Running head: SHANGHAI BIENNALE

The role of curators in

Chinese contemporary

art: The case of Shanghai

Biennale
Student’s name:
Professor’s name:
SHANGHAI BIENNALE
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Course:
Date:
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Contents

Acknowledgment.................................................................................................................4

Executive Summary............................................................................................................5

1. Introduction.................................................................................................................6

1.1 The Purpose of Study......................................................................................6

1.2 Research questions.........................................................................................8

1.3 Proposed Methodology.....................................................................................13

2. Literature review.....................................................................................................13

2.1 Biennale.......................................................................................................................14

2.2 Trend of Shanghai Biennale................................................................................16

2.3 The history of Shanghai Biennale.....................................................................23

3. Context........................................................................................................................37

3.1 The history of Chinese contemporary art market..............................37

4.Methodology: review, evaluation, and reflection...................47_Toc47103867

4.4 Data collection: sampling, data analysis, and interview procedures. 48

5. Discussion....................................................................................................................49

6. Findings and contribution....................................................................................50

7. Reference......................................................................................................................53
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Acknowledgment

It has been a challenging learning period for me. It has a profound

influence on me to finish this paper. During this time, I was helped by many

people. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Lee for assisting me in

determining the dissertation's main research direction. He always gives me a

lot of academic support and encouragement, making me confident to continue

to complete the research. Also, it enables me to learn a lot of knowledge and

skills. Secondly, I would like to thank my parents and friends for their support

and companionship. They provided resources related to my research and

hence help to find problems and improve together. I appreciate your supports!
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Executive Summary

The exhibition has always been regarded as a powerful platform for

cultural display and interaction. As China grows economically, militarily, and

technologically, it increasingly wants its soft power to go hand in hand with its

hard power. China wants to display its cultural image in the international

community to increase its foreign influence; then, to no small extent,

exhibitions are helpful to display Chinese characteristics to increase its global

influence. However, various factors such as globalization and the natural

dynamic changes of the cultural aspect, economic aspect, and social aspect

influence these efforts both negatively and positively.

Considering the history and trend of the Chinese Contemporary art and

Shanghai Biennale, various events reveal the journal of the Chinese

contemporary art and Shanghai Biennale up to the current international and

globalized art mark and projects. The encounter in the historical outline and

shift of activities also reveals the role of curators in promoting Chinese value,

utilizing the Shanghai Biennale, and implementing digital media to enhance

their activities and encourage artwork, especially for young artists. The

encounter of the influence of globalization and modernity reveals that the role

of curators continues to become essential in the exhibition of Chinese

contemporary art and Shanghai Biennale function. Additionally, there are

more professional fields for curators to continue to emerge, and this new that

their role and responsibilities are also likely to move into a new phase.
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1. Introduction
1.1 The Purpose of the Study
Since the mid-to-late 1990s, China's economy and other hard power have

begun to proliferate due to the Chinese economic reform policy. At the same

time, China wants to establish an image: "as a peace-loving nation standing

for harmony at home and abroad" (Nathan & Scobell, 2012, p. 321).

Therefore, soft power needs to go hand in hand with hard power. Then, the

exhibition, as a powerful platform for cultural display and interaction, is helpful

to build China's international image and enhance its global influence (Yao,

2017). The first biennial was founded in Venice. According to Guo (2011), in

the early 1980s, The Biennale formally invited China. In order to distinguish

from western art, the exhibits sent by China were traditional arts with Chinese

characteristics, such as paper-cut and embroidery. Since the 1990s, the

biennial has become the most representative art exhibition in the world

(Markin, 2016). In 1993, Although there was no China pavilion in the Venice

Biennale, Chinese artists had begun to appear at the Venice Biennale (Guo,

2011; Wang, 2013). It was not until 2003 that the China Pavilion was

established at the Venice Biennale (Wang, 2013). In fact, in 1996, China's

international contemporary art Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, was established

in Shanghai.
In 1996, China's own international contemporary art biennale----the

Shanghai Biennale, has been launched in Shanghai. Although Shanghai is

not the only city holding the Biennale in Mainland China, it is not only the first

international contemporary art Biennale in Mainland China but also one of the

most influential Biennales in Asia (Biennale Foundation, 2020). Therefore, it is

of research value to select Shanghai Biennale as a case study.

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In addition, the concept of a curator was also introduced to China from the

West during the Chinese economic reform period. A Curator is "a person who

organizes and arranges a showing of art or other objects of interest

"(Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary).

In other words, a curator is a person who is responsible for organizing the

entire exhibition and is the soul of an exhibition. Curators need to organize

and select resources for an exhibition, which is related to some theories of

human resources. However, it is worth noting that most studies in the field of

the contemporary China art market have focused on auction houses,

museums, and galleries, and other institutions or the policy of curators. A

search of the literature revealed few studies which have examined in detail

the role of curators in exhibitions in China. What is more, there is rare

literature which has an analysis of what curators do in the exhibition in

combination with actual a case in detail in China. Therefore, the purpose of

this study is to focus on the role of curators in Chinese exhibitions so as to

provide relatively accurate academic guidance for the future development of

the professional abilities of curators in domestic schools and curators'

laboratories. It also helps the public countermeasure makers to have a deeper

understanding.
According to Baratta (2017), biennial curators are very different from

curators in museums or galleries, because the relationship with local

government departments, artists and audiences need to be taken into account

by them. In 2012, the Chinese government published China's core values.

Therefore, in light of China's different political environment from that of the

West, curators need to ensure that the Shanghai Biennale can be conducted

in China in a reasonable and legal manner in the face of Censorship.

Gaskin(2018) describes that "Medina said it is always the job of curators and

artists to negotiate the limits of 'discourse.'" Behind this，it is worth exploring

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what curators have done in the Shanghai Biennale. However, due to the

openness of the city and the long history of Shanghai Biennale, it cannot

represent the art exhibitions of the whole Chinese mainland at the level of

Shanghai Biennale.
Therefore, this dissertation aims to take the Shanghai Biennale as a case

study to examine the role of the curator from three aspects: the consideration

and integration of Chinese Core Values, the selection, and promotion of

young artists, the use of digital media in the exhibition. Furthermore, this study

is in accordance with ethical standards during the research process.

Respondents are voluntary, and the information collected is for academic use

only. This study respects the right of anonymity of interviewees, and

recordings will be made only when they are unified. The final research data

can be accessed by the interviewees.

1.2 Research questions

Many articles indicate that the Biennale is an extremely influential

exhibition. China has also discovered this and introduced the Biennale to

China since the 1990s. However, China's national conditions and political

system are entirely different from those of western countries, so a series of

problems brought by the introduction of the Biennale needs to be further

considered. So how do curators create a Chinese style biennale? What

factors will influence the curators in determining the exhibition theme?

Since 1996, the Shanghai Biennale has been held in Shanghai.

According to Zhu's interview data (2007), a group of overseas artists returned

to China in 1994 and began to promote the development of Chinese

contemporary art. Several artists have chosen Shanghai as the city to host

the Biennale because of its concession history. Zhao (2004) believes that the

history of Shanghai has given the city a unique blend of diversity, thus making
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Shanghai a base for modern Chinese culture and art. In addition, the birth of

the Shanghai Biennale was an accident, because it does not belong to the

long-term strategy of Shanghai's cultural development. Therefore, from the

beginning of the preparation of the Shanghai Biennale, the government has

not played a decision-making role (Zhu, 2007).

In fact, it can only be said that the exhibition began to have institutional

rules from the third Shanghai Biennale. However, at the same time, the voice

of criticism followed. Yang (2001) criticized the avant-garde art that

transcended the moral bottom line due to the splash of the Third Shanghai

Biennale. On the other hand ， this also caused the government to put

pressure on artistic ethics. Therefore, in order to avoid ideological problems,

Fang (2007) proposed that starting from the fourth Shanghai Biennale,

architecture is the core of the exhibition. For example, this year's chief curator

is also an architect. This shows that the planning team of the Shanghai

Biennale held the Shanghai Biennale by chance. As the Shanghai Biennale

gets more and more attention, different voices come along. Under pressure

from the outside world and the government, curators of the Shanghai

Biennale tried to uphold their principles by solving problems from a different

angle.

According to Hang (2005), there has been no curator in China's past

exhibitions, and art officials, especially artists, usually dominated them. After

the reform and opening-up, due to the fact that people in China have no

experience in operating galleries and other organizations and organizing

exhibitions, they have chosen to imitate what they believe to be legitimate

foreign models (Kharchenkova,2019). "Along with the traditions in Chinese

society at the beginning of the 1990s, Chinese art has gradually shifted from
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blindly imitating Western modernist art toward possessing a consciousness of

its own culture …" (Zhang, 2000, p. 347). However, Zhu, Peng, & Chen

(2011) point out that "Chinese curators are highly Westernised."

