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Art Exhibitions in Shanghai in 2000

Shanghai’s ‘exhibition frenzy’ in 2000 presented conflicting positions at a transitional moment for ‘global’ contemporary art. Landmark artist-led initiatives, public interventions and commercial initiatives took place alongside the state-led Shanghai Biennale, then in its third edition, raising questions on modernity, contemporaneity, nationalism, internationalism and globalism, and wider changes in the art field.


Photograph from the 2000 Shanghai Biennale showing On Kawara’s series Pure Consciousness (1997), at Xinlei Music Kindergarten, Shanghai. Photography: Hou Hanru. Courtesy the Estate of On Kawara