Biennales of the City Itself, of the Genre Itself
Jinsang Yoo

Since its inauguration, the Shanghai Biennale has repeatedly taken the city itself and its urban conditions as a starting point for its artistic explorations. This year, the biennale suggested utilizing People? Square, where contains a lot of crucial issues that the current Chinese society faces, of which the Shanghai Art Museum is actually part of. On the other hand, the third Yokohama Triennale focused on abysses of art and its strong power that changes, impacts, confuses or identifies our perception. The most mighty and instant genre of it would be performance. The theme ?ime Crevasses?implies art arises when we confront those abysses squarely.

It is almost impossible to visit all 10 biennales and triennales that are currently being held across Asia in Gwangju, Busan, Seoul (Media Art), Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Taipei, Yokohama, and Singapore. As these exhibitions will not be held concurrently for the next six years, it would be meaningful to compare them while we have a chance.
In order to do so, however, it takes enormous efforts to travel around Asia. It is an international trend for many major exhibitions to be held concurrently. Venice and Basel is one program for June of odd number years, and Lyon, Athens, and Istanbul Biennales make another program for September. In even number years, Gwangju, Busan, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, and Singapore will hold biennales simultaneously. 

Transformation Crossing Asia
The fact that many intriguing exhibitions are held across Asia is closely related to the political, economic, and cultural development of East Asia. First of all, it is greatly ascribed to the economic changes that have taken place for the last decade. Such economic changes include the rapid economic growth of China, the revitalized development of Chinese contemporary art and its influence on market expansion and active exchanges with the surrounding areas. Second of all, the continuing historic boom of the Western art markets has been another big agent of prosperity of the art market in Asia. If the West inspired Asia in the early 2000s, it is interesting that the growth of new art markets in China, India, and Russia has supported the development of the Western art markets since the mid-2000s. The prosperity of the art markets have given strength to the biennales, which many Asian cities have initiated since the mid-1990s to boast their cultural capacities by exhibiting contemporary art. Although the function and purpose of a biennale and art fair are different, they create mutual synergies by being in the realm of contemporary art.
Third of all, it must not be overlooked that Asian cities have declared cultural competition, expedition toward identity and have seen increasing public demands for cultural events. Global politics and economy are already being led by cities, not countries. Cultural activities have been promoted by Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing, and Shanghai, not Japan or China. Therefore, it has become important for local cities to enhance brand values and showcase their original cultural capacities. The most effective tool for them is contemporary art, which is a kind of common language that enables universal understanding and satisfies cultural and intellectual demands of both the East and the West. In this respect, it is interesting to compare the recent biennales in Asia. Among the many events,
I was able to visit the opening ceremonies of three biennales in Korea, the 7th Shanghai Biennale(henceforth SB), and the 3rd Yokohama Triennale(henceforth YT).  
Shanghai and Yokohama were pursuing two very different concepts. Although both were in the realm of contemporary art, the characters of artworks exhibited were very different. The biggest difference was that the SB was focused on presenting the city of Shanghai, whereas YT decorated it on the artistic genre of ?erformances.?Such a difference is not coincidental, but it reflects what each Asian city intends to pursue through their international events and how they map their understanding of contemporary art accordingly. It is probably because each city has different expectations as well as a different level, direction, and breadth of cultural experiences they can provide through contemporary art exhibitions. Therefore, even if biennales are globally popular, they would hardly be uniform in any way. Each city and region around the world still has diverse views toward contemporary art. 