On the other hand, in 2012, China's core values were promulgated. They

are twelve words: prosperity, democracy, civility and harmony, freedom,

equality, justice, and the rule of law, and advocate patriotism, dedication,

integrity, and friendship (Zhou,2018). Furthermore, Shanghai Biennale serves

as an international exchange platform for Chinese contemporary art. "It invites

foreign curators, museum directors, and art professors to co-organize its

exhibitions" (Markin, 2012). The theme of the 12th Shanghai Biennale is "Yu

Bu( 禹 步 ) Progress: Art in an Age of Historical Ambivalence." "The curator

claims that the premise echoes that of the 2015 Venice Biennale, curated by

Okwui Enwezor, which posited global reality as 'one of constant realignment,

adjustment, recalibration, motility, shapeshifting.'" (Deng, 2018). This is not a

successful biennale, but it is not a failure as well, because it is very

controversial, at least from some evaluations. Fu (2018) believes that this is a

good reflection of reality. "The link between lofty aestheticism and grave

reality—in this case forged not by substance but by the curators' metaphorical

imaginations—typifies a disappointingly large number of the works" (Deng,

2018). Tang (2018) believes that this exhibition is just a collection of shallow

and crude exhibits collected from around the world, and there are very few

local works. Qiu (2018) believes that this is precisely an exhibition of the

European and American system, and that is globalization leading to

homogeneity. It is undeniable that of the 67 artists/groups participating in the

12th Shanghai Biennale, only 20 / groups are Chinese artists (Zhang, 2018).
To sum up, the West has strongly impacted Chinese contemporary art.

Therefore, keeping the cultural identity and protecting Chinese contemporary

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art from westernization are things that curators have to consider. Therefore,

this study hypothesizes the following:

Question 1. How do curators comprehend Chinese value and integrate it

into the theme of the Shanghai Biennale?

A gallery operator stated that this is 'the era of art fairs' because it is an

interactive and open art event that can easily attract public attention (Wang,

2009). "The uncertainty of contemporary art requires the explanation of its

symbolic value/meaning. The procedure of building such value requires what

'the art world calls validation, and the business world calls branding'" (Lee

&Lee, 2016). Lee and Lee (2016) also mentioned that there is a system for

selecting exhibitors in Frieze London. Young artists require to provide a series

of information for jury members, including curators, to select.

Nevertheless, these documents rarely mention the role of the curator. It is

easy for people to confuse the concept of the Shanghai Biennale and the

Shanghai Art Fair, although the purpose of them is different. The former

represents the creation of art; the latter represents the art market (Joy &Belk,

2019). The Shanghai Art Fair is an art exhibition hosted by the Shanghai

Municipal Government for business purposes. All booths in the exhibition are

rented to galleries, and well-known artists with a good record (The Shanghai

Art Fair, 2020). Due to the fact that the Shanghai Art Fair is government-led,

the role of the curator may be buried among collectors, sellers, and investors.

The Shanghai Biennale is an exhibition focusing more on the value of art

itself. With the exception of the first two sessions, since 2000, each Shanghai

biennale has been run by a chief curator and other curators (Shanghai

Biennale, 2020). Joy& Belk (2019) argues that although the works of the

Biennale were not created for sale, the Biennale is also a market in nature,

which often creates demand rather than direct supply. In other words, it is

possible that the curator can promote young artists at the Biennale, so that
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they can have the opportunity to participate in the Shanghai Art Fair, and

achieve double affirmation of artistic and commercial value. The Biennale

presents art to global and local audiences with a clear intention, and it is up to

curators to decide which works are selected and the theme of the event

(Altshuler, 2008). This shows that an exhibition is currently a prevalent form of

art display.
Nevertheless, the concepts of the Shanghai Art Fair and Shanghai

Biennale are easily confused. The Shanghai Biennale can be said to be a

platform for young artists to be seen by the public. Through this platform, they

have the opportunity to be seen by those who are interested in them, and they

have the opportunity to become famous and participate in art fairs. The

curator's selection criteria for young artists, and whether the process is fair is

also worth considering. Therefore, this study hypothesizes the following:

Question 2. In what ways do curators select and promote young artists

whose compositions fit the theme of the Shanghai Biennale?

The commercial value and artistic value are closely related (Lee &Lee,

2016). The use of electronic screens is prevalent in modern exhibitions.

Visitors have established good interaction with exhibits through touch

screens, which has dramatically stimulated people's interests in exhibits

(Slentz,2017). At the same time, with the development of technology, the use

of digital media such as VR viewing exhibitions has become more

widespread. For example, the Shanghai Biennale has established an online

VR viewing exhibition on its official website. The dynamic version of 'the

Qingming Shang he map' displayed by the digital media in the China Pavilion

in the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 became the treasure of the town hall

(Liu, 2011). Due to the fact that how to use digital media in an exhibition is

one of the jobs of a curator. This shows that with the development of
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technology, the combination of exhibition and high technology is undoubted.

However, high technology means high costs. The problem of raising funds for

the Shanghai biennial is not easy to solve (Zhu, 2007). Therefore, this study

hypothesizes the following:

Question 3. How do curators apply digital media into the Shanghai

Biennale to increase the artistic value of exhibits?

1.3 Proposed Methodology

This paper will study the history of the Shanghai Biennale and collect the

secondary data from the videos, commentaries, and criticisms of previous

Shanghai Biennales. It is also necessary to try to contact the Shanghai

Curators Lab to get a chance to interview some curators so that I can collect

the primary data. I aim to have different interviewees. They are junior

curators, senior curators, and chief curators of shanghai biennale. I will use

different types of interviews. "Semi-structured interviews are useful when

collecting attitudinal information on a large scale, or when it is not possible to

draw up a list of possible pre-codes because little is known about the subject

area" (Fox, 2009). Hence, for the junior curators, I will use semi-structured

interviews to ask some general questions in 15 minutes per person. For

example, what is the most challenging issue at the beginning of being a

curator?
For senior curators and chief curators, I will use in-depth individual

interviews, because "individual interviews are valuable to provide detailed

information about the meaning of an event, situation or social context to each

participant in a setting" (Fox, 2009). Meanwhile, "in-depth interviews do allow

the participant to communicate much more freely and to provide more

detailed descriptions when compared to semi-structured interviews" (Morgan

et al.,2016). First of all, I will ask them about their experience since they
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became curators, then from their experience, I will delve into their role in the

exhibition.

2. Literature review
This chapter focuses on Biennale, curators, and young artists to carry out

the relevant literature review. Through these three aspects, this paper hopes

to briefly explain the research purpose, the definition of relevant concepts,

and the research scope of this paper.

2.1 Biennale
Biennale is an Italian adjective, which means every two years (Cambridge

Dictionary, 2020). In 1893, the Major of the Venetian City Council decided to

hold a biennial exhibition to show the best Italian art (British Council, 2020).

The first Biennale launched in Venice two years later, which is more than 120

years ago. "La Biennale, who stands at the forefront of research and

promotion of new contemporary art trends, organizes exhibitions and

research in all its specific departments: Arts (1895), Architecture (1980),

Cinema (1932), Dance (1999), Music (1930), and Theatre (1934)" (La

Biennale, 2017). Guo(2011) believes that the 1948 Venice Biennale is an

important historical point for the Biennale to become the largest and most

influential contemporary art exhibition in the world.

According to Guo(2011), in the 1980s, China received an official invitation

to participate in the Venice Biennale. However, China, at that time, exhibited

some traditional arts such as paper cutting and embroidery. In 1993, the

appearance of Chinese artists at the Venice Biennale opened the door to

Chinese contemporary art. Since 1993, each edition of the Venice Biennale

has involved Chinese artists, but the selection of the works on display is

entirely up to the curators. Western curators at the time preferred the work
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with politically sensitive or realistic individual life. To put it simply, the works

that show the poverty of Chinese life and the oppression of communist politics

are relatively consistent with the unconscious prejudices of western curators.

In 2003, the Venice Biennale officially opened the China Pavilion, and

Chinese curators began to make their mark. Fan, the director of the National

Art Museum of China, and Wang, deputy director of the Institute of Fine Arts

at the China Academy of Fine Arts, were curators for China in 2003 Venice

Biennale. Based on traditional Chinese culture, they strive to export Chinese

culture at the Venice Biennale. It can be seen that the early curators had high

power in the Biennale, and the works exhibited were in line with the curators'

subjective consciousness to a large extent.

The Biennale is an art exhibition that neatly and appropriately combines

many things that seems to be relative contradictory. Markin (2016) points out

that the Biennale is focused on contemporary and postwar art. Guo also

mentioned that the Biennale has genuinely become a representative

exhibition of cutting-edge international art after World War II.

Meanwhile, the Biennale's insistence on art is also one of the reasons

why it stands out. Compared with the art fair, which is also an art festival, the

Biennale is relatively pure. Markin (2016) pointed out that the difference

between Biennale and the art fair is that the art Fair focuses more on the

commercial value of artworks and is one of the trading venues for artworks.

Although many artists can be invited to participate and perform at the Fair,

there is no clear curatorial theme, and the artwork on display is more likely to

be sold at high prices. In other words, art fairs focus more on artists and their

commercial value.
The Biennale has a clear curatorial theme, and the professional

requirements of its curators are also very high. Because Biennale requires

curators to focus on a theme so that visitors can understand and think deeply
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about the theme, and their works need to be carefully selected. Markin(2016)

defines the Biennale as an art exhibition that curates visual narratives and

selects works to achieve global representation, with a robust overall curation.

In addition, curators need to investigate global art trends and use their

knowledge to maximize the global visibility of the host city. The Biennale

confirms the value of works of art by exhibiting them. It considers artistic value

rather than economic value. In other words, it recognizes works of art as

works of art and only focus on the works of art itself. Markin (2016) argues

that the Biennale is diverse and in line with the policy of multiculturalism.

