The Bund Art Project “Ferry love”2017

Project Introduction

As a joint project and a major constituent of SUSAS 2017, The Bund Art Project 2017 focuses on enhancing the quality of public places by connecting the shores of Huangpu River, and the public ferry service plays an indispensable role in the picture. The winners of Ferry Design Competition are displayed on the river, adding a curious humor into the life of citizens, while promoting the city’s amiability and creativity. The Bund Art Project is an essential piece in the comprehensive plan that reinforces the identity of Shanghai.

Theme Interpretation

Considering the statue of ferry as public infrastructure, the planning team of The Bund Art Project 2017 integrates publicity and participatory elements for citizens or visitors into the theme.
Given the actual condition of ferries, the curators set a twofold target for the competitors: enhance the appearance and security of the public transportation. The project rethinks the boundaries of contemporary art and design, and demonstrate aesthetic notions to an untrained audience in a visual-oriented way.
Based on the fact that ferry travels through both space and time, the façade is the region that calls for renovation. The concept aims to express the prosperity, tolerance, romance, colorfulness and sophistication of Shanghai as an international metropolis.
“Ferry Love” is the consistent theme of this ferry renovation program, where “ferry” indicates the object to which the project applies, and “love” tells the core of the whole thing.
As the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, says, No man ever steps in the same river twice, since the river never stops flowing, and therefore changing for even a second. The intentionality towards flowing embodies the varying relationship between human and city.
Huangpu River carries the ferry, and the ferry carries man. Ferry is not single dimensional, neither is life. The city “objectifies” humans. Essentially, a human is alien to another. One is related to another as if an automata. The sense of security derives from the attempt to approach a group of people, and aligning to them in terms of thought, emotion and action. Despite the universal inclination towards each other, loneliness, insecurity, fear and feeling of guilt persist. Had there been no connections, no intersections, there would be no understanding. A frictionless world is one with no place of comprehension. As a converging point of flowing crowds, ferries always stay on the river. Dynamic relationship find rest there, and they thus initiate the process of love. Interestingly, the ferry, the vehicle is far from stable, but runs on an equally flowing waterway, which insinuates that ferry and love are merely starting points, or processes, but never the ends.

Events

Ferry Design Competition 2017
Date: April – August, 2017
Content: the participants are required to deliver designs of ferries on Huangpu River, centering on the theme “Ferry Love”, and four winners will be chosen by a professional board.

“Ferry Love” Installment Art Exhibition
Date: August 2017 – January 2018
Content: during the show time, viewers are able to appreciate the winners along Huangpu Ri

Opening Ceremony
Date: 12 May, 2017
Venue: Bund Source, Yuanmingyuan Road, Huangpu District
Content: Bund panorama comprising of 1,200 slides; main stage surrounded by ferries

Exhibition Region

(subject to tentative adjustment during the construction period of Bank Connection)

1. Minsheng-Dandong Line: Dandong Road ferry – Minsheng Road ferry
2. Taidong-Gongping Line: Gongping Road ferry – Taidong Road ferry
3. East Jinling-Dongchang Line: East Jinling Road ferry – Dongchang Road ferry
4. East Fuxing-Dongchang Line: East Fuxing Road ferry – Dongchang Road ferry
5. East Fuxing-Yangjiadu Line: East Fuxing Road ferry – Yangjiadu ferry
6. East Fuxing-Yangjiadu Line: East Fuxing Road ferry – Yangjiadu ferry
7. Lujiabang-Nanmatou Line: Lujiabang Road ferry – Nanmatou Road ferry
Some ferry-places have outstanding designs on display

Curators
• 

  Zheng Jishun

  Producer, event designer, senior media professional and film director of Bestknown.
• 

  Lin Shuchuan

  Curator, documentary producer. Current a member of Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Art (AMNUA). Lin started his curating career in 2007, and consistently focuses on the life and creation of young Chinese “out of system” artists by exhibition, writing and documentary. He is the planner of several long-term exhibition, such as POLYPHONY: Ecological Survey of Chinese Art, Sub-Liberty, CHINA NOW, and individual exhibitions for QiuZhijie, Yue Minjun, Zhu Yingchun, Chang Qing, Shen Qin and others.