Art, books, life converge at Pearl Art Museum
The entrance of Pearl Art Museum
Editor's Note
Architecture is frozen music, an epic of stone and a cultural monument. An art museum epitomizes this. In this "Art unfrozen: a journey through Shanghai's cultural monuments" series, we will guide you through an immersive experience, from the museum's special architectural style and gift shops to its cafeteria or coffee shops in the museum's neighborhood. Aiming to level up with the world's top museums such as the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and the Tate in London, the art museums in Shanghai have been blossoming in the past decade. Visiting museums has become a lifestyle, a kind of social activity or recreation. The charm of an art museum permeates every corner. As well as the exhibitions inside, what else can visitors enjoy on a cozy weekend afternoon at a museum? Get ready for a museum trip!
Background
Co-founded by the Shanghai Xinhua Distribution Group and the Red Star Macalline Group Corporation Ltd., the Pearl Art Museum (PAM) is a unique site with a bookstore that maintains a close connection to everyday life.
As one of the few unique art and cultural spaces in China where an art museum and a bookstore coexist, the Pearl Art Museum - Space of Light was designed by world-renowned architect Tadao Ando.
Since its opening in 2017, Light's Space Bookstore has won more than 50 national, municipal, and district awards for its high-quality cultural services, unique spatial environment, and innovative business model that closely integrates reading and art, including: "2023 Second National Reading Conference - Most Beautiful Bookstore of the Year" and "The Most Beautiful Xinhua Bookstore in China (2019)."
The mission of PAM is "illuminating life through art."
Using interconnected working methods and bringing together top artists and creatives from all over the world, PAM has created "a museum without walls and a mobile art academy," energizing the city with art, culture, creativity, and an open collaborative approach.
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The Heart Hall
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The bookstore has nearly 150,000 books, covering a wide range of high-quality books.
Architectural Style
Passersby on Wuzhong road can see a silver metallic "egg" embedded in one of the corners of the roof of Aegean Sea Shopping Center, which is the iconic exterior of the art museum and bookstore.
Designed by Tadao Ando, the Japanese legendary figure in the world architecture community, the art museum-cum-bookstore is another of his signature works in Shanghai.
The egg-shaped space is the core of Heart Hall, which connects the Light Space Bookstore on the 7th floor and the Pearl Art Museum on the 8th floor in a multi-functional space with a cluster of 10-meter-high log-made bookshelves. Heart Hall culminates the architectural concept of the "egg" of Tadao Ando, with its structure, the special design of the lighting and the preservation of the iconic concrete-made wall beside the staircases. It also has a projected starry dome plus a reading coffee bar, becoming a must-visit destination for readers and fans of architecture because of its visual impact.
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The on-site exhibition scene
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Connecting art and reading, the hall allows the Pearl Art Museum and the Light Space Bookstore to interact in a three-dimensional way in terms of form and content.
With a total floor area of about 5,000 square meters, the bookstore has nearly 150,000 books, covering a wide range of high-quality books, in fields varying from humanities, social sciences, literature, art, architecture, and design to finance and economics, life and growth.
Different from other art museums in town, an art trip is not confined to the museum, but is a start for a new experience on entering the bookstore.
Cafeteria
A group of professional baristas who love coffee work at the cafeteria of Light Space.
Apart from coffee, the first season of the "Space of Light Writers' Cocktail List" features seven cocktails with interesting names. For example, "Sunrise on the Sea" inspired by Bakhtin's essay "Sunrise," with a color that mimics the sun's gradual brightening as it emerges from the sea. "Whiskey 'Cocktail'," which Mark Twain was so enamored with that he drank a glass of it before breakfast, dinner, and bedtime. The "Gimlet" was mentioned 21 times by Raymond Chandler in his detective novel "The Long Goodbye."
These books are displayed at the bar that also features a "Writers' Wine List", synchronizing reading and wine tasting for an immersive experience.
The Light Space Bookstore
Gift Shop
As the cultural and creative platform of PAM, the Life & Art boutique (LAb) practices the concept of sustainable development, with extensive crossover cooperation based on the regenerative power of "Re-". "Re-" represents multiple meanings such as "re-creation" and "re-use", which not only contain the creative recycling of materials, but also extends to fields such as working methods, innovating the multi-dimensional connection between art and life.
Three Bestsellers at the Gift Shop
1. The art derivatives of Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939)
During the first Mucha retrospective in China at the Pearl Art Museum in 2019, the art derivatives of his works cover a wide range of categories such as apparel, stationery, and household items.
One of the highlights is the co-branded Mucha apparel series launched by the Pearl Art Museum and renowned designer Zhang Na, founder of the "Recycled Clothes Bank," which includes items such as clothing, silk scarves, fans, and pillows. Utilizing 100 percent environmentally friendly fabrics, combining the concepts of environmental protection, traditional elements, and modern forms, Zhang re-interpretated the beauty of Mucha's works.
2. The art derivatives of Victor Hugo exhibition
The "Victor Hugo: Inside the Mind of a Genius," exhibition held in 2019 launched a variety of exhibition-related derivatives, including canvas bags, folders, bookmarks, and note bricks. The most impressive is a 3D-printed floral vessel, shaped from the last lines of Hugo's last poem -- "Love is action." (aimer, c'est agir).
3. The art derivative of the exhibition "In the Name of Flowers"
The "In the Name of Flowers," exhibition in 2020 developed silk scarves, tapes, and prints.
If you go
Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday, Sunday 10am-7pm (Last admission at 6pm); Saturday 10am-10pm (Last admission at 9pm)
Address: 8/F, 1588 Wuzhong Rd 吴中路1588号
Admission: 80 yuan
