November 22, 2014–April 19, 2015
Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Museum
1929 Shibo Dadao
Pudong New District
Shanghai
www.21msms.com
Sina microblog / Douban site / WeChat: M21ART
Chief Curator: Dr. Ai Min
Co-curator: Li Zhenhua
On Friday November 21, 2014, the Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum celebrated its grand opening with its inaugural exhibition COSMOS (open to the general public on November 22). 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. 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 seven art groups originating from 12 different countries and regions.
Heading the curation of this exhibition is Dr. Ai Min, Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Social Responsibility Management Committee of the Minsheng Bank and Chief Director of the Minsheng Art Foundation in conjunction with internationally renowned co-curator Li Zhenhua. Created by Dr. Ai Min, the exhibition concept references the infinite possibilities existing in the field of physics—a hypothesis of pluralism evinced in the exhibition title COSMOS. The exhibition explores and describes the laws and constants of space, time and energy, in order to examine how contemporary art defines our world. COSMOS conducts a discourse on the overall correspondence between the individual and space, nature and the self. In particular, encounters between individuals within space have the potential to bind or exclude the individual from the epistemic world. The works also explore the reproduction of and inquiry into truth and the relationship between human civilization and narrative, and the specific transformations of life and thought.
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 (Palestinian Territories), Jiang Hongqing (China), Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kallleinen (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], 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, Pang Maokun, David Salle (USA), Wang Guangle, Wang Chuan, Wu Guanzhong, Yan Jiecang, Yang Feiyun, Zhu Jinshi, Zhou Tiehai and Zeng Fanzhi.
Special site-specific video commissions (in alphabetical order): Chen Ran and Chen Juli
About the Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Museum
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 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.
