Sou Fujimoto: Futures of the FuturePower Station of Art

| 200 Huayuangang Lu, near Miaojiang Lu Runs: October 10–October 30, 2015 Price: Free Power Station of Art? More like Power Station of Architecture, amiright? Ahem. Following on from that recent Renzo Piano show, Yona Friedman, and July’s Thomas Heatherwick showcase, a small exhibition by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto is currently occupying the museum’s fifth floor space. If cities, future urban living, and daydreams are your thing, this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it display -- its 20-day run ends on October 30 -- is definitely worth a visit. "Creating architecture is like planting seeds of the future...Each small-scale structure is a possibility for an urban tomorrow whose priorities, challenges and conditions remain unknown.", Fujimoto expounds rather poetically in the show's introductory blurb. Think of his works here as little "what ifs" or "maybes", all fashioned out of polystyrene, paper and glue. Alongside these are ceiling-high renderings and photos of completed projects, competitions and works-in-progress, all fleshing out Fujimoto’s practice. Specifically, these are structures inspired by and catering to specific landscapes (futuristic L’Arbre Blanc -- or White Tree -- currently under construction in Montpellier); simplicity meets complexity (2013’s latticed Serpentine Pavilion, London); and plays on light, opacity and shade (House N, Oita). Also good to see is a series of models illustrating the architect’s thought process, like strips of curved, loosely layered paper, more defined spirals, rings and halos in orbit, and the proposed cyclone-shaped Beton Hala Waterfront Center for Belgrade. More rough and ready than the space's recent architecture shows (some of the models are kinda slapdash) the exhibition nonetheless prompts a consistent stream of questions and is not to be missed. ***

Not Impulsive Enough is The Devil

| 4/f, Bldg 7, 50 Moganshan Lu Runs: October 17–November 11, 2015 Price: Free A safe bet on Moganshan Lu through November 11 is MadeIn Gallery’s latest group show, Not Impulsive Enough is The Devil. Featuring works by three young artists, Ding Li, UMA and Xia Yunfei, it’s curated by Lu Mingjun. Big, bold and bright, it’s Xia Yunfei’s paintings that really catch the eye. Starting with a block color acrylic on canvas, the Shanghai-born talent then peels reams of paint off of a smooth, flat surface. Aside from sounding oddly satisfying, the process creates glossy ribbons that he then affixes to the canvas to create a three-dimensional collage effect. Ding Li, meanwhile, works largely in black and white, treating canvases of various sizes as ‘ready-made’ objects to be fastened together, creating a new layered surface. Some pairings hint at a relationship or conversation; others less so. They’re strangely intriguing, and I found myself wondering what’s hidden behind the topmost image. Where Ding Li and Xia Yunfei’s work are pretty consistent in terms of style, UMA’s are experimental in approach -- not surprising given that until recently she was best known for choreography and dance. That background informs UMA’s current practice through the movement and spatiality implied in her sculptural works, and the mannequin-like angles in two acrylic and paper-cut sketches. Several works incorporate light-as-a-feather spider’s silk, lending a kind of earthy rawness to what’s on show here. Good stuff. ***

No Longer / Not Yet

| Bldg F, 570 Huaihai Xi Lu near Hongqiao Lu Runs: October 17–December 16, 2015 Price: 30rmb Over at Minsheng Art Museum in Red Town, Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele and super stylist LOVE mag editor Katie Grand have joined forces to curate the group show No Longer / Not Yet. Yes, it’s yet another high-end branding op masquerading as a museum show, a not-so-subtle plug for Gucci’s creative credentials, and packed with shameless selfie-bait. But it’s also pretty stunning, and certainly a change to see the Red Town space all dolled up. The show’s theme is contemporary, and things kick off with a rather literal interpretation of that fashion-friendly theme with Rachel Feinstein’s fairytale take on time -- a cartoony clock figure that’s somehow very Alice in Wonderland. Fashionistas will enjoy Nigel Shafran’s behind-the-scenes snaps of the preparation that goes into a 10-minute show. A somewhat obligatory installation for a show of this kind, it’s nonetheless hard not to swoon at the beautifully embroidered birds, animals and snakes from Gucci’s A/W 15 collection shown alongside. One of the best things about this exhibition is its design -- carpets and wallpapers boast recent Gucci prints, and wood paneling is painted in glossy, jewel-like colors. They complement British painter Helen Downie's (a.k.a. Unskilled Worker) kitschy framed portraits of wide, watery-eyed Gucci-clad ingénues especially well. The hands-down highlight, though, and one of just a few artists to address the show's contemporary theme in a way that goes beyond fashion is Cao Fei. A film by the Beijing artist charting the razing of one of the capital’s hutongs is given a sci-fi twist by the presence of robot vacuum cleaners. All blind efficiency, they’re a little bit WALL-E, but less cute. It’s all utterly absorbing until, quite suddenly, one of these stark white critters on a mission is circling your feet, hoovering up every fleck of dust off of a Gucci print carpet. Its cohort, meanwhile, is inexplicably traversing a table top with a chicken on its back. Other highlights include Jenny Holzer in Chinese, a very disconcerting mirror room, and atmospheric sound design by Steve Mackey and John Gosling. Thumbs up. ***

