The Shanghai Biennale:
Putting Shanghai on the World Art
Map
by Lisa Movius, Shanghai
Editor
 The stated goal
of the Third Shanghai Biennale is as ambitious as it is
simple: to win Shanghai a place among the world's leading art
centers. On the surface, this seems a foolishly grandiose
fantasy, considering the oft-lamented shortcomings of art and
culture in Shanghai and the questionable capacity of a
government sponsored event to revolutionize the arts. In
execution, however, the Biennale proves a seamlessly
organized, magnificently presented compendium of consistently
high-quality works by seventy leading artists from around
China and around the globe, making it -- hands down -- the
most significant thing to happen in Chinese art this year.
Sponsored by the Shanghai Municipal Government, and
nominally part of the Second International Festival of the
Arts, the Biennale is in effect the brainchild of love and
labor of five curators. Their vision goes beyond gaining fame
for Shanghai; they want to carve out a position for the city
as the leader of Asia, if not of all of the developing world,
in redefining contemporary art independent of Western
predominance. How they intend to do this is very wrapped up in
the Biennale's theme of "Shanghai Spirit", translated from the
more creative Chinese title of "Haishang Shanghai".
 "Shanghai [has]
always [been] the window to China through which the world came
to know and appreciate her culture and people. So 'Shanghai
Spirit' is embodied in the eager readiness of this city and
her people to assimilate various cultural elements and
renovate its own cultural traditions," expounds Chief Curator
Feng Zenxian. Toshio Shimizo, curator of the Biennale's
foreign exhibitions, expands upon the theme. "Shanghai has the
largest possibility [to match the superiority that Paris and
New York used to have]. It is due to this city's tradition in
producing hybrid values." He continues, "In Shanghai, energy
is flowing from inside and out, outside and in, past to
future, and future to past, free of time and place, a vortex
of mixed energies and different values." They feel that
Shanghai is not only well poised to synthesize Western art for
Chinese consumption, but to abscond with Beijing's title as
China's cultural ambassador. In other words, Shanghai best
represents the past, present and progress of China - and the
whole of Asia by extension - in a way that the rest of the
world can understand and appreciate.
 This year is the
first time the Shanghai Biennale has been an international
event, and the first time it has been held in the new Shanghai
Art Museum. In its previous two incarnations, it was a far
smaller affair, inviting only Chinese artists and exploring a
single, central theme. The 1998 Biennale, for example,
centered around works done solely in ink on paper. Biennales
and Triennales held around the world figure as the most
important measures of International stylistic progress, as
well as which of a slew of provocative topics, itemized by
curator Zhang Qing as international politics, Orientalism,
race, history, class, identity, gender, finance, global
capitalism, resource[s], super power, and regionalism"
currently reign supreme in the artist imagination. The leading
international exhibitions, such as the Venice and Lyon
Biennales, attract the eyes, the artists, and the critics of
the world in determining the "state of the Art," as it were.
Asia has recently seen an explosion of regional contemporary
art scenes, and an accompanying proliferation of major
exhibitions, such as the Kwang-ju, Sydney, Singapore, and
Taipei Biennales and the Yokohama, Fukuoka and Asia-Pacific
Triennales. With "Shanghai Spirit", the Shanghai Biennale is
seeking to distinguish itself from its Asian contemporaries
and climb a little closer to the status of the European
bigwigs.
 Biennale
Organizers have also positioned themselves as presenting an
alternative current against the current trend of modern art in
China. Curator of Chinese exhibitions Zhang Qing stated, "On
the Chinese art scene, [a] new generation, [a] political Pop
and cartoon generation emerged and artistic experiments
flourished, demonstrating the breadth and vitality of
contemporary art activities in the previously ignored or
stereotyped country. In Beijing and Shanghai, patrons from
embassy districts and galleries hosted by foreigners exerted a
strong aesthetic influence on local artists, who were kept
busy producing lucrative "new paintings for export" with
amazing speed and quantity. Artists' creation has been
directed by the Western art market, the imagination and
discourse of the new cultural colonialism. [At the 45th and
48th Venice Biennale,] foreign curators, haunted by
internationalism, post-colonialism and regionalism, were
scouting for samples labeled "Made in China" to add exotic
illustrations to their art ideology." Rather than catering to
this hegemony, the Biennale seeks to "promote Chinese
mainstream culture". One result of the international
exotification of Chinese art, Zhang points out, is that many
of China's leading artists have never shown in China; the
Biennale will be their first.