However, it also reflects a lack of national identity and lax. Because artists'

mobility separates their thoughts and behaviors from their ethnic group (Tang

2011:81, Wu 2009), this is precisely the problem that globalization brings to

every country in the world.

2.2 Trend of Shanghai Biennale

Table.1 Themes of Previous Shanghai Biennales (Shanghai Biennale,

2020)
Years Themes of the Shanghai

Biennales
1996 "Open Space"
1998 "Inheritance and Exploration"
2000 "Spirit of Shanghai"
2002 "Urban Creation"
2004 "Techniques of the Visible"
2006 "Hyper Design"
2008 "Translocalmotion"
2010 "Rehearsal"
2012 "Reactivation"
2014 "Social Factory"
2016 "Why not Ask Again?"
2018 "Proregress"
2020 "Bodies of Water,"
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The trends of the Shanghai Biennale are cover in the theme that are

launched after every two years, and this includes 1998 –the explorations,

2000-spirit of Shanghai, 2002-urban creation, 2004-techniques of the Visible,

2006-Hyper design, 2008-translocalmotion, 2010-Rehearsal, 2012-

reactivation, 2014-social factory, 2016-why not again, 2018-progress and

2020-body of water. Each of these drifts shows the changes and development

that have taken place in Shanghai biennale. This section discusses the trends

that have occurred since 2000 and evaluated how the changes enhance

global unity for artists, writers, art supporters, and curators. Through the

various patterns, the Shanghai Biennale promotes creativity and innovation by

exploring the changes/trends in a society based on knowledge on a global

scale.
The 2000 edition with the "spirit of Shanghai" as the theme’ marks the most

significant shift of Shanghai Biennale to modern and internationally mapped

artistic and museum conservation/curatorial works. In one of the New York

Times reports, the head of the curatorial team in the 2000 Shanghai Biennale-

Hou Hanru explained that during this period, most of the artworks were still

based on traditional art, and they were no well-established market for art.

Additionally, Hou Hanru includes that there are very few collections of artwork

in Shanghai. Realizing this gap, Hou and his curatorial team made every effort

to transform traditional art into professional and modern art. This provided an

opportunity for the third Shanghai Biennale to establish a sponsor's broad that

includes members both locally and internationally. Feng Zengxian states that

the 2000 edition was a game-changer that expanded Shanghai Biennale into

globalization and the international level that allowed the display of artists from

different parts of the world. De Nigris (2016) suggests that the previous two

editions, the 1996 shanghai biennale, and 1998 Shanghai edition, were
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preliminary events that marked the long establishment of the Shanghai

International and globalization shift in 2000 Shanghai Biennale edition. This

means that the changes made in 2000 were a significant realization of ways

to promote legalization and normalization of art in a manner that challenged

political and social principles. Through this objective achievement, the 2000

edition also became the first Shanghai biennale to get international attention

and integrate new media.

Two years later, the 2002 biennale was launched with "urban creation as

the theme. This edition was an inspiration for the changes in the urban

environment, such as urbanization in the Chinese society that involves high

technology towers and lifestyle changes and new forms of communication.

Jiehong (2018) suggest that through the 2002 Shanghai Biennale, there was

more focus on the development of boomtown and an evaluation of how these

changes influence society. This includes any attempt to integrate visual art

and architecture, painting, sketches, photographs, models, and interactive

technology to evaluate urbanization challenges such as cultural issues,

architecture problems, and real life-related issues that occur in an urban

environment. The executive director of the organizing committee of Shanghai

Biennale 2002-Fang Zengxian stated that the 2002 edition aimed to promote

the need for focusing art into enhancing care for the real-life situation and

evaluate the structure of the city at that time in a more in-depth approach.

This was a completely new objective compared to the 2000 Biennale that

focused on a different need in society. It included an evaluation of varying

construction and architecture by using art to examine the difference between

modern and traditional structures, rural versus urban, and local versus global

environments. Each of these evaluations showed that art could help to identify

and understand cultural factors and human lifestyles.

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In 2004 the Shanghai Biennale was more focused on technology and

media. Jiehong (2018) suggests that this period was an era in which

advancements in technology and domination of technology had become

prominent. Hence, it was the perfect time for artists and curators to focus on

the same changes. The fifth biennale theme was “techniques of visible.”

Jiehong (2018) includes that technology is a factor that challenges how

human beings think, live, visualize the future, and enrich their expression.

This exhibition aimed to utilize visualization technology, media records, and

human existence to develop a corresponding relationship between

technology, art, and humanity. This exploration would help understand how

technology influences daily social activities by using art skills to evaluate the

nature of technology processes and determine how this relates to humanity.

The exhibition that followed the 2004 Biennale is the 2006 Shanghai

Biennale with “Hyper Design” as the theme. Jiehong (2018) explain that

design is a factor that dominates daily human life, art, and society in general.

In this exhibition, the aim was to examine the relationship between art and

human functions in their daily life. For example, the relationship between art

and design, applying the concept to design in industry operation/production,

and determine the liaison between art and other ordinary life activities. This

evaluation promotes the integration of approaches that recognizes the link

between technology, society, and appreciating the beauty of life. The focus in

this exhibition is to help identify crucial factors in human functions and prove

that art can explore how to design influence social idealism, production,

lifestyle, and development of design itself. Jiehong (2018) suggests that

values of art include its potential to explore and determine the complication

involved in social relationships, the cultural concept in designing processes,

and the same time extract value from an aesthetic life perspective. In this

exhibition, the theme of hyper design forms a framework that helps to rethink
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and brainstorm about the concept of design in three art-related layers, which

include design and imagination, ordinary life practices, and future and history.
The design and imagination layer reveals that design can be classified as

functional or practical oriented. Nevertheless, the function can sometimes limit

imagination, and still, imagination is a result of the task involved. This means

that functional and creativity are intertwined. Therefore understanding design

in this perspective helps reveal how contemporary artists can apply their new

point of view to re-construct design material for better redesigning. The layer

of ordinary life practice includes that despite humans have an attitude of

separating art from usual life practices, and the reality is contrary to this

attitude. Everyday life practice is a fundamental aspect that artists use to base

their imagination, creativity, and competence. Jiehong (2018) states that an

artistic ordinary life objective is a result of the design of life. This means that

art is closely related to everyday life objects faced by an artist in their daily

practices. In this trend, Shanghai Biennale also promotes the concept of

experimenting in contemporary art to imagine future imagination to happen in

real life. The edition includes that history is not only a reflection of what has

been achieved today but also a construction of the future vision and history.
A step closer to the current time, the seventh Shanghai Biennale was

launched in 2008, and this time around, the theme was "Translocalmotion."

Like in the previous Biennale, this time was no different. In consideration of

the fact that the Biennale has always been interested in the City environment,

the Shanghai Biennale included that besides accounting for the urban

condition it will also integrate the People Square as part of the exhibition. The

exhibition this time included more than the Peoples Square was the central

fact to consider in the exhibition. It covered the history of Peoples Square

since the 20th century, a reflection of urban mobility, social/economic

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development, and a reflection of the themes. All these focus areas will be

presented in a different exhibition, a new addition in the Biennale.

1n the 2010 exhibition or the Shanghai biennale, the theme was

"Rehearsal," The main aim was to reflect and evaluate the artistic

performance now that the exhibition was experiencing complexity involved in

international and globalized contemporary creative works. This then shows

the objective of the new theme. Additionally, this Biennale also accounted for

production, practices, and this was formed to promote the emergence of

unique creativity according to this particular time. In the process of doing so,

this exhibition help to promote self-liberation and form a constant reminder

that the growth of the biennale show does not leave behind the core people

that it aims to help. This shaped a new perspective in which instead of using

the theme to develop a metaphor, the Shanghai biennale this time used it to

self-reflective and create more opportunities for (artists, curators, museum

directors, critics, collectors, and audience) participants. One of the reasons for

encouraging more participation was to evaluate the link between creativity

and public identity as well as between the art system and experimentation of

artwork.
The ninth Shanghai Biennale was launch started in October 2-December

13, in 2012, and the theme was “Reactivation.” In this Biennale there are four

divisions, which include resources, revisit, reform, and republic. The aim of

resources includes assessing art education, open colleges, and art training

institutions in different urban areas and promoting social transformation using

monitors and educators. On the other hand, the revisit part sub-theme aims

to renovate abandoned places such as old industry premises in the city and

re-establish traditional craftsman art. This will create a new environment that

recalls the history and integrates it in the transformation processes.

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The tenth Shanghai Biennale initiated in its project on November 22, 2014;

the theme was a social factory. In this Biennale the discussion is all about

social production, fact, and traits. The study involves an evaluation of the link

between social and fiction concerns to influence modernity and the status of

social output in terms of emerging trends such as automation. Other factors

considered include evaluating social systematization factors such as pre-

modern history, assessing the impact of traditional, modern history, and

determining subjectification response to acceleration and diversification

processes in China. The social aspect of this Biennale involves the human

level of relating, caring, affectionate, and engaging in education. The process

consists of abstract images, symbols, and generalized concepts involved in

the realistic development of institutions and culture. Due to the ambiguity

involved in these factors, it is difficult to exact facts, and hence the evaluation

process remains partially inferred. These issues remain a challenge in the

modern environment and thus affect contemporary art even after the 10th

Shanghai biennale.
The question "Why not again?" is the theme that set forth the 11th

Shanghai biennale from November 11, 2016, to March 2017 (Stooke, 2017).

