[spectre] Pourinfos/ Today is Shanghai Time #5

[xavier cahen]

pourinfos.org
l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news
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Today is Shanghai Time #5 !
http://pourinfos.org/index.php?art=34060


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1.Fringe Shanghai Festival

"Fringe Shanghai" is a vibrant annual arts event celebrating and 
supporting the innovative and visionary works of up-and-coming artists. 
This year's event marks the first such Fringe experience for Shanghai, 
opening a window to the premiere of international avant-garde arts. More 
than just a range of performances, "Fringe Shanghai" helps to lay the 
foundation for the development of a vibrant arts scene which will grow 
hand-in-hand with Shanghai's bustling economic environment.

With more than 20 international and local groups offering close to 100 
performances, "Fringe Shanghai 2006" is set to bring cutting-edge arts 
to life in Shanghai.

Fringe Shanghai is a platform providing an opportunity to emerging and 
established, Chinese and international artists to present cutting-edge, 
experimental and visionary artistic works which are not necessarily 
commercially viable.

more information http://www.fringeshanghai.com

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2.HARVEST II: The Second Annual Chinese Photography EXPO - Art Scene 
Warehouse

In what is being dubbed as Shanghai's biggest and best Chinese 
contemporary photography show, Art Scene Warehouse announces: Harvest 
II, the Second Annual Chinese Photography EXPO. Art Scene Warehouse's 
big space is bringing together the works of 16 of China's best 
photography artists. Some of the photographers, who come from throughout 
China, are among China's most famous and internationally exhibited, 
while others are young, emerging photography artists. The show is being 
co-curated by Gu Zheng, one of China's most respected photography 
curators. Gu curated the Guangzhou Photography Triennial in 2005, one of 
China's most important photography shows, as well as an exhibition that 
toured 4 USA museums in 2005 and 2006.

The title "HARVEST" refers to the culmination of the 16 Chinese 
photographers' hard work, being reaped and sewn at Art Scene Warehouse 
for viewers to enjoy. HARVEST also refers to the current autumn season, 
when the fruits of labour are reaped in the fields, as the fruits of the 
artists' work will be gathered together for a big exposition at Art 
Scene Warehouse's exposition.

more information http://www.artscenechina.com

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3. FOREPLAY -- Yang Zhenzhong Solo-Exhibition
Solo Exhibition: YANG Zhenzhong
Shanghart H-Space, Shanghai
Date: nov. 05, 2006 - nov. 30, 2006

The desire to challenge normative notions and fixed formats of social 
behavior informs the practices of Yang Zhenzhong's work. He is 
pre-occupied with a tendency to invert the order of things and often 
touches upon cultural conventions and out-dated social norms. He uses 
his diverse aesthetic language to describe what it is that makes up a 
community, with its functions, its exchanges, its rules and its 
behaviors. Yang Zhenzhong's playful videos, installations and 
photographs are more than visual reflections; they are intelligent 
comments on the design of contemporary society.

With a sincere attitude, but in a playful manner, the artist explores 
the contemporary preoccupation with questions of identity and 
perception, and the ability of images to turn apathy into anticipation, 
and ordinariness into desirability. He uses part fiction and part 
reality that tangles both the euphoric enthusiasm and deep anxiety of 
day-to-day experience. His work has lately been described as "an 
extraordinary distillation of an artistic practice that couldn't be more 
preoccupied with the nature of what is real".
Born in Xiaoshan in 1968, Yang Zhenzhong now lives and works in 
Shanghai. Yang Zhenzhong's work has showed at major international 
exhibitions, biennales and triennials. Recent exhibitions include China 
Contemporary – Art, Architecture and Visual Culture, Museum Boiman van 
Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2006), Yang Zhenzhong 
Solo-Exhibition, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2006), and China Power 
Station – Part I, Battersea Power Station – The Serpentine Gallery, 
London, UK (2006).

more information http://www.shanghart.com

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4.SHiNE Art Space - Cai Zhisong - Motherland
Date: nov. 15, 2006 - Dec. 15, 2006

The 'Motherland' series consists of three parts: the 'Ode' and 'Custom' 
works, which are figurative, and the 'Refinement' object pieces. In his 
figurative works Cai creates warriors which take influence from the Qin 
dynasty (221-206 BC), the era in which the infamous Xian terracotta 
warriors were created. In his interpretations of these ancient soldiers 
he implies no symbolic significance concerning this time period however. 
What we see is not a literal representation of a historical figure or 
one moment in time, but a figure who is representative of the trials and 
tribulations that have existed throughout history. We live in a time of 
great social flux, where decades of social upheaval have contributed to 
a frequently contradictory cultural identity. Cai Zhisong, in the midst 
of this turmoil creates sculpture that looks back to the stability of 
the past; his work is not a reiteration of Chinese history however, but 
a reaffirmation of the past and its relevance to contemporary times. A 
variety of materials are used in the artist's works: the clothed figures 
and objects are created using lead or bronze, and the nude warriors are 
constructed from a fiberglass shell that is covered in small copper 
squares, a method which results in a tactile surface which is richly 
textured and apparently aged. Cai Zhisong was born in Shenyang, Liaoning 
province in 1972 and graduated from the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts in 
1997 with his BFA, and in 2001, with his MFA. In this year Cai was also 
invited to exhibit at the Paris Autumn Salon, the first time in the 
salon's over 100 year history that a Chinese artist had been asked to do 
so. Here he won the prestigious Taylor prize and has since gone on to 
increasing international success. Today Cai lives and works in Beijing.".

More information : http://www.shineartspace.com

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5. 'Sickroom' Happening Art Exhibition Sickroom? DDM Warehousse
Date: nov. 18, 2006 - nov. 19, 2006

#14? What kind of the sickness? How did it come? Who the hell is the 
sick? Them or us? This group of people are taken as the unidentified 
sick. They live in the Sickroom #14. They are being observed, and 
observing the observers as well. Who on the earth belongs to this 
sickroom? Daily 11am-7pm. Free entry.
Besides the live show, some video installations will perform the 
interaction with the audience and the theater players. All the viewers 
and the viewees are inside and outside it at the same time. During the 
week after the theater show, all the props, installations, remnants, and 
image and video archives will be shown as a "happening art" exhibition.

"Company Niao" is defined by the international media as a "post-modern 
dancing company". The previous work by this company "Tongue's Memory to 
the Home" just took the ZKB Award, the 1st prize of Zurich Theather 
Spektakel 2006 in Switzerland. As one of the very few groups in mainland 
China, which are exploring the possibilities of "Physical Theater", 
Company Niao's latest production "Sickroom #14", which will be staged at 
DDM Warehouse, is one other physical theater experimentation.

more information http://www.ddmwarehouse.cn

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6. Shanghai Art Fair
Date: nov. 16, 2006 - nov. 20, 2006



The year of 2006 sees the 10th anniversary of Shanghai Art Fair, a 
highly influential platform for the exchange and trade of fine arts. To 
improve the organization and standards of this art fair, Shanghai Art 
Fair Organization Committee welcomes creative ideas and suggestions from 
people at home and abroad. You can offer your advice on how to hold a 
world-class and commercially successful art fair.

More information (but not much) http://www.cnarts.net/sartfair/2006/eweb/


Selected by:
Jérémie Thircuir
for pourinfos.org