Shanghai gets contemporary

The new Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in People's Park on Sept 24, seems intended to reach China's mainstream public. Located in the park's old greenhouse, strikingly redesigned by Liu Yuyang, a Rem Koolhaas collaborator, Shanghai MOCA is at the heart of the city and counts the Shanghai Art Museum, the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai Grand Theater among its neighbors. Described in press materials as "endorsed" by the municipal government, the new institution is privately funded and run.

Shanghai MOCA launched with an exhibition of photographs by the French duo Pierre et Gilles, thereby marking the end of the official Year of France in China. The facility joins Zendai Museum of Modern Art as the second private art museum to open in Shanghai this year [see "Front Page," Sept. '05]. It is a project of the Samuel Kung Foundation, named for the Shanghai-born, Hong Kong-based jade dealer who is also the museum's chairman and acting director. "This took two years of planning" Kung told A.i.A. He declined to specify how much he invested in the 19,400-square-foot museum, only quipping that "it was a lot of money for me, but not that much for a big corporation" In addition to income from the $2.50 admission, Kung hopes to gain support through museum memberships and major gifts, a novel gamble for China. "The Chinese are starting to give to social concerns, but arts patronage is totally new for us, so I will just have to push my friends to contribute," he said.

The museum plans to stage five to six shows per year, with a Swiss contemporary design exhibition up next, followed by "Italy Made in Art" curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. While planning to show Chinese artists in the long term, said Kung, "we will start with more international exhibitions, since we're new and have no collection, and gradually build relationships" Shanghai MOCA's staff includes curatorial director Oscar Ho, formerly the exhibition director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and creative directorVictoria Lu, concurrently the artistic director of the Bund 18 Creative Center [see "Front Page," June/July '05] and previously on the board of the Taipei Contemporary Art Museum.

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