Entry Point

cover of 2000 biennale catalog: notice reference to ocean, across water

cover of 2000 biennale catalog: notice reference to ocean, across water

 I first became interested in the 2000 Shanghai Biennale due to pure personal relations to the local and year.  Shanghai is the city of my birth and the millennium was the year my family immigrated over seas (when I was at the age of 7).  The personal ties was a good starting point in exploring and entering into such complex system as a biennale, global exhibition, and the political, and economic forces behind the city and country of Shanghai, China.  

Just as the millennium marked a definite milestone in the Gregorian calender and in my life (an ocean wide change), it was also a turning point for the Shanghai Biennale.  The Shanghai Biennale was first formed in 1996, making the 2000 biennale its 3rd in lineage.  But unlike its predecessors who focused only on Chinese artist and traditional forms of art (oils, ink, and watercolours) despite the label of biennale being a international model historically, the 2000 Shanghai Biennale was the first real attempt in fulfilling its name. 

cover of 1996 biennale catalog: notice reference to calligraphy and the Chinese description of mie shu (beauty) instead of yi shu (contemporary word for art, conceptual connotations)

The 2000 Shanghai Biennale operated for 2 month from November 6th to January 6th consisting of 67 artists from 15 nations.  Though the foreign to local artist ratio is about fifty-fifty, it is a big transition from the hundred percent to zero ratio of the past.  As for curators, the ratio of fifty-fifty is continued with the extended welcome to Hou Hanru and Toshio Shimizu (France based Chinese and Japanese curators) with local Li Xu and Zhang Qing. 

Theme of the biennale is "Spirit of Shanghai" with aims for the ideals of "progression towards greater openness" (Tung).  I argue that there is more of a theme of uncertainty and contradictions which was the greatest point of interest in the 2000 biennale.  Through the format of a blog (as individual thought bubbles, linear in design, but with the ability to juxtapose and comment on one another), I hope to explore various key ideas on politics, economy, identity, and globalization.