 Although the
Shanghai Biennale is infusing cash, publicity, and official
support into Shanghai's art scene, it is being met by many of
Shanghai's galleries and artists (excepting a few notables)
with an attitude of ambivalence, at best. Motivated by
challenges to their reigning paradigm, as well as sheer
territorialism, they view themselves in a David-and-Goliath
struggle, although the actual situation perhaps more resembles
Bambi and Godzilla. Although heralded as "peripheral
exhibitions", their general take and the ubiquitous inclusion
of a work titled "The Shanghai Biennale Awaits You", featuring
bored chat-room dialogue superimposed by two girls putting on
make-up hints at a more oppositional take. These exhibitions
range from the playful political pop of "Usual Unusual" to the
playful, whimsical absurdity of "Useful Life" to the
shock-for-shock's-sake, "shut us down so we can be famous
please" sensationalism of "Fuck Oof". While these twenty or so
small exhibitions are can be provocative and even interesting,
they are still nothing so shocking as a well-done and
enjoyable exhibition found in Shanghai.
 Art should make
you think, yes, but it also should be aesthetically pleasing.
Good art does both, and a good exhibition should send you away
with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and deep
thoughts in your head. On that level, the Shanghai Biennale is
an unqualified success. Although the Biennale has received
some criticism for mixing up different stylistic schools, the
result is complimentary rather than cacophonous. Likewise, the
inclusion of foreign artists, rather than detracting attention
for Chinese participants, illustrates that Chinese Art can
hold its own on an international level.
 Among the
highlights of the Chinese works featured is Liang Shuo's
9-piece sculpture, "Urban Peasants," which captures with
absolute and hilarious precision the spirit and appearance of
recent city immigrants, from their shoes all the way up to
their frightened but fascinated eyes. Shanghainese artist Chen
Yanyin, who studied in Sydney, presents the lyrical
installation of a bed of roses receiving hundreds of IV drips
from bottles labeled with the range of human emotions. Liu
Xiaodong, a Liaoning native, dominates the first floor with
his powerful, impressionist portrayals of daily life in China.
After years of repeating his famous panda public service art,
Zhao Bandi debuts four new pieces at the Biennale. Sui
Jianguo, from Qingdao, offers a creative take on the Old
Masters with his "Study on the Folding of Clothes," a series
of statues of the Renaissance classics clad in Mao suits. More
traditional artist include Hebei's Fang Lijun, who produces
giant gray woodblock scrolls incorporating traditional Chinese
styles. Ji Dachun, from Jiangsu, also merges traditional
Chinese painting with modern sensibilities, albeit in a less
imposing form, and Yu Peng of Taipei is one of many pure
traditionalists represented.
Foreign artists fill out the offerings nicely. Difficult to
find but worth the search on the second floor is "Shadow
Procession," a simple but haunting short film by William
Kentridge of South Africa. Bernard Frize's abstract acrylic
paintings provide a mad splash of vibrant color. Indonesia's
Henri Domo presents his whimsical, mechanicalized flock of
flying angels, complete with somber faces and little wooden
angel genitalia hanging down. Similar to the angels are
Funakoshi Katsura's wooden people, surreal yet strangely
sympathetic.
 These are just
a few examples of the hundreds of pieces included in the
Shanghai Biennale. Running until 6 January of next year, and
featuring a number of symposiums open to the public, it is
likely to have the biggest impact on both the artistic
community and the general populace of any art exhibition so
far. While it may not elevate Shanghai to desired place on the
international artistic stage in a single bound, it certainly
provides a successful boost up that stages first, steep
step.
The Shanghai Biennale
6 November 2000
to 6 January 2001
Shanghai Art Museum
325 Nanjing Xi
Lu
Admission: ?0
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