Shanghai Native Weiwei Wang on the Biennale and her City
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For its 12th edition, the Shanghai Biennale has christened itself “Pro-regress — Art in an Age of Historical Ambivalence,” pointedly expressing its skeptical outlook.The premise is an extension of the 2015 Venice Biennale curated by Okwui Enwezor, whic
Shanghai Native Weiwei Wang on the Biennale and her City
For its 12th edition, the Shanghai Biennale has christened itself “Pro-regress — Art in an Age of Historical Ambivalence,” pointedly expressing its skeptical outlook.The premise is an extension of the 2015 Venice Biennale curated by Okwui Enwezor, which wrestled with the theme of “constant realignment, adjustment, recalibration, motility, shape-shifting.” The biennale’s Chinese title, Yubu, is named after an ancient dance used in Daoist rituals, and is intended to symbolize the flux of a troubled social order.This edition, which runs until March 10 at the Power Station of Art (mainland China’s first staterun Contemporary art museum), was curated by Cuauhtemoc Medina, Maria Belen Saez de Ibarra, Yukie Kamiya, and Weiwei Wang. The curatorial team reckon with the problems not just within the art world, but society at large. Works span Enrique Ježik’s speciallycommissioned “In Hemmed-In Ground” (which spells out, using bundled cardboard, the phrase “one step forward two steps back, two steps forward one step back” in large-scale Chinese characters); Yishai Jusidman’s “Prussian Blue,” a set of acrylic paintings based upon photographs of Nazi concentration camps; Voluspa Jarpa’s “Monumenta,” which shows strips of defaced archival documents; Hsu Che-Yu’s “Lacuna,” a video narrating troubling events from the artist’s youth in Taiwan through the lens of personal memory.In an interview with Modern Painters, curator and Shanghai native Weiwei Wang spoke about the Biennale, about shifting artist ambitions, and a few key spots in the city despite the fact that she confessed she prefers “staying at home with my books and my cat.”How long have you been living in Shanghai?Thirty-two years. I was born in Shanghai, and currently live and work in this city.What’s the best place for a coffee or tea?There are some nice cafes serving good coffee on An Fu Road, Fu Xing West Road, and around that area.What restaurants would you recommend?I love Xing Guang Fang Liang. They have the best crab dish there. Crab is a very unique and famous specialty in Shanghai’s autumn and winter season.What is the ideal spot to see live music?Mao Live House.Where would you recommend people stay when they visit?The Okura Garden Hotel.What is the most overrated thing people advise visitors to check out when they’re in town?The Bund, although the architecture is worth some time, notably the Peace Hotel, the Rock Bund Museum, and the lobby of the SPD Bank.What’s an authentic item you could only buy locally (or regionally)?Something created using local materials. There’s a design shop called Brut Cake, and they use traditional Shanghai fabrics to fashion into hand-made bags, mats, wallets and other items.What would see if you had a free morning or afternoon?I would go to Shanghai Library, followed by a cafe nearby. Otherwise I would go to the Shanghai Museum: They always have nice exhibitions, as well as displays of ancient Chinese art, collections of Chinese paintings and Chinese ritual bronze.Do you have a favorite book depicting the city or region, who writes about the city or region in an especially evocative way?No favorite, but I will recommend a book named Fan Hua, by author Jin Yucheng. I’m not sure if it’s translated into English.How would you say the local art scene has evolved in the past decade? How does the local arts scene dialogue with the global scene?The dialogues are developing in a more multilayered way. More art museums have opened and more art fairs are held in Shanghai, which in turn attract more international art experts here. These events set off a lot of international exchanges. Also, many figures have become more proactive than they were before about their international activity: some local artists are trying to break onto the international stage by themselves. They’re not just waiting to be picked by international curators or institutions for shows. This new generation is more open about collaboration with different organizations, even commercial companies.What are you most proud of regarding this edition of the Shanghai Biennale?In this edition, we were able to invite a large number of Latin American artists: Their creations have rarely been seen before by Chinese audiences. I’m happy that this edition of Biennale can bring some new perspectives to the Chinese art scene.Can you elaborate on the title “Pro-regress: Art in an Age of Historical Ambivalence”? What does it mean to frame a biennale as part of a larger intellectual struggle?I believe there’s no denying that we are living in unprecedented chaos, if we look at the world with a realistic view. Rapid economic and technological development have accelerated the trend of globalization, bringing about a certain degree of flatness and homogeneity. This stimulates the discontents of different societies, territories, civilizations and value systems simultaneously. The Information Revolution has driven liberal democracy in the international world, but has also lead to a number of conflicts and dilemmas. This contradiction —between progression and regression, liberation and imprisonment — is not actually a new phenomenon, and exists in every aspect of politics, society, history, and culture. But in today’s China, considering the rapid development of the economy, and the forces imposed upon culture and art by capital and politics, we believe that “Proregress” is worth discussing. It can raise new issues, and extend to a range of different topics. Contemporary art — which brings forth various subjective experiences and unique poetics — may provide us with some methods and perspectives to reflect on the range of disputes, anxieties, contradictions and conflicts, and help us to deal with the power of society’s perverse games.This article appears in the February 2019 edition of Blouin Modern Painters. Subscribe at www.blouinsubscriptions.comhttps://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more
