6th International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Shanghai until 5.11. MUKHA, Antwerp (B)

The 6th Shanghai Biennial, entitled Hyper Design, opens on 5 September 2006. Flanders will be represented there too by two internationally known artists: Luc Deleu and Hans Op de Beeck.

In 1985 a friendship agreement was concluded between the cities of Shanghai and Antwerp. Since then, exchanges in various fields have already taken place. During an official mission in November 2004, a delegation of the Antwerp municipal administration concluded a protocol with the city of Shanghai to set up, among other things, concrete cooperation projects on a cultural level in the course of the coming years.

This protocol explicitly mentions the participation of Antwerp in the Biennial of Contemporary Art, organised by the Shanghai Art Museum.

Every two years, the Biennial for Contemporary Art in Shanghai lavishly presents an international package of artists; their work reflects current developments in contemporary art. The emphasis is mainly on artistic production in the Asiatic region, which is also becoming increasingly important from a global perspective. In the meantime, the Shanghai Biennial has build up a good reputation as an international platform for contemporary art where artists, curators, authors, art critics and art lovers from all over the world meet.

The 6th Biennial of Contemporary Art in Shanghai runs from 5 September to 5 November 2006 and the theme is Hyper Design. Mister Zhang Qing, artistic director of this Biennial, invited Antwerp to submit concrete proposals for participation in the Artistic Selection Committee, which has an international composition.

After consultation with Bart De Baere, director of the Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art, two internationally renowned Flemish artists were nominated, viz. Luc Deleu and Hans Op De Beeck. Both have strong links with Antwerp.

Finally, the Shanghai Artistic Selection Committee approved the candidature of the two artists with the following works of art. New Version of VIP City, Luc Deleu's vision of a possible division of the world into habitable plots of land (6 m by 6 m), and T-Mart by Hans Op De Beeck, an enormous scale model of a supermarket with a video projection on top.