Page 215 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

Host: ARIC CHEN imagination in literature and movies. This forum discusses
Designers: SPUTNIKO! THOMAS THWAITES, ERIC body of water from the perspective of literature and film,
KLARENBEEK, CHEN YIYUN, DOGMA LAB (BENJAMIN extending from river waters to the ecological cycle of
BACON AND VIVIAN XU) water, deeper into the spirit of social organizations and
Investors: JERRY MAO, ART DICKER, HARRY HUI, YI people, and exploring the symbiosis between different
ZHOU ethnic groups. Also, it expands individual experience and
imagination to the macro experience of human existence.
In a time of increasingly complex problems, alternate
and parallel narratives, and contested notions of the WORKSHOPS
future, can speculative design and capital - and their
shared oscillations between fact and fiction, real CAO MINGHAO, CHEN JIANJUN: “HABITAT,
and fake, tangible and illusory -conspire to generate GEOLOGY AND ENER GY”
desirable scenarios for humankind and the planet? Screening
SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION OF HENGDUAN
As part of the Biennale’s “*A* WET RUN REHEARSAL”
MOUNTAINS - ARID RIV ER VALLEY
series of talks in November 2020, Smart Tank aims to
35MM, COLOURED, CHINESE, SHANGHAI FILM S TUDIO
speculate about speculation, be it artistic or financial.
Similar to Shark Tank, it will provide a platform
“Habitat, Geology and Energy” is a workshop for
for approximately 5 artist-designers to pitch their
artists Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun to discuss
speculative proposals -whether growing buildings from
how to think about the theological reality of the
mushrooms, or developing devices for interspecies
water system with ecologist Tong Chunfu and
communication -to a live panel of (real) investors
the participating audience. The artists’ long-term
and venture capitalists. Each artist will be given 8
artistic practice and research project “Plan of Water
minutes to introduce themselves and their proposals,
System”, which began in 2015, is mainly based
followed by questions from the investor panel. At the
on the on-spot investigation to re-examine the
end of the presentations, the investors will decide
rheological reality of the upper and lower reaches
how to allocate 10 million RMB (not real) to the most
of the Dujiangyan Water Conservancy Project. In the
promising proposals.
upper reaches of the Minjiang River and its source
Designers: SYMPTOMATIC OF COMPLICIT FORGETTING, area, the geological and geographical environment
BY WANG TUO; THARLO BY PEMA TSEDEN is extremely complex. Combined with the research
Panelists: MAO JIAN, WANG TUO, PEMA TSEDEN and field investigation in this region, the artist
imagines the important role of geological energy in
Through the symbiotic experience of “bodies of water,” the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. There are
human beings have condensed into a kind of narrative “foundation, disasters, cooperation, conflicts”.
The projects and historical events of the human
Dai Chenlian, Waxing and Waning of the Augustness 3, 2020-2021, society born in this region have also been integrated
painting, installation, 365 × 435 cm each, installation view at the 13th into some forces other than human beings. When we
Shanghai Biennale PHASE 03: AN EXHIBITION, 2021. Courtesy Power
Station of Art, photo by Chen Hao. re-examine the rational progressive modernity, the
existing technology fails to reduce the ecological
anxiety, and the on-the-ground reality of the
pluralistic habitat is obscured by the absolute
concept of “nature”.
When we are anxious to ”face the environmental
reality of global, local and marginal” corners, we
may need to re-look at the human activities and
historical structure of this region to understand the
relationship between the plight of contemporary
water systems and the ecological roots of other
regions.

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