2014.11.22—2015.4.19
COSMOS : Opening Exhibition of Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum
November 22nd, 2014—April 19th, 2015
Chief Curator: Dr. Ai Min
Co-curator: Li Zhenhua
On Friday November 21st, 2014 at 3pm, the Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum will celebrate its grand opening with its inaugural exhibition “Cosmos” (open to the general public on November 22nd). The Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum (“M21”) was established by the China Minsheng Bank and is located on the premises of the former French Pavilion in the World Expo Park in Pudong District. The grand opening exhibition —“COSMOS”— is composed of several modules: “Perceptual Resonance,” “Experience and Action,” “Three-dimensional Landscape,” “Poetic Sound,” “Displacement of Space,” and “A Return to the Individual.” “COSMOS” comprises hundreds of works from 52 artists and 7 art groups originating from 12 countries and regions including China, France, United States, Japan, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Norway, The Palestinian Territories and Hong Kong SAR and encompasses painting, installation, video, sound, photography and other art medium.
Heading the curation of this exhibition is Dr. Ai Min, Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Social Responsibility Management Committee of the China Minsheng Banking Corporation and Chief Director of the Minsheng Art Foundation. The museum has also invited internationally renowned curator Li Zhenhua to act as co-curator for this exhibition. Created by Dr. Ai Min, the overall exhibition concept and theme references the infinite possibilities theoretically existing in the field of physics—a hypothesis of pluralism evinced in the exhibition title “COSMOS.” Through this topic, the exhibition explores and describes the laws and constants of space, time, substance and energy, in order to examine how contemporary art defines and expresses our world. The exhibition was designed to inspire reflection by the artists and the audience on the ambiguity of “existence, the multi-dimensional nature of the world and the diversity of values of human society. This theme also deals with the reproduction of and inquiry into truth and the relationship between human civilization and narrative, which not only involves the imagination, but also the specific transformations of life and thought. Within this chaotic context of multi-dimensional realities, who doesn’t play a variety of roles?
The works presented in this exhibition explore how humans perceive their relationship with the natural world (natural sciences), their relationships with themselves (the humanities or anthropology) and their relationship with architecture. The exhibition includes Sissel Tolaas’s olfactory research and the Zen-like emptiness of the study’s final presentation as well as other reflections on natural and human environments—each of these suggesting the beginnings of a comprehensive awareness. Artists tend to classify themselves as “in-betweeners” rather than artists, and we can find this tendency in Ryoji Ikeda’s work, “Radar,” which converts visual mathematics and information into certain natural phenomena. Through an immersive experience and subtle methodology, the artist formulates a conjunctive gap between creative space and nature through visual spectacle and transmits this gap through sound and environment.
By means of exhibition, “COSMOS” conducts a discourse on the overall correspondence between the individual and space, resources, nature and the self. In particular, encounters between individuals within the space have the potential bind or exclude the individual from the epistemic world. This is perhaps why we require an exhibition with multiple levels of interpretation when discussing the eternal topics of “existence” and “co-existence.” Artists are not only able to share, project and meet with the audience through their works; they are also able to convey a spiritual, mental and physical experience to the audience. Humanity is inseparable from the real world and possesses an infinite imagination when it comes to possible worlds. Though we only rarely transcend the real world, this eternal moment of enlightenment may well serve as exercise for the body and mind.
Featured artists (in alphabetical order): aaajiao [Xu Wenkai] (China), (Switzerland), David Bestué and Marc Vives (Spain), COM&COM (Switzerland), Chim↑Pom (Japan), Duan Jianyu (China),Fu Xiaotong (China),Harald Fernagu (France) , Guo Xi (China), Niklas Goldbach (Germany), Hu Weiyi (China), Hu Jieming (China), Morgan Wong (Hong Kong, China), Ryoji Ikeda (Japan/France), Alexandre Joly (France/Switzerland), Khaled Jarrar(PalestinianTerritories), Jiang Hongqing (China), Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen (Finland), Kang Haitao (China), Li Ming (China), Li Xiaofei (China), Liao Wenfeng (China), Lin Yilin (China), Liu Guangyun (China/Germany), Liu Xinyi (China), Lu Shengzhong (China), Jennifer Wen MA (China),Ma Ke (China), !Mediengruppe Bitnik [Domagoj Smoljo and Carmen Weisskopf](Switzerland), Berndnaut Smilde (Holland), Roman Signer (Switzerland), Song Dong (China), Song Kun (China), Shen Ruijun (China), Sissel Tolaas (Norway/Germany), Bignia Wehrli & Peter Andreas (Germany), Wang Guangle(China), Wu Jian’an (China), Xu Zhen (China), Xu Qu (China), Imagokinetics (China), Yang Fudong (China), Yang Zhenzhong (China), Yan Lei (China), Zeng Lingxiang (China), Zheng Guogu (China), Zhou Xiaohu (China) and Zhou Wenzhong (China).
Minsheng Collection Artists (in alphabetical order): Michael Bevilacqua (USA), Fang Lijun (China), Pang Maokun (China), David Salle (USA), Wang Guangle (China), Wang Chuan (China), Wu Guanzhong (China), Yan Jiecang (China), Yang Feiyun (China), Zhu Jinshi (China), Zhou Tiehai (China) and and Zeng Fanzhi (China).
Special Site-specific Video Commissions: (in alphabetical order): Chen Ran (China) and Chen Juli (China).
About the Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Museum
The Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Museum (M21) was established by the China Minsheng Bank to promote an in-depth exploration into contemporary life and establish a widespread influence on society. For many years, Minsheng Bank has viewed the construction of regional, non-profit art museums as an essential part of its commitment to social responsibility and giving back to society. Over the years, it has established an outstanding level of professional and public influence. Building on Minsheng’s previous efforts, M21 aims to further consolidate its undertakings for art and public benefit in its brand-new venue and contribute to the establishment of a Minsheng art institution with international influence. An important mission of the new Museum is the creation of a vibrant art space; M21 will serve as a platform for discourse between pure art and applied arts, traditional art and avant-garde art, in order to break down the barriers between different artistic disciplines and diminish the distance between the public and contemporary art. The future exhibitions, collection, research and publishing at M21 will be founded upon a critical sensibility towards the cultural landscape of a new era, taking steps to participate in the creation of the contemporary.
The Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Museum is located in the former French Pavilion of 2010 World Expo. After the closing of the Expo, the French government, the Shanghai Municipal Government and the Shanghai World Expo Development Group with the support of former China Minsheng Bank Chairman Dong Wenbiao organized the repurposing of the building to be a comprehensive museum—a platform for integrating the arts and humanities, international exchange and creation of contemporary art that serves the local population of Shanghai and visitors from abroad.
About Dr. Ai Min, Chief Curator
Dr. Ai Min is a poet and the Vice Chairman of the Social Responsibility Management Committee at China Minsheng Banking Corporation. He has obtained a PhD Degree from the Department of World Economy at Fudan University. He possesses a deep and abiding passion for culture and has devoted himself to the promotion of culture in all fields including public education, contemporary cultural development and more.
About Li Zhenhua, Co-curator
Li Zhenhua has been an art professional since 1996, working in curation, artistic creation and production management. Since 2010, he has been a nominator for the Summer Academy at the Zentrum Paul Klee Bern (Switzerland) as well as for The Prix Pictet (Switzerland). He was a member of the international advisory board for the exhibition “Digital Revolution” held at the Barbican Centre in the UK in 2014. Since 2014, he has been the curator of the Film Sector in Art Basel Hong Kong.
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