The final phase of the 13th Shanghai Biennale culminates with a mammoth show examining our entanglement with climates, ecosystems and technologies

Power Station of Art on the bank of the Huangpu River. © PSA

The 13th Shanghai Biennale has unveiled its ultimate exhibition, ‘Bodies of Water’, featuring 64 participating artists and 33 new commissions.

The biennial kicked off in November 2020 with ‘Phase 01: *A* Wet-run Rehearsal’, a five-day inaugural programme, followed by ‘Phase 02: An Ecosystem Of Alliances’, five months of activity and programming. This staggered approach enabled artists, thinkers and curators involved in the biennal to develop their work in close collaboration with the City of Shanghai, its people, networks of activism, organisations, and institutions.

Cecilia Vicuña, Quipu Menstrual (Shanghai), (2006/2021), installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Launched in 1996 as the first international biennial of contemporary art in mainland China, the event sets Shanghai as its primary locus, while positioning itself as a hub for global contemporary art exchange.

The 13th edition is seeking to shake up the traditional biennial format and explore the participant-public divide. Unravelling over nine months, the ‘in crescendo’ event reaches a climax with ‘Bodies of Water’, an exhibition dissecting how climates, ecosystems, technologies, and life in all its forms are inextricably interconnected.

In line with the biennial’s ethos, ‘Bodies of Water’ will be in dialogue with the history, geography and vernacular of Shanghai. Unfolding across other locations in the city, including the historic Sunke Villa, the event will begin at the Power Station of Art (PSA), China’s first state-run contemporary art museum and a venue with an intriguing past life as a former coal-electric plant that fuelled the industrialisation of the Huangpu River.

Pan Daijing, Done Duet, (2021), installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

In harmony with the themes of Earth Day (22 April 2021), participating artists and collectives present artworks that negotiate our entanglement in extended ecosystems of interdependency. A significant number of these works, 33 in total, have been commissioned and conceived for the space. Featured artists include Joan Jonas, Pan Daijing, Diakron and Emil Rønn Andersen, Torkwase Dyson, Tabita Rézaire, Jenna Sutela, Carlos Irijalba and Cecilia Vicuña.

‘The 13th Shanghai Biennale advocates for the momentous contribution that art plays in the reconstruction of a world shaped by environmental, social and political distress. The Biennale is sensitive to the way art constitutes and infiltrates life itself, and to its capacities for bodied reparation, transformation and dissidence,’ says chief curator Andrés Jaque.

‘Bodies of Water’ urges viewers to examine living collectivity at a time when the Earth is facing unprecedented challenges, from the swelling climate crisis to the ongoing global pandemic. §

Diakron and Emil Rønn Andersen, Scries (2021), installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Torkwase Dyson, Bird and Lava #01 (Bird and Lava) (2021); In Conditions of Fresh Water (Bird and Lava) (2021); Scale and Touch, Scale and Touch, Scale and Touch (Bird and Lava) (2021), installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Front: Carlos Irijalba, Amphibia (2021). Back: Cecilia Vicuña, Quipu Menstrual (Shanghai) (2006/2021), installation view at the 13th Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Jenna Sutela, Indigo, Blue and Green Matter (I Magma cycle) (2021), installation view at 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Guo Fengyi, installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Joan Jonas, Rivers to the Abyssal Plain (2021), installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Tabita Rézaire, Mamelles Ancestrales (2019), installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Antoni Muntadas, RED (2017), installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Zheng Mahler, Mountains of Gold and Silver (2020), installation view at the 13th Shanghai Biennale ’Bodies of Water’, Shanghai, 2021. Courtesy Power Station of Art

Information ’Bodies of Water’, the 13th Shanghai Biennale’s main exhibition, until 25 July 2021, at Power Station of Art (PSA)shanghaibiennale.org Address 200 Hua Yuan Gang Lu, Huangpu QuShanghai, 200231 View Google Maps

SHANGHAI INSTALLATIONS NEWS