Raqs Media Collective proposed this question with an aim that it will help the

Biennale to offer counter-arguments and argument opportunities that support

the current situation of the interconnected world. This Biennale seeks to

encourage the development of artistic work beyond what any other Biennale

has already accomplished and has a future-oriented view of the curatorial

concept that supports the international dialogues.

The 12th Shanghai is the most recent event/exhibition, and its theme is

“Progress," which means art in the age of historical uncertainty. The theme

provides an explorative framework that helps to identify the role of art in

reflecting the anxiety and the challenges experienced in different levels of

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23

human life. Jiehong (2018) suggest that the role of art in this Biennale is to act

a witness of the current situation that is influenced by undesired social

element and conflicting factors. Through the exploration of these conditions,

the art will transform the challenges into subjective experiences and tolerate

contradicting situation in contemporary life. The 13th Shanghai Biennale is yet

to start, and surely it is also likely to come to another package of benefits and

a new motivating theme -“The body of water.” The Biennale will base its

framework on interdependency, entanglement, and interconnection concept to

interpret in terms of the existence of bodies beyond the flesh and land or

exploration that translate alliance in the form of fluid unity.

The 2010 Shanghai Biennale combines the theme of the World Expo held

in Shanghai the same year, with Shanghai as the city background. The

stream of individual consciousness of Western artists and the national

consciousness of Chinese artists formed the grand spectacle of a hundred

schools of thought contending in the exhibition (Chang, 2011).

As can be seen from the themes over the years, the theme of Shanghai

Biennale has a tendency to draw from the long history of China's 5,000-year

culture. The content of the theme has gradually shifted from urban society to

the abstract thinking of ancient Chinese civilization. It gives artists from all

over the world an opportunity to understand different cultures, and a hundred

schools of thought contend. The curators try to awaken China's national

memory because it is an indispensable key point for the growth of Chinese art

(Chang, 2011). Therefore, in the establishment of the theme, the curators

extracted from The National culture of China and did not form opposition to

the core concept of Chinese socialism. Since the establishment of The core

values of Chinese socialism is also extracted from the national tradition of

China to a certain extent, it can be explained that the curators face up to the
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national culture of China to a certain extent in the Shanghai Biennale, and

respect and do not shy away from the core values of Chinese socialism.

2.3 The history of Shanghai Biennale

According to Zhu's 2007 interview with the curator of the Shanghai

Biennale, the Shanghai biennale was born because a large number of

Chinese artists returning from abroad realized the lack of Chinese

contemporary art. They hope to use the Biennale as a platform to develop the

Chinese contemporary art market. Zhao, one of the curators, believes that the

history of Shanghai has given the city a unique blend of diversity, thus making

Shanghai a base for modern Chinese culture and art. It can be seen that the

original idea of Shanghai Biennale was primarily influenced by Western

culture, so the original intention of holding Shanghai Biennale was influenced

mainly by Shanghai's inclusive Shanghai culture. In addition, the birth of the

Shanghai Biennale was an accident, because it does not belong to the long-

term strategy of Shanghai's cultural development. Therefore, from the

beginning of the preparation of the Shanghai Biennale, the government has

not played a decision-making role (Zhu, 2007).

In fact, it can only be said that the exhibition began to have institutional

rules from the third Shanghai Biennale. However, at the same time, the voice

of criticism followed. Yang (2001) criticized the avant-garde art that

transcended the moral bottom line due to the splash of the Third Shanghai

Biennale. On the other hand ， this also caused the government to put

pressure on artistic ethics. Therefore, in order to avoid ideological problems,

Fang (2007) proposed that starting from the fourth Shanghai Biennale,

architecture is the core of the exhibition. For example, this year's chief curator

is also an architect. As the Shanghai Biennale gets more and more attention,
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different voices come along. Under pressure from the outside world and the

government, The Shanghai Biennale needs to adhere to artistic freedom and

principles while trying to avoid conflict with China's overall ideology. Hence, it

depends on the Curators of the Shanghai Biennale to try to solve the problem

from a different perspective while sticking to their principles.

Shanghai Biennale is one of the leading present-day art functions in

shanghai and the most developed art biennale in china. Established in 1996-

shanghai Biennale is the first international biennial of present-day art on

china's mainland and one of the most famous in Asia. The primary purpose of

the art event is to enlarge Shanghai's importance as an entry to the West

through arts. This means that the art event is a global art event that serves as

a platform for self-portrayal of shanghai and china.

The art event provides o opportunities for exhibiting present-day art

creation and conferences where artists can come together and enlarge their

experiences and challenge their work. Shanghai biennale presents an

international exchange of ideas and attracts curators, artists, writers, art

supporters, and theorists worldwide. In the present world, the Biennale has

become a vital place of conversation within a growing universal art market.

The art event also shows the ever-increasing importance contribution of

artistic creation in the Asia-pacific region. We will discuss the historical

background of the shanghai biennale from its inception up to the present

times.
Shanghai biennale serves to help formal stories about shanghai as a

modernized city that is rushing into the next time and uplifts tourism. In an

interview with Zhao Chan, a playwright and art critic said that any critical stuff

would not be let out due to the controls. He gave an example and said that it

was just like a postcard. Shanghai biennale also faces several problems,

such as being managed by a committee. This is a problem because, despite

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the availability of many curators, the curators' resolutions are reflected upon

by the biennale panel, which consists of leaders of various government

cultural organizations, former curators, and SAM staff. The power allocated to

the board is too much hence when the curators conduct an activity, the

committee could refuse their suggestion. At this event, the director and panel

are influential, and the outcome of the Biennale is that there are various

features which were the objectives of the panel.

2.3.1 2nd Inheritance and expansion
Shanghai biennale relates artistic practices to historical narratives

futuristic visions and our day to day lives that play up local cultural differences

from western and European constructions of current art. Since the event took

place every two years, the second one was organized in 1998 by Annie Wong

art foundation and the shanghai art museum (SAM) (Zhang, 2018). The art

was exhibited from October 10 to November 20 in 1998; it mainly engrossed

in exploration and Inheritance. During that period, 256 illustrations were

created through watercolor paintings, ink, and oil, the standard customary

techniques collected. The event focused on improving ink art even in the

current creation of the artwork and proceeding to its framework's latest

changes. Exploration and Inheritance were divided into two main parts,

whereby the first one that is traditional work which was stored at SAM and the

abstract ink work which was displayed at Liu Haisu Museum in the suburbs.
A three-day conference accompanied this event, the main agenda being

ink painting, where global scholars argued on the chances of new ink

paintings. This event placidly drew little dispute, but some in the art society

censured the biennales' failure to internationalize. As the third Biennale

started, the event planners had mobilized the resources and courage to make

it global cooperation. Through the participation of a Japanese curator Toshio

Shimizu and Hou Hanru, whose experience made the event more global.
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Some of the artists selected comprised several respected names such as

William Kenbridge and Mathew Barney, to mention a few were in the plan

since they would attract more people and media support to win over the

government.
3rd edition Spirit of shanghai
Several viewers viewed the third Biennale as an improvement in terms of

modern Chinese art. The third edition was the first Biennale to incorporate

global artists and new media and curators and also the first event to attain

vital international attention. This is because the previous biennales were taken

as trial runs to cater a volume of alleviation with the idea of outsiders and

Chinese working as a team to produce a present-day art presentation in an

extremely viewable general location. It is essential to know that shanghai

biennale's political atmosphere was quite different from the present one. Plans

which came from foreign people have considered a threat at the shanghai

college makes them not to access the libraries. Despite this, the event was

impartial to planners, international artists, and curators to develop Shanghai's

part in arts as the entryway to the West. The third shanghai biennale

happened from November 6, 2000, to January 6, 2001. Universal outlooks of

the third edition may be removed from the topic despite being changed to the

spirit of shanghai. This topic of the third Biennale connected shanghai to the

outside world, ocean, and marine culture( Massey, 2019). Despite the

curators knowing each other, the collaboration between them was, most of the

timeless than peaceful.

The third art event was also the first Biennale indeed to win over the

considerations of the global community. For example, Barney's cremaster

cycle five was exhibited in the city cinema and Anselm Keifer. He has had a

far-reaching impact on the Chinese painting tool part in bringing the media's

attention. Due to the incorporation of new media, the event also sparked off
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several satellite shows. There was also the famous uncooperative

perspective, which certainly gained a lot of surveillance from the people.

Despite this Biennale, curators were prohibited from visiting because of the

horror of being viewed as supporting unhelpful approaches.

2.3.2 4th edition urban creation
The fourth event of shanghai biennale was made up of suburban objects

and the city's numerous significant structures presentation. The fourth

Biennale in shanghai was to encourage the development of urbanism and its

relation to changing cultural ways and ways of life. During that time, a

practical study contributed to the sampling of urban and rural, local, and

international and contemporary and traditional surroundings to create fresh

points for the growth of the Chinese current building system.

The event rolled out from November 22, 2002, to January 20, 2003,

whereby a team of architects and artists participated with their three hundred

items and a number of them being produced explicitly for shanghai biennale.

