The Power Station of Art’s first academic conference of 2014 kicked off from July 3 to July 4. Attendees to this conference from Power Station of Art included the director Gong Yan and the curator Li Xu; academic committee members included the post-colonial cultural theorist Homi K. Bhabha, Feng Yuan, Ding Yi, Gao Shiming, Li Xianting, Li Xiangyang and Lai Xiangling—who is also a member of the Shanghai Biennale Academic Committee.
After reviewing the work completed at the museum over the past six months as well as discussing upcoming exhibition plans, the academic committee commenced their final assessment for PSA’s Emerging Curators Program. Twenty-one proposals made it into the final round of deliberation, and committee members voted for the top three proposals. They are:
1. Chen Yun: “Dinghai Bridge: Artistic Practice and History” [“定海桥：对历史的艺术实践”]
2. Pu Hong, Wang Fei: “Small Leap Forward” [“小跃进”]
3. Song Zhenxi, Lu Ruiyang, the Open Question Institute: “Memorandum to the Earth” [“大地备忘录”]
It should be noted that there are more and more programs supporting young curators in China. For example, OCAT is currently engaged in their “Curator’s Project Call”, which especially encourages submissions from young curators who would be presenting their first project in a museum space. In addition to this, the second CAFAM Biennale held earlier this year entitled “The Invisible Hand: Curating as Gesture” was curated by six top curating graduates from around the world.
