2019.10.20-2020.3.31

Qianshao Contemporary Art Center,Chongming District,Shanghai

On October 20, 2019, in Chongming Island, Shanghai, hosted its first large-scale contemporary art group exhibition — Advent — in Qianming Village. Bringing together 32 distinguished contemporary artists and collectives from China and abroad, the exhibition featured more than 40 works spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and land art. The works were presented across two venues: Qianshao Ming Contemporary Art Center and the Bay Viewing Corridor.

In our era of advanced technology, as people mobilize ever-greater wealth and resources, questions arise alongside comfort and stability: Is the world truly becoming a better place? Confronted with the radical transformation brought by urbanization — and China’s rapidly accelerating globalization of cities — the most fundamental question remains: what kind of land do we wish to build? What kind of future can we imagine and create from a single village, a single piece of earth?

Drawing upon the rich ecological veins of the Yangtze River estuary in Chongming, the exhibition sought to create an “ecological theater,” turning this art–ecology gathering into a living demonstration of how each individual might construct their own ecological stage.