Forum title: Urban Transformation Through Art

Recycling industrial monuments has become a trend for cultural diffusion. People believe that the conversion of industrial heritages into art and culture-related spaces may create not only economic added value but also attract investments in the long run in the name of “creative industry.” The iconic status of industrial heritages goes far beyond existing architectural recognition with their unique standing.

Converting gigantic steel-factory remains into art and lifelong-education city would be an exacting task. SIAC (Shanghai International Art City) is the working title being researched and established by Baowu Steel Group, the world’s second largest state-run steel company in China, in collaboration with SAFA (Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts) of Shanghai University.

SIAC has potential to be one of the most sparkling and adventurous models in the future that is going to reuse 3.25 square kilometers out of the total 26 square kilometers of Baowu Steel Industrial Heritages. SIAC invites art and design schools from home and abroad, visual culture-related institutions and studios including the film industry, gallery streets, art museums, art parks, artistic lighting systems, educational institutions, etc.

Given the theme Urban Transformation Through Art, hosted by Baowu Steel Group, SAFA, TICCIH (The International Committee for Conservation of Industrial Heritage) and LIHC (League on Industrial Heritage in China), and organized by SIAC Research Institute, the forum is aiming to be a platform for intense debate in Shanghai while reexamining how to redevelop and enhance Baowu industrial sites into art, education and creative industry zones envisioning one of the future subcenters of Shanghai.

The forum will also discuss the subject of super-abundance arising from overproduction and overconsumption, one of the most talked about issues in the field of art criticism, audience studies and cultural studies. The conference will also be a stage leading the discussion of deterritorialization and hybridity in the art industry.

The conference is divided into four different sessions with the following subtitles.
1. Rejuvenation of Industrial Heritage 2. Art, Industry and Audience Attraction 3. Urban Aesthetics: Ask City What Matters! 4. Art in the Age of Super-abundance

The chairs and speakers for each session are as follows (alphabetical order)

–Ute Meta Bauer (Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore) 
–Michael Bhaskar (Writer, Digital Publisher and Entrepreneur) 
–Andrew Brewerton (Principal, Plymouth College of Art) 
–Eva Franch i Gilabert (Executive Director, Storefront Art and Architecture) 
–Feng Yuan (Dean, Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts)
–Gong Yan (Director, Power Station of Art)
–Hang Jian (Deputy Dean, China Academy of Art)
–Stephen Hughes (Secretary-general, TICCIH)
–Riyas Komu (Director of Programmes, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India)
–Yongwoo Lee (Artistic Director, Shanghai International Art City Research Institute)
–Li Chao (Deputy Director of Liu Haisu Art Museum and assistant to dean of SAFA)
–Jean de Loisy (Director, Palais de Tokyo)
–Frances Morris (Director, Tate Modern) 
–Cuauhtemoc Medina (Chief Curator, 2018 Shanghai Biennale)
–Daniel Moquay (Coordinator, Yves Klein Archive)
–Betty Ng (Architect, Founder of COLLECTIVE)
–Apinan Poshyananda (Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Bangkok Art Biennale)
–Italo Rota (Scientific Director, NABA and Domus Academy)
–Karen Smith (Founding Director, OCAT Xi’an)
–Su Dan (Deputy Dean, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University) 
–Wang Dawei (Executive Dean, SAFA)
–Wu Jiang (Executive Vice President, Tongji University)

Industrial remains are not just decommissioned factories of iron, coal mines, steel, textile, tobacco, automobile, power plants and shipbuilding businesses from the past. They offer enormous challenges and potentials with an aesthetic aura that can never be reestablished in a similar size with industrial spectacles. SAFA will be the first institution moving into the Baowu Steel Industrial Heritage site in 2020 to enhance the differentiated educational system and value, as well as to facilitate a participatory platform for art.

Contact
wangliyin [​at​] shu.edu.cn or jiangcen_1 [​at​] hotmail.com

Shanghai International Art City Research Institute

Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts
#338 College of Fine Arts
No. 99 Shangda Road
Baoshan District, Shanghai