Sebastião Salgado: Genesis

| 510 Beijing Xi Lu, near Chengdu Bei Lu Runs: October 23–December 20, 2015 Price: 30rmb Sebastião Salgado was in town this week to open his major exhibition at Shanghai's shiny new Natural History Museum. He’s a huge deal. An economist turned photojournalist, his photographs have appeared in just about every major publication out there. He’s known for shining a light on seldom-heard human stories from around the world -- think gold miners in Brazil, coffee plantation workers in Guatemala, Ethiopia and India, and more recently, remote communities in Africa, Asia and beyond. In 2004, the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador started work on perhaps his most extensive reportage to date: Genesis. A behemoth of a project, it saw Salgado travel to all four corners of the planet in search of untouched nature, wildlife and humanity. At Wednesday’s press conference, he explained that prior to this particular project, "I had never photographed nature before [except for] just one animal - humans." On the experience of spending some eight months in the field annually for eight consecutive years, he said, "I discovered that I am nature -- we are nature. We live in Shanghai or Beijing, but we are not living in China. We no longer know our countries. [Genesis presents] a cross-section of the planet -- and what a fabulous planet we have." Too right. The exhibition is divvied up geographically into five ecosystems: ‘Planet South,’ ‘Sanctuaries,’ ‘Africa,’ ‘Northern Spaces’ and ‘Amazonia and Pantanal’. Oh, the places Salgado has been! He’s hung out with penguins and mean-eyed seagulls in the South Sandwich Islands, witnessed whales off of Argentina, come face to face with the uncompromising beauty of Algerian sand dunes, and rubbed shoulders with Kamayura shamens in Brazil. Seriously awe-inspiring, do go visit. There’s 245 works to see here, so allow a good couple of hours to do this eye-opener of an exhibition the justice it deserves. The ticket also includes entrance to the museum. ***

15 Rooms

| 3398 Longteng Avenue, near Fenglin Lu Runs: September 25–November 8, 2015 Price: 100rmb Move aside Marmite, and suck it cilantro. In this field, nothing’s so divisive as performance art. More often it either totally resonates, or is just plain awkward. Whatever, done well it’s totally worth a look, as is the case at Long Museum’s current blockbuster. 15 Rooms opened at the institution’s West Bund venue last month, with its vernissage attended by a predictable melange of arty types spanning shoulder shruggers and sycophants. The most affirmative reactions of all, though, were those of the under-tens. That’s not to say this show is remotely childish; rather, it’s best approached sans preconceptions and enjoyed as is. Case in point, Hu Xiangqian’s Two Men, or two guys play fighting in Twister-inspired red and green get-ups. It’s funny and honest. Likewise, who wouldn’t want to be one of two performers kicking drums from swings in Cao Fei’s Coming Soon? Oftentimes absurd, the exhibition raises lots of smiles. The latest in an annual series, 15 Rooms follows in the footsteps of the string’s inaugural and 11-strong incarnation (Manchester, 2011), through to its fourth (Art Basel, 2014). The shows are curated by Swiss curator and director of London’s Serpentine Gallery Hans Ulrich Obrist, and NY MoMA’s Klaus Biesenbach. This one includes works by five Chinese artists: in addition to Cao Fei and Hu Xiangqian, they include Xu Zhen’s free-fall crowd-pleaser, Just a Blink of an Eye, Double Fly Art Center's Milk of Pure Love, and Zhang Huan’s calligraphy-tastic Family Tree. For all of the show’s big names -- Marina Abramović! Yoko Ono! Tino Sehgal! -- witnesses to its previous incarnations point to the fact that none of the artists are actually there, not to mention a distinct lack of nudity. Still, although pricey at 100rmb a ticket, for these 15 downright surprising experiences, all housed inside custom-built mirrored interiors by starchitects Herzog & de Meuron, it’s well worth it. ***

And Beyond...

If September was Shanghai’s art month then November must be its second coming. Highlights include a big old Dalí exhibition at K11 opening November 5, the return of high-end art fair ART021 from November 19-22, and a very special group project from Assembly Line Project Studio taking place at a Jiading factory and M50 called Prototypes, Duplicates and Cast-offs. Expect details on that one very soon. Looking further ahead still, YUZ Museum just announced a huge exhibition of sculptures by 20th century great, Alberto Giacometti. That's taking place in partnership with the Fondation Giacometti in Paris and kicks off in March 2016. Definitely something to get very, very excited about, the show is set to include seminal works like Homme qui marche as well as photography by Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon. Giacometti in his studio in Paris in 1958. Ernst Scheidegger/Foundation Ernst Scheidegger-Archive and Giacometti Estate, 2015 For loads more ongoing art exhibitions, check out our Art Calendar