When it comes to the burgeoning of early Chinese private art museums, most institutions have gotten off the ground from showcasing personal collections. However, the Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), which houses zero collections, chose a different path. For years, the team has been focusing on the most challenging task: curation. What is its executors' operational strategy? What major transformations has it faced for over nearly a decade? LarysFrogier, director of RAM, joined us for a conversation.
▲LarysFrogier, Director of Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum. Courtesy of RAM
RAM, which opened in the year 2010, is one of the very first private art museums in China. What were the founders' initiative, motivation, and idea behind its establishment?
It was related both to the development of contemporary art scene, and to global, or more specifically, Chinese economic booming. It is important to support culture and education when an area is undergoing exploitation. In such context, some HNWIs started to involve themselves in developing charity projects, including museums.
When it comes to private art organizations in China at that time, you can barely find anything other than commercial galleries. Nevertheless, for art creation, exhibition, research, and education, the museum is an indispensable platform. Facing the existing socio-cultural needs, the founders built the idea of creating the very first contemporary art museum in China that is fully devoted to supporting contemporary art production and creativity.
We were informed that RAM houses zero collections —the team spend major time and resource on curation. What is your long-term strategy for museum operation?
To demonstrate that weare able to execute the basic duty of a museum, namely, to support artists and art projects, and to develop human resources with people who are also engaged in the projects, lay the foundation of RAM's future development.
Therefore, the first objective was to professionalize the institution, meaning the main target was to curate qualitative exhibitions, carry out professional researches, and design inspiring educational programs.
Last year, we were honored to receive the Best Fine Art Exhibition Award from Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, which is an important recognition of our professionality in this field. More importantly, now we have a strong team to manage the projects. They show great interest and passion for what they are doing.
Another great news is that Rockbund Art Museumhas officially registered as a non-profit organization in 2018, which means we are going from a private entity funded by the old family to a non-profit organization still funded by them, but also open to other people or institutions. The invisible process is fundamental. Once we have a stronger budget, we can think about other possibilities.
Setting up collection is definitely under our consideration. However, you need to be extremely careful when observing and questioning what the priorities are here – expectation of the audience, the way art community is evolving, or the networks that we are developing. The job should be done by a professional committee made of curators, artists, and founders together.
▲Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum. Courtesy of RAM
You mentioned in another interview earlier this year that "Chinese art context is now stronger, but we still need to professionalize it". How do you view the overall current status and future direction of Chinese private museum industry?
Chinese art scenehas grown quickly. Shanghai, among Beijing, Guangzhou, and other Chinese metropolis, is on the broad front of developing private art museums. We have a solid diverse community here, and together these individuals and organizations form a full, fast-changing ecology. Sustainability has become an issue of importance in recent years. RAM is not the only Chinese museum to have become non-profit. As a matter of fact, many private museums are going through the same stage with us. It means we are entering a new period.
Another concern is perceived from the fact that contemporary art history has been built from a Western perspective. Artists in this part of the world, namely China but even Asia as a whole, and this period of time were not fully analyzed or observed in the international art scene in the past. The Chinese art community has devoted itself to change the parameters of art history. This is what RAM hopes to achieve as well.
You work between different cultures. How do you understand locality and internationality in museum management and operation?
When we invite international artists or artists from other cities in China, it is very important that we have a mutual understanding of what is locality. We do want to really consolidate the grounds to the city of Shanghai. I think this kind of exchange makes the relation to the others somewhat different and much more meaningful. I never believe in a global flat or uniform way of making art. Displacing someone to another place always creates a specific connection between the individual and the local context. Co-conceiving and co-producing projects is beneficial to the organic development of the community, which can never be achieved by merely introducing an already-existing show to our space.
On the other side, when we talk about "international" from here, it always refers to Europe or the U.S. The word contains a richer and more complex pregnancy. That is why we are developing thenetwork from our neighbors in Asia. Now we have a research program related to curatorial practices and history of exhibitions in Asia. Since last year, we’ve developed partnerships with Para Site Hong Kong to launch two co-curated exhibitions in 2019 and 2020. Our cooperation with Sharjah Art Foundation Dubai is also undergoing discussion. Of course, I hope we can embrace different areas like Latin America or Africa as well.
You attach great importance to exhibition. What is your criteria of choosing artists to exhibit in RAM?
My criteria is to avoid criteria – I don't put labels on artists. Differences and paradoxes are always present.
▲Lin Tianmiao, My Garden (2018). Courtesy of RAM
Last year we had Lin Tianmiao's solo. As one of the first female Chinese artists tackling installation and video production, Lin Tianmiao has constructed unique and bold imaginary scenes based on materials that evoke the traces and symbolism of feminine life. A strong tension is structured around her distinct style and exquisite thoughts. She is iconic among the younger generation of Chinese female artists.