With urban creation as the subject, the 4th edition of Biennale intended to

form a platform for conversations on the gradual changing technique at an

exceptional speed promoted by the growing urbanization and the new routine.
2.3.3 5th edition techniques of the visible
The fifth edition took place from September 28 to November 28, 2004

(Yung-Wen, 2017). In this event, the city focused on studying the evident

continent, hence a universe of technology and various methods for connecting

with humans' everyday lives. This event was called techniques of the visible

and concentrated on immediate connection linking technology and art,

particularly methods in which illustration shows a symbiotic character that

generates technology and connects alone to humankind. This event combined

with an extensive series of shows in Shanghai, which was organized by a few

curators who were Xu Jiang, Sebastian Lopez, Zheng Shengtain, and Zhang
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29

Qing. The curators in this event strived together and brought up performance,

photography, video installation, and other collective technologies. As a team,

they also planned to attract the attention to diversification of current art

operations globally. Derived from the ancient Chinese philosophy of Ying

Xian, the idea rises from curiosity in the visual goods of new technology that

uphold vital historical and controversial references. Techniques of the visible

proposed that the artistic exercise connecting with technology is inherently

placing itself within a historical sequence where cultural metaphor became

critical to its apprehension. This event was held at SAM, whereby the

museum also organized presentations in collaboration with other venues in

the city.

2.3.4 6th edition hyper design

In the time of all-pervasive art and design, the sixth shanghai biennale

edition concentrated on hyper design as its primary theme. The event took

place from September 6 to November 5, 2006. Based on the history in

conducting previous biennales, this event continued its local practice to face

international cultural attitudes and situations. The event insisted on the

construction of different cultural fascination. It supplemented how designs are

repeatedly connected to our daily lives (Gardner & Green, 2016). Plans target

to change the common hostile association between art and realism and

industry and creation, making individuals contemplate over life attractiveness.

The hyperactive plan is both a product of the current era and the push

considering ordinary aesthetic desires and goals. The artists not only explored

a vast amount of unique items to come up with functioning devices but also

attractiveness, providing paintings with creative worth and shared knowledge.

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2.3.5 7th edition translocalmotion

In 2008 the seventh event of shanghai biennale started from September 9

to November 16, 2008, and developed from the suburb environment of

shanghai as a growing factor due to its aesthetic improvement. Among the

present drive, which drove shanghai and its social-economic spaces and

structures, urbanism was regarded as the main objective of contemporary

suburb community change. In this event, the central theme was

translocalmotion, which concentrated on suburban people's passions and

their association with shanghai (Slager, 2017). Additionally, the curatorial

team allowed individuals square plays an essential part in showcasing

because it represented the conversion of the new Chinese community. Like

an image for the intricate movement of people, artworks were showcased

both outside and inside the art museum. Individual exhibitions relating to the

movement concerning social and urban development works reflected a

domain difference amid the city. Presentations also happened in extensive

public transport facilities or stations such as subways.

2.3.6 8th edition rehearsal
This particular shanghai biennale took place from October 24, 2010, to

January 23, 2011. This was the 8th event of the Biennale, which specified

itself as a practice, which was the central theme hence a contemplative space

of performance, which included an unmatched quantity of art performance

(Danzker, 2017). This theme divided the event into two main parts, which are

explication and repetition. Explication stand s for the practice tournaments

arranged to be simultaneously opened from July and October 2010, while

repetition is to go back to the practice tournaments to the main body of the

function in shanghai. These two steps, recapitulation, and exposition, are a

representation of the procedure of experimenting and trial of the subject of

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31

shanghai biennale on the global stage. They can also be taken as the

biennales simulation of and response to the worldwide art section.

At the end of the day, the presentation space was not only a showcase of

artwork but also as a dynamic and productive theatre of emotions. The event

also focused on driving curators, artists, collectors’ critics’ viewers, and

museum directors to rehearse the connections between the art system and

artistic experiments, between public domain and personal creativity.

Practicing was a method of thinking and a plan to arouse and invigorate

productivity to venture many changes in the current time. This event can also

be regarded as a personal-acquisition act of the universe, a trial to encourage

personal-deliverance and refuse the traditional frames of artistic production

and performance. In this event, there were specified duties of the curators

who included Fan Di'an, director of the national art museum of china, and Gao

shimming, a professor at the china art academy in Hangzhou who was to

separate and assemble and then prepare the entire art structure.
9th edition reactivation
The next shanghai biennale event took place in the power station of art,

which was the latest place nearing up to 97000 square feet of showcasing

room from October 2, 2012, to March 312013. To utilize the space in the hall-

big-scale projects were selected by the chief curator Qiu Zhije, the New York-

based media personality Boris Groys, the Hong Kong curator Johnson Chang

and Jens Hoffman deputy director of the Jewish museum in New York. An

exact figure of ninety personal artists and collectives from 27 nations were

chosen to understand the rebirth, which was the subject of the 12th shanghai

biennale (Pollack, 2013).

Rebirth means restarting the Nanshi power plant's reforms and the expo

2010 pavilion of times to come. Reactivation mainly focused on how artists

vitalize and change energy and assets in their operations, whether it is

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32

communal intellectual or physical power. In the form of power station art, a

powerhouse of aesthetic force qualified to create productive energy and turn

on creators of the art. In this event, the program identified as inter-city pavilion

prevailed as methods to reach far off the city to venture all the several

chances to improve the city and its traditional appearance. Of all the cubicles

in the Biennale, the genuine and touching work was from Pittsburgh's project,

Jon Rubin's the lovesick estate sale. With the art, the artists represented in an

intimate and precise way of how Americans live in Pittsburgh, their dreams,

habits, and hobbies. While other buildings showed urban centers, this

particular project was agate way into one of the cities. With that said, it is

evident that this event served its purpose, which was reactivation, meaning

that it started a new pattern and method for art in the city, engaging both a

more extensive local and greater global art audience and universe.
2.3.7 10th edition social factory
Shanghai biennale tenth edition was made up of questions concerning the

relationship between the public and imaginary realm in the development of the

community and the various methods concerning how social is created in the

present centennial. This event happened on November 23, 2014, to March

31, 2015, termed the social factory edition. The event mainly focused on

investigating the social details and their conversion, mostly in visual arts

customs and culture from the beginning of industrialization and post-industrial

times (Riemenschnitter, 2018). The procedure involved the production of

symbols, conceptual pictures, and abstract grouping linked to culture and its

definition through complicated connections.

The event also entailed the construction of specific economy off signs,

lively and vague connections to activities, things, and meanings. Due to the

complexity of the lineage, social points cannot be fully known since they

remain partly understood, positioned between the actual and potential. The
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33

Biennale focused on inspiring guests to contemplate how the modernized

community impacts traditions and how the final one was going to transform in

the modern era, whereby the innovative capability of human beings has been

freed.
Recently, the vagueness of the social and the chance to engineer and

plan the community that junctures on it have been a matter of ongoing debate.

Official procedures, statistics, surveys, and ideas of identification have

specifically sought to reduce the complications of the social hieroglyph for

separating the meaningless from the meaningful. Illustrating on both present

and historical artworks, and also cinema and music, the 10th edition of

shanghai biennale, introduced artworks that demanded such differentiation

and past productivity into questions.

2.3.8 11th edition why not ask again
Finally, the 11th edition of shanghai biennale took place from November

11, 2016, to March 12, 2017. Selected by Raqs media collective in the form of

Jeesebesh Bagchi shuddhabrata Sengupta and Monica Narula, the theme of

this event arose in the form of a question conveying dual understanding and

accompanying to an outburst of definition. As the duty of inquiring can mean

both to just raising a question and striving to solve it, for instance, by reviving

a wish, this Biennale focused on going past the expected. The expected was

welcomed, not feared, caused by the motivation towards the endless

questions of everything about us. Questions were considered pressure points,

which means that they were starting ideas to probe things for elevation and

determine several emotions and feelings (Stooke, 2017). Granting them

priority in this event stands for transferring the pressure points to the present

world by attempting to discover how and what many sensations it always

evoked.
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34

Motivated by going through the Indian latest cinema, the curators

recognized three understandable visionary pressure points: stories,

arguments, and counter-arguments. Giving enjoyable inquiries and

invigorating creativity were the main objectives of this event and the

participating artists. In this event, the audiences were asked to be continually

peculiar and passionate about the convolution and lavishness of life and art.

This edition grew through a sequence of joining divisions named 51 personae,

terminals, theory opera, city projects, and infra-curatorial platform.

2.3.9 Thematic sections
In the division 51 personae, curated by Raqs media collective Chen yu

with the 51 personae category, it showcased a sequence of exciting actions

that celebrates relationships dreams, lifestyle, and experience of the people of

shanghai. The projected explored everyday stories considering them as

visionary plans to re-picture a brand new citified life.

Terminal involved launching pads connecting hubs and staging posts,

which were regarded by Raqs as the best methods to reveal to the artists'

capabilities to behave as creators and engines of the fascination in the

present universe. In section, artists were invited to ask questions narratives

and propositions to the people through their artwork.

Theory opera was another type of circuitous tack that can be regarded as

an actual coherence of minor and significant moods in speculation and

thoughts. Organized by Liu Tian in partnership with Yao Mengxi, theory opera

connects the haul of ideology with opera modulation into the suggestiveness

of ideas.
City projects are additions related to the 11th shanghai biennale central

theme. It consisted of programs of occasions that intended to uphold a

conversation between the city and art. Planned strolls, shows, Podcasts,
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35

dialogues gatherings, conversation, and exceptional shows from upcoming

curators were planned throughout shanghai for the entire period.

