'RanRan' art season sparks to life with thought-provoking works
Would you like to see Shanghai through an artistic lens?
The visual and auditory art show "RanRan" Art Season, which brings together various forms of art, opened to the public on Wednesday at Xintiandi. What makes it different is that it invites people to become an integral part of the artistic works.
"RanRan" is co-presented by Xintiandi, a brand under Shui On Xintiandi, and UCCA, a leading contemporary art institution in China and is the result of a three-year incubation program for young artists.
The program invited curators, artists, scholars as well as architects to form an evaluation committee. They short-listed 15 artists from 422 candidates. Then, a cultural advisory committee composed of thought leaders from various fields selected three prize winners.
Inspired by the prose of Eileen Chang, "I hurried along the edge of the street; every step I took was a loud kiss upon the ground," the theme for this year's season is "Sparking into Sparkling."
It includes three sections, the "RanRan" Young Artist Exhibition, Salomon Public Sound Art Program "Ascending while Listening," and the Artistic Community Program "Strolling Around."
The three not only connect the exterior and interior spaces of Xintiandi, but also create an atmosphere where local culture and artistic expression merge. They invite visitors to stroll through the city and experience the romantic vibe between art and the urban environment.
A poster advertises the art season.
The "RanRan" Young Artist Exhibition features this year's three winners of the "RanRan" Young Artists Prize alongside six groups of resident artists.
Considering the growing popularity of outdoor activities, the "RanRan" program partnered with Salomon to launch a public sound art program titled "Ascending while Listening." The show encourages the audience to explore works scattered around the public spaces of Shanghai Greater Xintiandi and the Salomon flagship store, to activate bodily awareness whilst transforming the city in an auditory space through the act of "ascension," and to have a deep and immersive soundscape experience.
The third section of the show, a community program called "Strolling Around," invites users of Xiaohongshu (Red), a Chinese lifestyle and social media platform, and a wide range of art creators to share artistic inspirations based on their observations and creative ideas drawn from personal experience. Head over to the central courtyard of Xintiandi Style Ⅱ to check it out.
The art season will continue until December 8.
The Artistic Community Program.
If you go:
Young Artist Exhibition
Date: November 6 to 30
Time: 11am – 7pm (last entry 18:30)
Address: No.1, Lane 181, Taicang Road, Huangpu District
Salomon Public Sound Art Program
Date: November 6 to December 8
Address: Salomon Shanghai Xintiandi Store, Overpass at Xintiandi Style Ⅰ, Xintiandi Shikumen Block
Artistic Community Program
Date: November 6 to December 8
Address: Xintiandi Style Ⅱ B1 Central Atrium
Liu Shuai, Pigeon: From Shanghai with Love, 2024, installation, video, text, etc.
Shanghai is the birthplace of the country's modern homing pigeon sport, and countless folk memories of pigeons linger and rest between shikumen and alleyways. Inspired by this, the artist weaves a fictional story based on the habits of pigeon flight and navigation. In the alley, an old pigeon enthusiast discovers that his pigeons have returned with letters that don't belong to his time.
Huang Bing, Audience Seating: The Reproduction of Matins I.
This is an early morning theater experiment that invites janitors at Xintiandi to take the stage and attempt to explore the relationships between theater and everyday life, humans and time, as well as routine and repetition. The work is divided into four chapters: Audience Seating, Documentary, Acting Exercises, and Post-Performance Discussion.
Hu Rui, Imminent Decisions, 2024, video installation.
In Imminent Decisions, the artist imagines a story set in the fictional coastal city of Haixi in the 1940s.
