Sculpture festival showcases global artworks
Shot by Jiang Xiaowei. Edited by Li Qian. Reported by Li Qian. Subtitles by Li Qian.
From busy streets to quiet residences, popular destinations to nondescript corners, sculptures have mushroomed across downtown Shanghai with the arrival of the seventh Jing'an International Sculpture Project.
The sculpture festival, to be held through December 31, is presenting 42 works from 28 artists from 16 countries at ten sites, with Jing'an Sculpture Park the main exhibition area.
Others include the decades-old Pengpu Xincun community, the shikumen-style Zhangyuan Garden commercial area and the chic Zhen Ning Fresh Market, which echoes with the festival's concept of "breaking boundaries, beyond evolution."
Here, we focus on four renowned artists.
They are Ram Katzir from the Netherlands, Jim Lambie from the UK, Juan Garaizabal from Spain, and Nadim Karam from Lebanon.
They explained the ideas behind their works, and talked about the role of public art in urban spaces.
As Garaizabal states - "My sculpture is everybody's sculpture, people develop a personal relationship with it," - all believe public art is closely linked with local people and communities.
Katzir uses "inclusive" to describe public art.
"It invites everyone to come and enjoy it," Katzir said. "You don't need to buy a ticket. You don't need to stand in line. People that are not necessarily interested in art can benefit from it.
Karam added: "Buildings are to the scale of cities. Sculptures or public art are to the scale of people".
He believes that public art can help generate stories, look at the memory of a place and bring an identity.
As for Shanghai, Katzir is impressed by its cultural atmosphere.
He saw a long queue outside the Shanghai Natural History Museum, which is in the Jing'an Sculpture Park, and he thought: "Yes, I'm in the right place."
According to Garaizabal, he finds it's a good example of how a city makes it easy for people to access and participate in culture and art.
"What I have seen from China and in particular Shanghai is that people are oriented to enjoy life in the streets and cultural activity," he said.
"I think that Shanghai, with this pioneer spirit and so many other things, is going to become one of the examples of how to integrate all these new and contemporary things and people. It's a city for just being happy. I'm happy."
The project.
Sculpture locations.