Lastly, the infra-curatorial platform consisted of research of various

curatorial main ideas that came up consequently to brand new questions and

insisted on pictures concerning all the probable means of recognizing the

curatorial problem. Among the practicable debates is that there were

instances of airing expansion cessation and communication, which led to

discussions which helped the people figure understand curatorial work.

Additionally, this part consisted of several juvenile overseers from different

parts of the universe who developed their presentation.

2.4 Curators
The etymology of the term curator is the Latin term for "Curarae" or "to

take care of" (Schietti, 2019). The role of contemporary curators now seems

to lie between two interpretations: one that is more connected in caring, and

the other that is becoming proactive in the art process almost as an "artist"

himself.
Today, much of the curatorial literature focuses on Biennale. The famous

Venice Biennale was founded in 1895 when the first international art

exhibition was held. Since then, Biennale has become one of the most visible

manifestations of the globalization of the art world, often featuring artists who,

until recently, were unlikely to be exhibited or exhibited in metropolitan cities

or art world museums. In Biennale, visitors can see works that inspire new

ideas about globalization and different cultures. The rise of the modern

Biennale coincides with the rise of independent celebrity curators. "We can

say that the role of the curator is developing in a more privileged direction

than that of the creator." (Schietti, 2019). Since the mid-1990s, curation has

become a creative activity, and there is more overlap between artists and
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36

curators than ever before - they are increasingly engaged in similar activities.

Curators are increasingly a director, experimenting with different formats and

ways of experiencing art by creating different meanings and approaches.

Schietti(2019) points out that Contemporary curators, like artists, test old

formats, and invent new ones.

According to Hang (2005), there has been no curator in China's past

exhibitions, and art officials, especially artists, usually dominated them. After

the reform and opening-up, due to the fact that people in China have no

experience in operating galleries and other organizations and organizing

exhibitions, they have chosen to imitate what they believe to be legitimate

foreign models (Kharchenkova,2019). "Along with the traditions in Chinese

society at the beginning of the 1990s, Chinese art has gradually shifted from

blindly imitating Western modernist art toward possessing a consciousness of

its own culture …" (Zhang, 2000, p. 347). However, Zhu, Peng, & Chen

(2011) point out that "Chinese curators are highly Westernised."

On the other hand, in 2012, China's core values were promulgated. They

are twelve words: prosperity, democracy, civility and harmony, freedom,

equality, justice, and the rule of law, and advocate patriotism, dedication,

integrity, and friendship (Zhou,2018). Furthermore, Shanghai Biennale serves

as an international exchange platform for Chinese contemporary art. "It invites

foreign curators, museum directors, and art professors to co-organize its

exhibitions" (Markin, 2012). The theme of the 12th Shanghai Biennale is "Yu

Bu( 禹步 ) Proregress: Art in an Age of Historical Ambivalence". "The curator

claims that the premise echoes that of the 2015 Venice Biennale, curated by

Okwui Enwezor, which posited global reality as 'one of constant realignment,

adjustment, recalibration, motility, shapeshifting.'" (Deng, 2018). This is not a

successful biennale, but it is not a failure as well, because it is very

controversial, at least from some evaluations. Fu (2018) believes that this is a

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37

good reflection of reality. "The link between lofty aestheticism and grave

reality—in this case forged not by substance but by the curators' metaphorical

imaginations—typifies a disappointingly large number of the works" (Deng,

2018). Tang (2018) believes that this exhibition is just a collection of shallow

and crude exhibits collected from around the world, and there are very few

local works. Qiu (2018) believes that this is precisely an exhibition of the

European and American system, and that is globalization leading to

homogeneity. It is undeniable that of the 67 artists/groups participating in the

12th Shanghai Biennale, only 20 / groups are Chinese artists (Zhang, 2018).

To sum up, the West has strongly impacted Chinese contemporary art.

Therefore, keeping the cultural identity and protecting Chinese contemporary

art from westernization are things that curators have to consider.

2.5 Young artists

Sotheby's Hong Kong grossed 2.4 billion Hong Kong dollars at its spring

sale in 2012, with two more lots going for more than 100 million yuan.

However, through the analysis of the auction trend of contemporary art, it can

be found that most of the artworks sold are concentrated in the older

generation of artists. Even though the works of older artists have been sold for

millions of times, it still does not change their enthusiasm among

collectors(Yin, 2012).
Young artists tend to express themes of urban life and cultural

phenomena, while there is no uniform principle and regulation for art. Then

the relationship between the theorist and the artist is also relatively

ambiguous. As a result, the right of speech is always controlled by a few

people, and it is difficult to renew and change rights in a natural way. Hence, it

is difficult for young artists to enter China's mainstream art market (Yin,2012;

Hu,2014). In addition, ， young artists are in urgent need of a relatively pure

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platform to showcase their work and talent. Hu (2014) pointed out that when

young artists have a specific artistic value, their works will be considered

stable by collectors, and more people will be willing to explore their

commercial value. Joy& Belk (2019) argues that the works of the Biennale

were not created for sale; the Biennale often creates demand rather than

direct supply. In other words, young artists can have a chance to be promoted at

the Biennale, so that they can have the opportunity to participate in the

Shanghai Art Fair and achieve double affirmation of artistic and commercial

value.

3. Context
3.1 The history of the Chinese contemporary art market
3.1.1 Introduction
This section of the article is focused on the history of the contemporary

Chinese art market. It gives a brief description of how the market arouses to

its current state to assist us in knowing how the market operates.

Contemporary art in China is a very recent activity with a history of about thirty

years, and the art market is an even more recent occurrence, and its quick

development was discovered within the past few years. The contemporary art

market is viewed to be very different from the traditional established markets,

and in the past years, the historical system of the conservatory acted as the

main legal institution for artist and their works with unchangeable standards

for assessing works. In the field of contemporary Chinese art disagreement

over what is seen as experts, art is much more often and less managed due

to the high competition among artists at local and international levels. Artists

have to make great efforts to get attention from several authorities such as

collectors, museums, auction houses, and government. Since the art market
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is highly disintegrated and the power highly distributed, the risk of not selling

art is much higher than in the traditional art market.

3.1.2 Chinese Art Market Environment
The Chinese art market build depending on the Japanese and western

models was developed in the early twentieth century, but it was exterminated

in 1949 after chairman Mao introduced a socialist framing model on the state

level (Wang, 2009). Even though market socialism was launched in 1979

establishment of the totalizing frame was complicated. After Chairman Mao

died and cultural revolutions stopped, government officials, including Deng

Xiaoping, began to change the programs to increase market openness to the

West. After that, nationwide economic changes and social reforms took place

in the evolution of Chinese characteristics in socialism. The contemporary

Chinese art arose after the cultural overthrow, and the introducing society was

the Xing Xing group, also known as star group, which included most of the

self-taught artists (Wang, 2009). The group’s opening exhibition in 1979 was

an infuriating display of art hung without authorities’ permission on the fence

of the national gallery of art in Beijing. After the authorities disorganized the

exhibition, the group posted an advertisement on the democracy wall to start

a protest. This was, in general, considered the starting point of contemporary

Chinese art, and the group's first official exhibition was conducted in the

Beihai Park the same year, and it included 163 displays by the self-taught

artists. The group held a second display with authorities’ approval at the

national gallery of art around 1980, and the show became debatable due to its

political content.
Following this, protest and suppressions became common throughout that

year as the government initiated the anti-spiritual pollution campaign. A quick

outburst of creativity took place between 1979 and 1989; still, artists had to

adapt to the fallout of Mao's declaration that art is more than a page assisting
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in shaping citizens' understanding. The famous movement took place in 1985,

and it is known as the 85 movements, which began as the anti-spiritual

pollution campaign ended. It took place for three years then started to grow

weak due to the government opposing campaigns and pressure to make more

profitable arts, which was the result of Deng Xiaoping's economic reform of

1978. In 1989 the first nationwide avant-garde art display known as china-

garde was conducted in the national art gallery (Lincot, 2004). In this display,

one of the artists shot her displays twice using her gun, which led to the

closure of the exhibition, and the Tiananmen Square massacre, which

occurred in 1989, marked the end of a crucial period, and most of the artist

went overseas.
The same year also marked the beginning of western curiosity in Chinese

art. The Chinese contemporary artists were engaged in an essential

international display out of china for the first time in the Les Magiciens de la

Terre, which was arranged by the Centre of Pompidou (Wang, 2009). The

significant elements in the dispersal of contemporary Chinese art in this

exciting year were the international community support, including Beijing

foreign consultants, foreign tourists, and west china expatriates. They brought

out a lot of individual sales for artists in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the

artwork was displayed in foreign countries. Luckily the acquisition of a national

approach of fast growth gave the culture productions a great push. Despite

the fact the times after the Tiananmen Square massacre were challenging

days for china with Deng Xiaoping's support economic changes, the

authorities indicated a new point of view to the art due to the rising value of

Chinese commercial art festival supported by the authorities. Although the

authorities started to support art, appreciating art was still a disputed problem

with the authorities participating, and the commercial and ideological pressure

was still present in contemporary Chinese art.

