The "2019 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season" (SUSAS) main exhibition is to be held in Yangpu Riverside at the end of this September. In line with the principal development strategy for public space along Huangpu River and Suzhou River, and focusing on "Better waterfront space, better life", the art season features theme exhibitions, case exhibitions, joint exhibition and public events in two months, integrates cultural planning such as "Millions of Citizens Visit Shanghai", and aims to help the world understand the completion of different types of waterfront space, construction achievements that have improved life quality, and the future vision of Shanghai.
This art season is to be hosted in the former Shanghai shipyard site (including the dock and the Maoma warehouse) as the main exhibition area and site. The 5.5km waterfront public space (from Qinhuangdao Road to Dinghai Road) in the southern section of the Yangpu Riverside will be used as the extended space for outdoor public art works, marking the first extension of the art season to the outside space, fully integrating art works into the artistic charm of the city.
Yangpu Riverside features 15.5 km of Huangpu River coastline, which, with rich heritage in former industrial building records the urban history of Shanghai's century-old municipal planning and industrial development, and carries the red memory of the Shanghai working class to vigorously contribute their efforts to build a new China. This area is planned to become a science and technology innovation zone as one of the key areas of transformation in Shanghai since the city has entered the renewal stage.
At present, the public space of 2.8 kilometers west of Yangpu Bridge has been opened, and the eastern area of 2.7 kilometers will also be opened in September this year together with the art season, when a number of repair projects of former industrial buildings will be completed. Currently, a number of functional projects are progressing in an orderly manner.
The theme of this main exhibition is "Encounter", which means that the encounter between people, between water and shore, between art and urban space, and between history and the future will bring better life and more beauty. The chief curator of the main exhibition is Mr. Fram Kitagawa, a globally renowned artist and curator who has long been committed to the artistic revitalization of regional economic practices. The main exhibition will be divided into two sections, "Urban Space Art" and "Planning and Construction", to jointly demonstrate the topic of waterfront space.
The "Urban Space Art" section will feature about 20 pieces of public art works—highlight in the whole Riverside area—in the area of 5.5 km of riverside space created by Mr. Fram Kitagawa and artists from all over the world, fully taking into consideration the historical heritage, characteristics in space and future prospects of Yangpu Riverside. The shipyard and the Maoma exhibition area will also host art exhibitions under the theme of "Encounter", leveraging the characteristics of the architecture and space. In the meantime, this art season will also provide five public art sites to collect outstanding art works from the world, and selected works could be preserved in the Riverside space.
The curator of the "Planning and Construction" section is Prof. Ruan Xin, Dean of the School of Design, Shanghai Jiaotong University. This section will vividly demonstrate the planning and construction concepts of waterfront space in China and foreign countries, and present the achievements and future prospects of Shanghai in the development of Huangpu River and Suzhou River.
Zhang Ming, Deputy Director of the Department of Architecture of Tongji University, is the chief architect of the art season, who will carry out the overall architectural design of the Shipyard, a key piece of artwork during the art season, and will work together with the architect teams for the design and construction of the Yangpu Riverside public space to complete the design of the exhibition areas.