And then right after her is Belgium artistFrancesc Francis Alÿs who migrates and works in between frontiers. With his accurate poetic and imaginative powers of perception, Alÿs raises questions about anthropology and geopolitics, creating works from his close observations of everyday life.
The two projects are extremely different in style – one is visually impressive, while the other is more discreet. One is about the presentation of body and the connection of community, while the other explores a similar topic from a different perspective. RAM would love to provide visibility for artists who show different talent and creativity.
▲Francis Alÿs, A Story of Deception, Patagonia, Argentina (2003 – 2006). In collaboration with Olivier Debroise and Rafael Ortega. Courtesy of RAM
As you mention, it takes at least two years for RAM to build a finished exhibition project. Could you give an example to describe the process?
Once we have the desire to work with an artist, the curatorial team makes the first proposal to him or her in which we describe why we are interested in their works and ask them to consider the specialty of the context. Then we invite them to come. Based on their personal experience in the building, the city, and the culture, we anticipate to achieve multifold perspectives and substantial communication.
▲Installation view of “Bharti Kher: Misdemeanours”, Rockbund Art Museum, 2014
When African American artist Mark Bradford was here, he came across old colonial era maps of Shanghai at a local market. The artist became interested in the partitioning of the city during the international zone period, the changes to the Chinese address system under the imposed Japanese system, as well as the pre-industrialization landscape of the city.In other words, the mapping and remapping of the city, and the molding and remodeling of the physical landscape over any decades. He made a series of outstanding paintings after flying back to Los Angeles, which are informed by theaforementioned context and massive changes in the urban landscape that he witnessed in the two visits he made over the last five years.
Another example is Ugo Rondinone who also experienced the color and light of the city. We spent two hours exchanging ideas in the museum building. When we reached the sixth floor, he said:“I already have an idea.” He decided to bring the museum to completely its natural light by installing filters on the window, which created rainbow colors from the ground to the roof. The interesting paradox lies in the fact that the project is relating to his research in German expressionism in painting, but all influenced by his specific experience here. I enjoy the collaboration, which brings something lively out.
▲ Installation view of “UGO RONDINONE: BREATHE WALK DIE”, Rockbund Art Museum, 2015
How do you manage to incorporate the museum with local context? RAM often features avant-garde international artists. Philippe Parreno's and Felix Gonzalez-Torres' first solo shows in China were both presented here. In such case, artists may be unfamiliar to theChinese audience. How does RAM relate the project to them?
When the audience is not informed about our artist, what excites us is the risk we take because it always raises new questions and new challenges to everyone involved.
For example, the work of Philippe Parreno is not really based on a traditional object. By manipulating light, shadow, and duration, Parreno guides visitors through a constantly evolving space. He invites them to engage with contradictory notions of the physical, emotional, and conceptual. He blurs the distinction between reality and fiction to create an all-encompassing world of endless possibilities.
No one was able to forsee the audience's reaction when we only had the work list at hand, but when all was done the exhibition opened, I saw people standing in the space to feel the change of the sound, the light, and the architecture itself. They were not consuming art. Instead, they had a full experience with time, their own body, and the perception of surrounding materials. Surprisingly, there was even an ongoing debate on social media about the show. The interesting outcome of Parreno's solo demonstrates that the museum should keep questioning itself and curators can not always stay in the safe zone. Both museum workers and audiences need to take constant challenges.
▲ Exhibition view: Philippe Parreno, Synchronicity at the Rockbund Art Museum Photo © Andrea Rossetti 2017
Has RAM tried anything new in aspect of communication and education as well?
We are having ongoing meetings now to see how we can update the format of educational programs. For me, tour is a basic connection between museum and its audience. Originally the curatorial team did all the tours. Then we extended to the whole team, and now, to volunteers. We invite people who have not contributed to the exhibition but have strong capacity to experience the project and have a specific angle or a voice to join us. Their specialties give understanding of the show other than what we as art professionals can give.
As to communication, our social media pages feature articles by a variety of interdisciplinary authors. Such arrangement aims to promote a writing experiment that evokes diverse ideas and styles and to reach a wider reader group by providing tailored content for different targets. I also tried to have brunch with a small group of museum members and media partners, confronting one artwork exhibited in the museum.
Understanding the community's expectation is the key for both communication and education. If we only hold theatrical workshops or lectures, many of them just come for the topic, but they show little interest to the specific exhibition, oeuvre, or artist. Therefore, it is important to interweave audience, artist, and museum by building this multimedia, multi-context, and multi-identity platform.