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The year 2000 was an essential phase in the journey of the development

of Chinese contemporary art since it was during this period that the resistance

status of contemporary art was canceled and filled by the clemency of the

authorities, and the art market was legally developed (Wang, 2019). This was

clarified by the third shanghai Biennale arranged by shanghai museum of art

in 2000, and it was the original edition of the biennale display by foreign and

Chinese contemporary art as well as the first crucial international art function

arranged by a museum operated by the state. Later a show known as fuck off

was organized by Feng Boyi, and Ai Weiwei in shanghai replacement east

gallery with arts was over the boundary been displayed, which led to the

closure of the exhibition by the authorities and management of displays

became stricter. Nevertheless, with the high interest of the international art

world and auction houses proving to be profitable through selling

contemporary Chinese art, the authorities had become more pliable to

contemporary art. The authorities had realized that contemporary art could be

used as a strategy to improve china's global position. In the year 2003, china's

ministry of culture requested the director of china national art gallery Hou

Hanru and Ke Jiabi to minister 'the life at this moment' display in a

contemporary art museum. It was the first time the authorities supported a

wholesale contemporary art display overseas (Wang, 2009). During the same

year, the Chinese authorities were formally invited to the Venice Biennale due

to the national art museum. Later several different governmental

contemporary art displays took place in different parts of the world, and since

then, the authorities started supporting art biennales in china and the growth

of creative art districts in key cities.

In the past, all official art museums were supported by the country, and

their displays were strongly based on political and educational reasons. Vital

national and metropolitan museums included the national art gallery in Beijing.
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The museums of art in shanghai and the Xiangning art museums in Shenzhen

are the public museums supported by the authorities. Despite the public

museums, there was an introduction of other methods of display of art in

china; a good example being the Yanhuang art gallery and the international

art palace both situated in Beijing are some of the oldest semi-public art

museums founded. Despite been supported through individual donations, they

get their legal status of public display space from the metropolitan government

due to an individual's political connections. Chengdu's contemporary art

museum, another semi-public art museum, was established in 1999 and

funded by the civil government of Chengdu and an American company known

as the California group. Despite having great control over the choices of their

programs, these organizations are closely related to the government than the

museums owned by the state. Currently, several private art museums have

risen, and more museums are being built in big cities, and individuals own

them. Their finance sources are different, but the major supporter is big

organizations that sponsor the operation, such as a square art museum.

Commercial banks take some, and their funding entirely comes from the

foundation started by the bank, such as the semi-public Yanhuang Art Gallery.
3.1.3 Biennales and art fairs
After 1993 international displays have greatly contributed to building the

basic principles of art dispersal networks in china. During the same year,

Venice Biennale saw the first Chinese participation, and the China Avant-

Garde was conducted at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in berlin. The two

events assisted in introducing the Chinese artist to the outside world, and it

was the year that Chinese artists received attention from foreign countries.

One year later, another essential international display, the Sao Paolo

Biennale, also spotted the Chinese art participation. It is believed that the

international art scene, previously known as contemporary Chinese art, took

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place in this Sao Paolo Biennale. For the first time in China in 1995, the

pavilion was conducted at the Venice Biennale, and it displayed the arts of

three famous artists Gu Wenda, Liu Wei, and Zhang Xiaogang. In 1999 during

the 48th Venice Biennale Ulli Sigg, the previous Switzerland ambassador to

China and now the most excellent collector of contemporary Chinese art

disclosed Chinese artist on a bigger market through Harald Szeemann where

twenty Chinese artists participated which assisted in gaining more recognition.

Although displays in china still had restriction atmospheres of control after

the massacre in Tiananmen Square. Chinas initial art function China Art

Exposition was conducted in Guangzhou in 1995, and the municipal

government financed it, and it the first Guangzhou international art function. In

1996 china conducted its first Biennale known as Shanghai Biennale at the

museum of art in shanghai. In 1997 the shanghai art function was recognized

through the support of the Shanghai government. During the same year,

Beijing conducted its first Educational Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary

Art. In 2000 Chinese gallery was summoned by the highest level international

function for the first time. It was during this year that the Shanghai Biennale,

which first two editions were preserved solely for the Chinese artist and

conventional techniques, opened to international curators and contestants. In

the year 2004, china unfolded its first international gallery fair known as the

China International Gallery Expo (CIGE) in Beijing. After that, the Biennale,

triennials, and art functions have multiplied among the big cities in the country

in which CIGE and Art Beijing are the most common functions in Beijing while

in Shanghai, shanghai art function and shcontemporary are more common.

Shcontemporary is the latest member who was initiated in 2007, and it is

regarded as the only international art function that gives a complete high-

quality outline of Asia's art areas of interest and an interesting intersection

with topmost western art (Yuan, 2016). The previous Art Basel director
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Lorenzo Rudolf founded the shcontemporary with the belief that it was an

international function specifically focused on Asia rather than Chinese art

functions.
3.1.4 How galleries developed
After getting recognized and famous in the international art market, some

artists use a strong market orientation to advance their works. When china

started to get more foreign investment using joint ventures, the artist in china

began to attain acknowledgments on the international art course. The

Chinese authorities and the artist market estimates became the means of

resolving themselves since foreign investments came not only from industrial

companies but also from culture and art. Private and commercial galleries

began in the year 1991but there were some essential foreign-financed

galleries organized in early 1990 as the first origination of commercial

galleries in china. Red gate museum was the earliest privately maintained

contemporary gallery in Beijing established by Brian Wallace, an Australian in

1991. Established in 1996 by a Chinese-American lawyer, the Courtyard

gallery was one of the most important yet the earliest contemporary gallery.

The most initial private gallery in shanghai was Shanghai, founded by Swiss

gallerist Lorenz Helbling in 1996. From the year 2004, there was an increase

in global attention on contemporary Chinese art, and the market value

increased as well. There was considerable development of new commercial

galleries in contemporary Chinese art owned by natives, which had been

expanding across the big cities in China, such as Tianjin, Guangzhou, and

Chengdu, apart from shanghai and Beijing. Privately owned non-profit art

galleries are the latest occurrence in china. During the late 1990s, not-for-

profit museums, different galleries like cooperatives, and semi-commercial

galleries started to grow in the art scene in China. From current research

conducted by Artron.net, there exist sixty-seven foreign-financed museums in

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the over 500 museums in Beijing. They are the leading markets since they

function professionally and provide the artist with great opportunities to build

their abilities reputations.

3.1.5 How auction houses developed
In company with the galleries, auction houses have multiplied faster and

earlier in the market alignment trends, and they were before 1991, they were

illegal in china. China's National Cultural conference in 1991 pronounced that

auction markets of artwork may be founded in china to prevent the illegal

trade and open up the market, and in 1992 the first auction was conducted. In

1993 the China Guardian Auction Co. Ltd received approval to work in Beijing,

and they were the initial nation-level executive auction company in china.

After opening, the company started a professional auction of sculpture and oil

painting, which was the original case in mainland China, and it had over one

million RMB in sales volume with a 70% sales rate. In 1992 Duo Yun Xuan art

auctioneers were established in Shanghai, and it also operated some

traditional Chinese art galleries and shops for art materials. Gao ling and Leng

Lin, among others, produced in 1996 the initial auction of contemporary

Chinese art, but it did not receive the desired results since the entire

contemporary art market had not started operating well.

From 2003 the period of increasing prices started to rise until it reached its

pinnacle in 2007 due to the years of market development. With an enhanced

market, various auction houses started to surface increasing in number, and

the sales had increased as well. China's contemporary art auctions begun in

2006, making Hong Kong and Beijing the cores, an observation post in New

York, and regional centers were in Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and

Taiwan. In Beijing, there is a massive competition between Hanhai,

Guardians, Poly, Huachen, and Chengxuan, while chongyuan and

Duoyunxuan dominate shanghai; additionally, there is Sotheby's and

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Christie's in Hong Kong. For a number of years, the Sotheby's and Christie's

have been conducting auctions for modern and contemporary Chinese art.

Hong Kong has been the center of its operations. Sotheby's has been selling

art since 1973 while Christie's from 1986, and in 1991 contemporary Chinese

oil painting auction was conducted by Christie's in Hong Kong were oil

paintings by Chinese started to get into the global auction market with a single

image (Brodie & Manivet, 2017). Special Asia Contemporary Art Auction was

conducted by the Sotheby's in 2006, and it mainly featured China

contemporary art, and for the first time, the selling amount went over one

hundred million RMB yuan. The auction motivated the already raging market

into an enormous circumstance. The two auctions houses established offices

in shanghai around 1994 to understand the characteristics of selling and to

have easy contact with their customers. After two years, Christie's established

an office in Beijing and not until 2004 did foreign auctions houses legal had

permission to function in mainland china according to WTO treaty.

Christie's tried to be the initial western auction house to apply a practical

Chinese market by avoiding the authorization process. It bridged with Beijing

Auction house forever to carry out auctions in Beijing. The Chinese

Association, after the auction, canceled the permit of Liu Xinhui, the chief

auctioneer in forever insisting that he conducted an unauthorized auction, and

the partnership was proclaimed unauthorized by the Chinese authorities.

Even though the local auctions appear to be complicated in the coming days,

Sotheby's and Christie's still operates the trading of contemporary Chinese art

in foreign countries. Most of the businesses at Chinese auction are regarded

as illegal in some of the countries in the West, such as some individuals

intentionally combining prices of artwork to give publicity to the artist. Although

it is usual practice in western auctions, the huge number of fake sales have

great effects because a large number of buyers in china are fresh in this
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specialty, and the high prices will impact the future operation of the market

(Carter, 2017). Due to this, auction houses have to be more serious on the

international level, and they have to change their operations to go along with

those of international standards.

