New Shanghai project
Shanghai Himalayas Museum will be the main venue of the inaugural Shanghai Project. Source: The Art Newspaper. Image: courtesy of Shanghai Project.
Gareth Harris, What will Shanghai look like in 100 years? New culture initiative to predict the future, The Art Newspaper, 29 March 2016
Hans Ulrich Obrist and Yongwoo Lee have invited artists, architects, hackers, bloggers and activists to participate in inaugural Shanghai Project
A new, large-scale cultural project based in Shanghai will weigh up the future of humanity, questioning the impact of climate change and urban sprawl. The Shanghai Project, a biennial event which launches later this year (5 September-13 November), will be overseen by Yongwoo Lee, the director of Shanghai Himalayas Museum, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the co-director of Serpentine Galleries in London.
The inaugural edition, entitled 2116, projects 100 years into the future when—according to a report by the science research organisation Climate Central—76% of Shanghai’s population will be located in areas submerged underwater due to global warming.
Shanghai Project promises to be a multidisciplinary venture covering visual art; architecture, design and communication; performance, moving image and sound; humanities and social sciences; and science, technology and ecology. “Artists, filmmakers, performers, musicians, designers, architects, engineers, hackers, bloggers, activists, and the people of Shanghai,” are invited to take part.
Ten individuals from various disciplines, or “root researchers”, will build teams responsible for producing new publications and works due to be unveiled at the close of the project.