Shanghai, the City of Velocity 
The theme of this year? SB was Shanghai itself. It would be more accurate to say that Shanghai has been the only theme it has always had from the beginning. Since Shanghai Spirit of the 3rd Biennale, which widely introduced the SB to the world, in 2000, through the 4th ?rban Construction,?the 5th ?echniques of the Visible,?the 6th Hyperdesign,?to this year? ?ranslocalmotion,?the essential objective of the Shanghai Biennale was to observe Shanghai? fast internal and external changes through its contemporary art, conduct academic research on this subject matter, and help its people understand and develop public culture.
This biennale observed the problems of countless people moving to the city as a universal trend. It is called 藤蓀跌蕭桐 in Chinese and can be translated into ?ast City, Fast Guest.??ast City?represents fast changes and the growth of cities and ?ast Guest?means that many people residing or commuting to a city build up its identity. Historically, Shanghai was the city of immigrants.
There are two critical historical facts that relate to this year? theme. First, Mao Zedong ordered young intellectuals of the cities to move to farms during the 1969 Cultural Reformation. Second, was the ?ecision to Improve the Socialist Market Economy?at the 16th National Communist Party Convention, in February, 2003. This decision allowed local workers to move to the cities, and millions of local workers actually moved after this decision. Another facet of China? explosive growth is the entangled history of the settlement of the people. Also, it is a dilemma that China cannot slow down its development process despite numerous adverse effects and polarization issues caused by the rapid economic development of its metropolises. Therefore, communicating with the people through culture and art is significant.
This is why this year? SB sought after compatibility with the theme from the artist selection process. Artists might have felt that forcing them to create something for Shanghai without any holistic approaches to diverse artistic themes is too restrictive, but they were still required to reinterpret the ?ity?with various issues and problems. Problems of urban expansion, industrialization, settlement, and polarization have been addressed for a long time. However, we can deem it positive that the artists were urged to reinterpret various realistic and confronted contemporary issues instead of repeating the traditional issues of contemporary art ?criticism of the late capitalism, the late colonialism, cultural diversity, and neo-liberalism ?as many other biennales. It is also distinctive that most of the artworks were created solely for this biennale. 
The 7th SB consisted of three sections. For the first section named ?roject,?25 well-known artists had the responsibility to research and create artworks for the People? Square around the Art Center. As most of their artworks were installed outside the building, visitors were able to see about 10 outdoor installations, including Tower of Babel of Jiang Qing (not the Director), as soon as they entered the exhibition venue. Jing Shijian installed the actual train that was used to transport the intellectuals at the time of the Cultural Reformation in the 1960s, and placed images of soldiers and numbers of toothed wheels to rotate inside the train. Yin Xiu Zhen? gigantic Flying Machine on the 1st floor attached into single unit various means of transportation ?planes, cars, and even cultivators ?which many people used to move to Shanghai to create an observation deck onlooking at the past and future. 
The second section named, ?eynote?exhibits artworks of three renowned artists. Mike Kelly, Ronnie van Brummelen, Siebren De Haan and Yue Minjun were invited to create grand-scale installations on ?obility?which relates to urban, economic and social developments. Mike Kelly? Kandor Con (2000) deals with Kandor, an imaginative city found in the original version of all-time popular Superman. In fact, this piece campaigns and raises funds for the realization of Kandor. Ironically, Kandor? extreme modernism and utopian vision remind us of Shanghai today. Mike Kelly expanded the initial piece, which was mostly made of miniature units, and added sculptures, videos, and objects to convert it into a grand project. Brummelen and De Haan exhibits Grossraum, the Formal Trajectory (2005), a video on unclear or bizarrely structured national borders, and Monument of Sugar (2007), an installation of sugar blocks that visualize narrow residential zones in a city, to create a mixture of territories. The most eye-catching piece was Yue Minjun? Colorful Running Dinosaurs (2008). Tens of gigantic dinosaurs with the popular smiling faces of the artist were installed on the 2nd floor of the Shanghai Art Center. The array of dinosaurs extended about 40m and was running toward one direction. Its massive scale, completeness, humor, and irony seem to represent the emotion invoked by the city of Shanghai.
The third part, named ?ontext,?invited 33 artists. This section was also related to the overall theme, but it included many artworks created outside Shanghai that dealt with settlement and integration in Southern Asia, Europe, America, and North Africa. Other interesting works were Jia Zhangke? short film called Still Life (2006) and Zhu Jia? Never Take Off, a plane that runs on the runway and never takes off. Although this exhibition was co-directed by artist and Artistic Director Jiang Qing, Julian Heynen and Hank Sleger, the actual planner was the city of Shanghai.
I had never felt the inside and the outside of the exhibition venue so united. Since about 10 other biennale-like exhibitions in Asia are dealing with Western discourses, it would be possible to adopt non-ordinary perspectives to evaluate this exhibition. Nevertheless, this is also Asia.

The Abyss of Time Crevasse
Unlike the practical approach of the SB, Yokohama addressed a very aesthetic and philosophical theme. ?he Abyss of Time?from Paul Celan? poem was quoted to view every frame of time from modernization to post-colonialism through the frame of non-linear experiences of time. Artistic Director Mizusawa Tsutomu said that we can see the critical breath inside if we look into the time frames that exist in every problem. For this purpose, it was more valid to show more transient forms of art as performances or environment-related works. Therefore, it was meaningful to invite someone like Hans Ulrich Obrist, who has planned ?ities on the Move,?to create a dynamic space. Obrist took charge of Shinko Pier, the main venue, to create his typical transient and dynamic space inside it. He created variously sized boxes that remind us of freight crates and had the audience walk in between them. Then, he exhibited performative works of artists he deems important. The work of a stuffed mouse and bear by Peter Fischli and Davis Weiss included characters which they have worked on for a long time. The stuffed dolls were taking a nap inside the venue as clones of the artists. Pedro Reyes used marionettes. He shows a video on Guignol performances, of socialist heroes such as Marx, Engels, and Guevara.
At Akarenka Warehouse, there was an exhibition reviewing modern Japanese performances including the Gutai Performance. There were performances throughout the exhibition. At the Waterfront, there were performances with more installation factors. I think I will remember Tesigawara Saburo? Fragments of Time and the stage made of fragmented glass longer than anything else. Other impressive pieces were Marina Abramovic? Soul Operation Table, which the audience could actually lie on, and Matthew Barney? performance video called The Guardian of the Vail (2007). The most beautiful exhibition of this Triennale on performances was the outdoor exhibition at Sankaien, a well-known traditional Japanese garden. The time-based works installed in and outside the pavilions and homes of this traditional garden spotlighted the character of this Triennale more brightly than any other exhibition. Tino Sehgal? Kiss on the open wooden floor of the elegant traditional house and Twilight by Jorge Macchi & Edgardo Rudnitzky were the best pieces found in the garden. On the other hand, Jamie Cameron? work was not very astonishing to be worth the long lines I had to wait in.
Artistic Director Mitsawa Tsutomu, the former Curator of Kamakura Museum of Contemporary Art, has widely worked with performances in Japanese modernism. Many questioned his choice of performances as the theme of this event. However, performances can be the most sophisticated artistic trend. If we remember that performances have been the hottest genre of contemporary art for the past few years, we can say that the YT is more advanced than any other exhibition in Asia. The Director? comment that modernity must be viewed with a certain time difference based on some intuition reminds us of the attitudes and problems suggested by the Dadaists 100 years ago. The artists who overturned the essence of modern art in the last century gave birth to art based on spontaneity and innovation, because they believed in their intuition.
We cannot talk about the trend of contemporary art exhibitions in Asia by comparing the exhibitions in Shanghai and Yokohama. Each exhibition reflect the cultural and historical contexts and the social recognition of each city. Biennales and triennales in Asia might have been inspired by external factors such as the globalization of contemporary art, but it is right to say that this is only the beginning of a new artistic paradigm in Asia. Change has begun; it will be vast, but it will be one of many things which Asian art will be showing in the 21st century.