4.Methodology: review, evaluation, and reflection

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This article applies both a retrospective case study and Snapshot study to

evaluate the history, trends, themes, and events involved in Shanghai

Biennale projects since it was formed in the 1900s. According to Mohajan

(2018) retrospective case study approach allows the collection of information

related to historical data of any kind. This promotes precise evaluation of the

history of Shanghai Biennale and the history of the Chinese contemporary art

market by allowing flexibility to include multiple phenomena, situations,

events, and historical integrity relevant for the study. The Snapshot approach

helps evaluate the trends that have occurred over time throughout the

Shanghai biennale project. This includes uses pre-existing literature materials,

website reports, and news journals to answer questions concerning Shanghai

Biennale. Some cases involve the history of shanghai Biennale, the trend of

shanghai Biennale, the history of the Chinese contemporary art market, and

the pattern of the modern Chinese art market. In each case, the research

applies questions concerning how artists and curators benefited from the

Shanghai Biennale exhibition and why the Shanghai Biennale was an

essential Exhibition.
Applying a case study technique in this article helps to finally connect

different cases about Shanghai Biennale to answer how Shanghai Biennale

benefits the artist and curators. It also explains why the Shanghai Biennale

project is essential in the Chinese Contemporary art market and the global art

market. The case study methodology helps determine the unit to be analyzed

according to the different phenomenon of the Shanghai Biennale as outline in

the question above. The article applies explorative approaches in different

secondary materials to research about various real-life situations concerning

Shanghai Biennale. It also uses a descriptive method to account for every

Shanghai Biennale phenomenon, such as subsequence trends and historical

events. Intrinsic case study approaches to connect the relationship between

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different cases and their benefits/ importance to artists and curators. This

enhances the general understanding of the case cover in this article.

4.4 Data collection: sampling, data analysis, and interview

procedures
For this article, the data collection technique includes condition interviews

and evaluating archival records. The Archival paper reduces the time needed

to gather data from websites, peer-reviewed articles, and news reports

(Watkins, 2017). It also minimizes research processes because using

secondary data does not require permission processes. This method also

allows an in-depth review of long life span data concerning Shanghai

Biennale. The interview data collection method allows precise concentration

to the area of interest and enhancing flexibility for the researcher to reach out

to the participant through e-mails, online videos. The data collected is

sampled into two categories, which include archive data and interview-based

data. The data in the two samples are integrated to make sense of the

different concepts identified during the research. Each of the samples is

assessed using the ethnographic analysis to identify and clarify the

implications of artists and curators throughout the history of the Shanghai

Biennale.

5. Discussion
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5.1 The status of curators

According to the history and trends in the Shanghai Biennale and Chinese

contemporary art market, there were very few roles for the curators in the

1980 exhibitions. However, the historical account reveals that soon after

multiple exhibitions started to emerge in China, the need for individuals who

can manage exhibitions increased significantly, and this eventually lead to the

formation of a professional curator in artistic works in china. Ćirić (2019)

includes that by the 1990s, the exhibition system had grown extensively in

both the local and foreign regions forming a system that promotes

collaboration between Chinese and foreigners. This diversity in Chinese art

led to the formation of a curatorial project characterized by a wide range of

attributes. Additionally, the curators' identity was continually changing, making

the curators' culture more complex and challenging to understand. This is a

condition that is still confusing to most people, even today.

5.2 Museum and curators
As the number of museums continues to increase, the curator also

continues to become an integral part of these institutions. Ho (2019) explains

that there are about three forms of museum exhibitions, which include the

permanent/temporary show, thematic exhibition, and local-foreign

collaborative exhibition. In each of these exhibition curators, curators' role,

such as making decisions for approaches to develop themes, select artists,

and organize exhibitions, has significantly increased throughout history. There

is also evidence that proves that having a curator in a show in a crucial factor.

For example, the Shanghai Art Museum in collaborations with other museums

such as He Xiangnig Art Museum and Guangdong Museum of Art has

initiated a project to form a curatorial system that will help them in their

exhibition events (Ho, 2019). The Shanghai Biennale exhibition has also

realized the importance of carrying out the curated exhibition. As a result,

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more opportunities have been developed in includes curators in contemporary

art projects. This allows curators to have a professional role in shanghai

Biennale, with examples of well-known curators such as Cuauhtemoc Medina

and Andres Jaque holding chief curator positions in the 12th and 13th

Shanghai Biennale respectively. This signifies the role roles of curators in

Shanghai Biennale have a significant increase over time.

By evaluating the overall history and trends of Chinese contemporary art

and Shanghai Biennales, tremendous changes have promoted and

recognized the role of curators in exhibition projects and Biennale activities.

Therefore, concluding that curators' roles have always been a contributing

factor that continues to gain more ground in Chinese contemporary art

exhibitions and Biennale activities will not be an exaggeration.

5.3 curators and Chinese value
The Curators in the Shanghai Biennale and Chinese contemporary art

comprehend Chinese value as a factor that involves cultural aspects, political

factors, and economic factors that are gradually influenced by globalization

and internationalization of historical phenomena. Through the response of the

Shanghai biennale to local and international needs for development, curators

understand that China's cultural, economic, and political factors have an

essential position in the world that involves dynamic changes. In this manner,

the curator applies this concept to integrate globalization and modernity

aspect in the exhibition and curatorial projects. Curators also use the concept

of Chinese value concerning the globalization aspect of the contemporary

Chinese values such as cultures to develop philosophies that define the

themes of shanghai Biennale. Understanding the dynamic changes

associated with globalization helps curators evaluate the relationship between

Shanghai Biennale themes and real-life situations of the Chinese cultural and

social functions.
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5.4 curators and Young artists

In every theme and Biennale, curators first understand the metaphor of

the theme and base the concept to select and promote artists according to

talent and artist skills required to address the context. Given that the themes

have an aspect of current trends, the concept is usually related to an

environment that is familiar to young artists. This allows integration of real-life

values into artistic values and encourages young artists to participate more in

contemporary art because their values are recognized. This means that the

curators in Shanghai Biennale select young artists based on talent and

promote their artistic work by allowing them to participate in the Shanghai Art

Fair and gain commercial value and emotional support.

5.5Curator and digital media as a factor for promoting the artistic

values of the exhibition

The history and trends of Shanghai reveal the adaptation of modernity in

artwork since the early twentieth century. As changes continue to emerge,

curators have also realized the benefits of using advanced technology to

enhance their activities. For example, currently, curators use digital media to

collect and present artwork through an online platform. This enhances the

collection of artwork by improving the resolution of diagrams/images, thus

making the galleries more attractive. Curators also use digital platforms to

hold conferences meeting, making it easier for them to interact and socialize

with other skill curators and artists on a global scale. This promotes

collaboration and engagement of the public in curatorial activities. As curators

collaborate with their colleagues and artists, digital media create a better

opportunity through which the public can access more data and exhibition
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experiences and connect with the curators at any time if further clarification is

required.

6. Findings and contribution

In conclusion, we can say that shanghai biennale was a vital function in

china and shanghai city. It is an essential factor in the art industry since it

recognizes real-life situations that affect artists and appreciates Chinese

traditions and culture, which are part of the artist and curators' lives. The

event is also a source of employment for many people, such as artists'

curators, art critics, just to mention a few. Art improved their living standards

since they were paid through the income collected from the various events

which happened after every two years. The event also played a significant

role in connecting artists from different parts of the world who worked on

some projects. Additionally, the event also opened up china and the city to the

outside world, which promoted its development and prosperity.

Additionally, the Chinese art position can be observed due to some

essential market features. The rising international markets for Asian art

established the directions and offered the Chinese art market's motivators.

Asian contemporary art has received significant attention internationally, and

China takes an extensive section of the Asian contemporary art market. This

global change co-occurred with the establishment of the native Chinese art

market. During the late 80s and early 90s, the open-door policy enabled china

to contact the western world, which opened the gateway for cultural

exchange. Hong Kong came back to China in 1997 auction houses, and

galleries in Hong Kong begun to get more chances of participating in the

mainland art market. The welcoming of china to the World Trade Organization

in 2001 pronounced the period cultural trade was enabled. From there, more

operations in the art market have been held between China and countries in
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the West. The current economic decline has impacted the international

market, and the contemporary art market in China is not invisible. After

benefiting from the high prices for the last year's increase in the number of

583 percent between 2004 and 2009, the global financial disturbance has

brought the past feeling of disappointment into reality. The Chinese

contemporary art best galleries operations have reduced their sales

internationally and a considerable reduction in regional Beijing trading. The

dropping numbers have made some Beijing galleries to lower their exhibition

programs, reduce art functions activities, or even close down museums.

The challenges posed by the entire art market's failure enable artists,

auction houses, galleries, and collectors to view their past and adjust to the

market's current enhancement. Most of the dealers in the art market have

confidence that the market's failure will change form depending on the

overseas markets to a vast new domestic wealth and thus offer a good

chance of growing the local collectors. The authorities have shown interest in

financing the art market's improvement because it is an essential element in

the cultural industry that the authorities consider to improve.

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