gives an idea of how in the past two centuries the people of Shanghai have thought about and imagined the future. The program framework is constructed through a cultural lens—probing specific media from the past—but also exploring topics beyond the context of literature and arts.
The Future Led by Technology
Every weekend, May–July
Inviting influential hi-tech directors and specialists from the most advanced industries, we aim to discuss what technologies of the future look like and in what ways technology has begun and will continue to impact the general public’s daily lives. Speakers will include experts working at the forefront of technological research—with the power to actually implement the applications they’ve created in industrialized and scientific fields. This lecture series will be moderated by Dr. Lu Yunbo, Founder and CEO of QiXian Intelligent Technology.
Social interventions
Longtang Clan, in collaboration with Hu Renyi
March–August
Longtang Clan is a socially engaged project that includes comics, fashion, and performance. The work is comprised of 60 actors who will appear across the shared spaces of Shanghai to fight evil by righting the wrongs of the disrespectful and disingenuous, while also praising the good by encouraging acts of kindness both big and small. The first Longtang Clan performance presents March 5, 2017 (also known as Leifeng Day—an official volunteer day in China) and will continue intermittently until August.
Screening
In collaboration with the French Consulate, ongoing screening events will be hosted by the Shanghai Project at the Envision Pavilion, Shanghai Normal University, Power Station of Art, and Minsheng Museum of Modern Art. The series includes two French language films (with Chinese subtitles) every weekend for three weeks this March.
Check out a full schedule below:
Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass by Victor Vu (Vietnamese: Tôi Thấy Hoa Vàng Trên Cỏ Xanh)
March 10, 7:30–9pm
The Dismantling by Sébastien Pilote (French: Le Démantèlement)
March 11, 7:30–9:30pm
Rosalie Blum by Julien Rappeneau
March 17, 7:30–9pm
Today by Alain Gomis (French: Aujourd’hui)
March 18, 7:30–9:30pm
The Wakhan Front by Clément Cogitore (French: Ni le ciel ni la terre)
March 24, 7:30–9:10pm
Kirikou and the Sorceress, plus a selection of short films by Michel Ocelot (French: Kirikou et la sorcière et cinq courts-métrages)
March 25, 4–5:10pm
