2017.04.13 Thu, by
Shanghai Project Chapter 2 Opening Weekend“A Vision for the Future: Challenging the Realities of Today and the Impossibilities of Tomorrow”

The Shanghai Project conference is a discursive response to the themes represented in the “2116” exhibition. The platform is a point of convergence for researchers from seemingly dissimilar fields; though artists, scholars, scientists, and humanitarians differ in method, they all seek to explore one aspect of the human condition. Speakers will address the collective and individual crises that we face today. The researches of participating theorists are seen as case studies to understanding that such environmental phenomenon are the consequences of modernization. For one thousand years, this evolutionary process has been continuously repeated, revised, and reformed.

While experimenting with alternative practices of art institutions and community engagement, at the same time, we would like to commune with professional and academic societies to investigate our common concerns in the new age and to hopefully create a platform capable of providing solutions for the sustainability of our futures. In this way, Shanghai Project, its conference, and all related activities would like to take part in the endlessly expanding process of societal advancement. Though our efforts may be small, we believe that this is what art can and should be attempting in today’s world.

SESSION ONE: An Environmental State of Affairs

10:00-11:40 AM

The conference begins with two keynote speakers, followed by a roundtable addressing pollution, climate change, limited natural resources, and extinction—phenomena that are directly linked to the actions and behaviors of humans today. In response to such realities, the roundtable presents ways in which we can or cannot utilize contemporary technologies to construct new models for sustainable practice.

SESSION TWO: Traditional Chinese Medicine

12:40-2:00 PM

The first session of the conference addresses sustainable practices that impact the global community from a macro level, but the afternoon – which includes one keynote speaker and roundtable – takes a more pointed look at our individual health. While TCM is informed by modern medicine it is also built on a foundation of more than 2,500 years of Chinese practice, including herbal medicines, acupuncture, dietary habits, and now advanced technologies. Panelists address the growing research surrounding its impacts and what a greater understanding of qi might mean for the future.

SESSION THREE: Interconnected Biospheres

2:00-3:50 PM

The third session of the day sees two final keynote speakers and roundtable addressing the creation of new platforms suitable for the presentation of transdisciplinary research and contemporary societal needs. Such stages encompass literal metropolitan areas, within which we live and work, but also, the non-literal networks that govern our political, social, and personal lives. Through architectural, geographical, and anthropological perspectives we will address the boundaries of space and the needs of modern 21st century citizens.

Following the conference, there will be a VVIP EXHIBITION PREVIEWand the performance “How are you doing, the future that has never left“ by Du Yun, Shanghainese composer, multi-instrumentalists, performance artist, activist, and curator for new music, working at the intersection of orchestral, opera, chamber music, theatre, cabaret, oral tradition, public performances, sound installation, electronics, and noise.

April 22, 2017

Seeds of Time Exhibition Opening

Address: Daguan Theater

3:30-4:30 PM Registration

4:30-6:00 PM Opening Ceremony Performance

Addresses by Shanghai Project Organizing Committee

CEO & Founder, Envision Energy: Zhang Lei

Founder & Chairman, Zendai Group: Dai Zhikang

Co-Artistic Directors: Yongwoo Lee, Hans Ulrich Obrist

Statement by Deng Xiaoxian, Deputy President, General Secretary of Shanghai International Culture Association (SICA)

Sound performance by Du Yun locating amateur performers within a disappearing community of Shanghai—a city altered by vast developmental changes. The work repositions the dynamics of such disappearance and the ongoing evolution of the dialect, the Pudong Bentan Xi in the oral tradition. Du Yun challenges family tradition, an almost fabricated memory, similarly to the folk opera that has been taught and passed on through oral traditions, as well as the morphing dialects, and lingos that actively recharges the cultural and socio-scape of the city.

Excerpts from Frozen Songs – a dance performance in the making – presented by Ibsen International, zero visibility corp., and The Arctic Theatre is a global art and media project inspired by the Global Seed Vault, Svalbard. Artists from several countries and disciplines explore each other’s artistic language in this meeting point. The Seed—as a source of life, the beginning of everything, and the Vault (also known as the “Doomsday Vault”) representing the need to protect it at all costs. These “frozen songs,” resting in the depth of a mountain close to the North Pole, could one day save the world. Creation by Ina Christel Johannessen (zero visibility corp.), Norway, together with multimedia artists Feng Jiangzhou and Zhang Lin (Sifenlv Studio), xvc dancers, and music by Stray Dogs. The full production of Frozen Songs will premiere in Tromso, Norway on September 7, 2017.

“Bells for Shanghai,” a project conceived by the prolific activist and artistYoko Ono. Audiences are handed a small bell that they can sound at will. Amidst the ringing they are encouraged to make a wish, creating a somewhat discordant, but meditative resonance. Instead of suggesting a grand gesture or action for the sake of the planet, the audience is instructed, “don’t try to change the world, that’s a concept floating on our horizon. Just use your wits and change your heads.”

Introduction of the Shanghai Project Chapter 2 Advisory Committee Commemoration for the late art revolutionary Gustav Metzger

Shanghai Himalayas Museum

6:00-8:00 PM

Seeds of Time Exhibition Preview

Performances by Shanghai Project Chapter 2 Researchers “Agalinis Dreams,” Miriam Simun

A multi-sensory art experience that incorporates performance, video, and other mediums in order to raise questions about the interwoven history of humans with the other species with whom we share this planet.

“Sugar Umbrella,” Wang Xu

The artist gives the frames of discarded umbrellas new life and texture by reimagining their waterproof fabric as stained glass, but is unable to replicate their original function, raising questions of how we circulate in urban space and the tools we use to separate ourselves from nature and each other. The work also illuminates how our bodies exist in relation to the city and to each other.

“The Limerent Object,” Conceived by Sophia Al Maria’s Root Researcher Team

With the help of writer Vera Mey and choreographer Alvin Tran, Al-Maria’s video installation, dance, and text becomes a series of offerings and blessings for the future, as well as a speculation about how movement may one day look.

11:00 PM-1:00 AM After Party

April 23, 2017

Shanghai Himalayas Museum Atrium

Workshops: Behind the Scenes of the Shanghai Project

Participants include:

Frozen Songs (11-12 AM)

Shanghai Project Curatorial Team (1-2 PM)

Children’s Program with Researcher and Artist Wang Xu (2-3 PM)