ART JOURNEY: The Chinese Power Station

ART JOURNEY: The Chinese Power Station

By Jorge Jefferds September 22, 2015

Established on Oct. 1st, 2012, the Power Station of Art (PSA) is the first state-run museum dedicated to contemporary art in mainland China. It is also home to the Shanghai Biennale. Standing tall by Shanghai’s mother river, the Huangpu River, PSA now occupies an area of 42-thousand square meters. With an internal height of 27 meters, the museum now houses exhibition sections that add up to 15-thousand square meters, and its 165-meter chimney, being an independent exhibition space. Furthermore, it has become an integral part of Shanghai’s world-famous skyline.

The Power Station of Art - Shanghai

Renovated from the former Nanshi Power Plant, PSA was once the Pavilion of Future during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The museum has not only witnessed the city’s vast changes from the industry age to the IT era, but also provided a rich source of inspirations for artists with its simple yet straightforward architectural styles. And as Shanghai’s generator for its new urban culture, PSA regards non-stopping innovation and progress as the key to its long-term vitality. The museum has been striving to provide an open platform for the public to learn and appreciate contemporary art, break the barrier between life and art, and promote cooperation and knowledge generation between different schools of art and culture.

The Museum Interiors with An Exhibition

Currently, there are two important exhibitions you might enjoy on your visit:

Copyleft Appropriation Art in China (Aug 15 – Nov 15)

In contemporary society, the phenomenon of Shanzhai - “copycat” - pervades every sphere, and plagiarism never ends. When we look back at the origins of Chinese contemporary art, the accusation that it worships the West incessantly lingers; when we reflect on the development of Chinese classical art, we may see that relentless imitation of predecessors is the label that has been commonly placed on Literati painting especially since the late Qing Dynasty. In light of these facts, one can’t help but wonder: what is the real reason the Western “appropriation” approach seems to fit China so particularly well? Are Chinese really what Westerners accuse us of being - disrespectful of copyright, with no sense of innovation? Are the current phenomena of Shanzhai and artistic plagiarism in China related to the tradition of Linmo - copying - that has historically existed in Chinese art? If Westerners can make attempts at total “appropriation” with no concern for copyright, why can’t Chinese practice Shanzhai, which at least involves making changes to the original work? Will an excess of reproduction and reproduced works affect the continued creative progress of art? The exhibition proposes the concept of “Appropriation Art in China” for the first time. The curator expanded and altered the Western concept of appropriation art, integrating appropriation, Linmo and Shanzhai with the intention of elaborating a concept of “Appropriation Art in China” that links the past with the present. Appropriation art in China, then, consists of at least three phenomena: Linmo, which is related to Chinese traditional art; appropriation, which is related to modern art and the contemporary art of the West; and Shanzhai, which has connections to contemporary society. By looking at the creative practices related to these phenomena within Chinese contemporary art, and by discussing the interactions between different approaches to artistic production and new technologies and materials; repetition and creativity or originality; intellectual property and the sharing and inheritance of knowledge, the curator attempt to render apparent the differences between the Chinese and Western concepts of appropriation.

Sou Fujimoto: Futures of the Future (Oct 10 – Oct 30)

Sou Fujimoto is a young architect at the forefront of the next generation and explore the possibilities of architecture in the future through looking closely into his practice. Having taken on more than 100 projects including houses and public buildings, Fujimoto has remained aware and repeatedly grappled with the state of people and spaces, and their relationships to the city. He has tried to create new spaces with residential designs such as House N and Tokyo Apartment, or facility designs such as Musashino Art University Museum & Library and Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013, steadily embodying his own ideas. 

By examining Fujimoto's major projects of the past as well as those that are currently underway, the exhibition introduces the architect's ideas and production process, and suggests the potential of architecture in the future. The gallery presents around a hundred models of the architect's past and current projects. And by tracing the changes in the spaces that Fujimoto has created, visitors can follow his wide range of ideas. The events promise to be a thinking experiment in which Fujimoto reevaluates architecture from the ground up and suggests various possibilities for its future.

Born in Hokkaido, Japan in 1971, Fujimoto graduated from the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 1994, and established his own office, Sou Fujimoto Architects, in 2000. Among his major works are Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013 (London, England, 2013), House NA (Tokyo, Japan, 2011), Musashino Art University Museum & Library (Tokyo, Japan, 2011), and House N (Oita, Japan, 2008).
He has won countless awards including first prize in the Liget Budapest House of Hungarian Music International Design Competition (2014), the Wall Street Journal Architecture Innovator Award (2014), grand prize in the Montpellier International Design Competition (2014), the Golden Lion for his part in the Japan Pavilion in the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2012), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Fellowship (2012), first place in the Taiwan Tower International Design Competition (2011), first place in the BetonHala Waterfront Center International Design Competition (2011), and the Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) Award (2008).

The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, between 11 A.M. and 7 P.M. The admission is free, except for special exhibitions.