Function trumps flash at Pudong art museum
The Museum of Art Pudong may lack the ‘wow’ factor of nearby structures but it is much more than initially meets the eye, Zhang Kun reports.
Since its opening on July 8, the Museum of Art Pudong has been packed to capacity every day. Designed by renowned French architecture firm Ateliers Jean Nouvel, MAP has a daily crowd limit of 4,000.
Long lines can be found outside the museum every morning before the official opening at 10 am. Due to the overwhelming summer heat, the museum staff have at times even opened the gates earlier to offer some reprieve to the elderly and visitors with special need.
Located next to the Oriental Pearl Tower in the heart of Lujiazui, the 13,000-square-meter museum has become a new landmark in Shanghai’s cultural scene. Its inaugural exhibitions have also been popular among museumgoers.
In a recent interview with Shanghai-based Wenhui Daily, French architect Jean Nouvel said that he decided the new museum should “belong” to both the Lujiazui area and the Huangpu River rather than compete for prominence in the urban skyline as there are already several notable skyscrapers in the areas.
MAP was designed to look like a large white marble block sitting by the river. The lack of border walls separating the museum and the river bank means that the venue will have many opportunities to interact with the river and nearby spaces, says Nouvel.
You Xudong, an architecture observer and critic, compared Nouvel’s design of MAP with his other works in China, such as a new opera house in Shenzhen of Guangdong province, and The Roof, a new mall on Madang Road in Shanghai. While most of Nouvel’s other creations are bold and impressive, MAP looks “ordinary and even boring at first sight”, he says.
You also points out that other museums in Shanghai feature similar designs that are “ordinary and regular”.
“If you have paid attention to China’s public culture and art news, you would find that Shanghai has become China’s cultural center today,” he wrote in an essay.
“The latest heavyweight public cultural events, those of the greatest market appeal, will first land in Shanghai, while visiting exhibitions and museums is now a part of daily life. Shanghai has the greatest cultural consumption in the whole country.”
Because of this, the city’s cultural structures have turned to prioritizing their functions, efficiency, quality of the exhibition space and integration with the urban landscaping instead of aiming to become another landmark, explains You.
“As the city’s aesthetics become mature, a large number of Shanghai’s newly completed cultural architecture are repurposed industrial heritage sites,” he wrote. “These buildings keep alive the city’s history, and achieve a better economic effect.”
Chen Chen, director of Atelier Jean Nouvel in China, says that the French architect does not stick to a particular style, but instead responds to the surroundings and locations.
The design of MAP may look simple, but it actually consists of rich details and boasts a poetic maneuvering of natural light, Chen says.
For example, the two halls in MAP facing the river feature large glass windows that reflect the sights of the river and the Bund while also allowing people to view the art shows being held within, thus creating a fourth dimension that transcends the museum space and architecture, says Nouvel.
The museum has a total of 13 “white box” showrooms, which give visitors more freedom to see different shows in their chosen order and pace. Other amenities include a cafe, an art shop, a library, an education center, a roof garden and a pedestrian path connected to the public sightseeing platform along the Huangpu River. According to Chen, these features intended to make the experience more convenient and pleasant for visitors.
“People can stroll around the museum structure unobstructed,” Chen says. “Nothing keeps people outside, and no vehicle affects their safety. Standing in the roof garden, people can appreciate the urban landscape all around them.”
Touted as a museum for the future, MAP is equipped with stateof-the-art facilities that allow it to showcase the most precious artworks and cultural relics from around the world, Chen adds.
One of the most impressive spaces within MAP is the X Hall located in the center of the museum. Unlike traditional exhibition spaces, this hall has a height of 34 meters that spans from the underground level to the fourth story.
The ongoing exhibition at this hall is by well-known Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang, who created an installation to suit this unique space.
Titled Encounter With the Unknown, the kinetic light installation was inspired by the naturebased cosmology of the Mayan civilization and was a result of “a boy’s fantasy for the space, with aliens, UFOs, and gravity-defying dreams”, says the 64-year-old artist from Quanzhou of Fujian province.
MAP director Zhu Yaping says that she wanted the museum to be “the first stop in China for all internationally acclaimed artists, and a place all Chinese artists would hate to miss”. Zhu visited Cai’s studio in New York a few years ago and convinced him to present his large-scale exhibition Cai Guoqiang: Odyssey and Homecoming at the museum’s opening. The exhibition features 119 of Cai’s signature gunpowder works as well as his first virtual reality work, Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City.
Other inaugural exhibitions are Light: Works From Tate’s Collection,
and Joan Miro: Women, Birds, Stars. A special showcase of Ophelia
by British artist Everett Millais, which features the painting as well as the immortal character in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet and its cultural relevance during the time of its creation, is also taking place at MAP.
Tate Museum of the United Kingdom is the operations consultant and partner for MAP. Neil McConnon, director of international partnerships at Tate, says: “The exhibition Light is the culmination of several years of collaboration with colleagues across Tate and MAP. It is exciting to see this world-class institution being realized and demonstrates the importance and impact of international cultural and artistic exchange.”