龍年快樂!

Photographer and our man Xepo who did those great black and white snaps of Lost and Found and the videast of URBANVIDEOSCAPESHANGHAI video installation has a book launch going on tomorrow at 8h30pm.

摄影师和我们的Xepo，他帮我们拍摄了超赞的《轮回》的黑白快照以及URBANVIDEOSCAPESHANGHAI系列摄影装置的录音，在明天晚上8:30会有一个他的新书推荐仪式。

And right on on the invitation! Love it! It gets 10 stage候台BACK points! I wish our reality and perception would have some ball pen writing floating around us sometimes.

15 years in Shanghai equal 150 years elsewhere. The speed is not to believe if you have never experienced  it. Leave for a month, a whole neighborhood can disappear. Want to buy smokes or water or something at the convenient store around the corner? Oups, building is gone. Restaurants and bars come and go. Often faceless with big bucks behind. In the past years there were glorious openings followed by non worthy closings.

And then there is YY's. 

In this environment of constant change it is existing since 15 years. It is there! Like a solid rock!   For all those years it has been our second home where there is word and speech and thoughts and ideas and laughter and creativity and art and a lot of fun silliness. 

Naturally, it is Shanghainese owned. Once voted as  "best pub in Shanghai" by French Vogue, it's old fashioned charm of the thirties of last century mix with Mao souvenirs in a dim light.  It hosts a contemporary crowd and is a role model of sustainability and cultural exchange. Often, more then 3 languages are spoken on a regular night around the pub. The transmitted preachers of culture should understand that it only takes a table and chairs to bring nations together.

Nights at YY's can be long with animated conversations. This is what we need, us, the artists. Thank you and Happy birthday!

15年在上海的生活相当于150年在其他地方的。如果你从来都没有经历过它，那么这种速度是无法想象的。一个月的离开之后当你回来的时候，也许一整个小区就会完全的消失。想要在街角的便利店里面买香烟，水或者其他的什么东西吗？Oups, 那栋楼已经完全消失了。商店在价值连城的背后却越来越面目模糊。在过去的几年里面，这里有着无数铺张的店铺的开幕式，但里面确实一文不值的服装。

再就有了轮回酒吧

在这种不断变化的环境下，它存在了15年。它就在那里！就像一个坚硬的岩石！在经历了那么多年之后，它成为了我们第二个家，一个充满了话语，演讲，想法，笑声，创意，艺术以及无数欢乐的和愚蠢的事儿。

自然而然，它被上海人拥有者。一旦它被法国时尚杂志《Vogue》评选为上海最佳酒吧，因为它在昏暗的灯光下那种与上个世纪毛泽东纪念品相结合的老旧时尚的魅力。它承载了一个当代的拥挤以及一个可持续发展和文化交流的模范。通常来说，在一般的晚上在这个酒吧中有3种不同的语言被说这是件极为正常的事情。文化传播的传教士们他们应该明白，只要一张桌子和一把椅子就可以将不同国家的人放在一起。

在轮回酒吧的晚上可以整晚的畅谈。这正是我们，这些艺术家们，所需要的。 谢谢你！ 生日快乐！

Shanghai ladies 上海女性

K/B/S

K/S/B

The "code" is always there. 条形码一直都在那儿。

Flowers 鲜花

Shanghai ladies 上海女性

L + S

Shanghai 1932 上海1932

Shanghai 1932 for real! 真的，上海 1932！

Shanghai Daily reposts today about more concrete plans how China, especially Shanghai will be the cultural enlightened  super power in a short while. The China pavilion on the 2010 World Expo site will be the first backfire to rival with the West. 

It is not surprising again but still sad that the word rival had to be used several times in that article.  The concept is to be better, bigger etc. . . 

Culture is a world heritage and a support to advocate talents and intellectuals all over the world without borders, without any rival.

China again is looking on to a facade. Shiny at the out side, empty at the inside. The buildings won't be of any real use, as log as there is controlled cultural development in China.

From Shanghai Daily:

SHANGHAI is to transform the Expo 2010's China Pavilion into an art gallery to rival those in New York and Paris, the city government announced yesterday.

The new gallery in the Pudong New Area - to be called the China Art Palace - will be on a par with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, a senior official said.

This is part of a plan to make Shanghai "an international cultural metropolis," Zong Ming, deputy head of the Publicity Department of Shanghai's Party committee, told a press conference yesterday.

The China Art Palace will collect top-level art from home and abroad, primarily to showcase the origins and development of China's modern arts.

It is part of a plan by the city government to build 16 new major museums and art galleries and many smaller museums by 2015 and make Shanghai an "international cultural metropolis," said Zong.

"In the future, Shanghai residents will be able to find a museum and cultural venue within a 15-minute walk of their homes," she said.

"The number and quality of art galleries and museums is an important measure of cultural standing - cities such as New York and Paris are famed for their top-level galleries," said Teng Junjie, art director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture Radio Film and TV.

The palace, which will cover an area of 70,000 square meters, will open on a limited basis next October, Zong said.

Most facilities from the former China Pavilion can be retained, bringing considerable savings, she said.

The three levels of the former main exhibition hall of the Expo pavilion will showcase the history and development of modern art of Shanghai and China, while the former joint pavilion for Chinese provinces and municipalities will have separate exhibition rooms for famous Chinese modern artists, including top Shanghai painter Cheng Shifa, said Teng.

"The China Art Palace will be a cultural and arts venue to impress the world and drive the development of China's art," said Hong Hao, the former top Expo 2010 organizer.

The gallery will include some exhibits from the Shanghai Art Museum in Puxi, which is now too small for requirements, Teng said.

Due to space constraints, more than 30,000 artworks are not on display at the city's existing art galleries, said Teng. These cover just 6,800 square meters.

And inadequate gallery space has prevented the city attracting some international exhibitions, officials said.

Another new development, the China Contemporary Art Museum, will stand on the opposite bank of the Huangpu River to the art palace in a 100-year-old power plant featuring the "weather chimney" from the World Expo site.

The museum, which is set to cover 15,000 square meters in the former Urban Future Pavilion, will open at the same time as the art palace.

"After the establishment of the new projects, Shanghai will have three major museums - the existing Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Art Palace and the China Contemporary Art Museum - for historic, modern and contemporary artworks," Teng said.

Also at the former Expo site, the Expo Museum will be built in the former Zone D area and open to the public in 2015, Zong said.

The SAIC-GM Pavilion will become the Shanghai Children's Art Theater in 2013 and an international dance center will be built near the Hongqiao Development Zone in Changning District.

An archeological museum will open in 2013 on the Songze Ancient Culture Ruins in Qingpu District. This is the origin of the Songze Culture (3900-3200 BC), one of the city's earliest cultures.

Other planned projects include the China Modern and Contemporary News Publication Museum; the Museum of Shanghai History; the Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Center and Shanghai Library (second phase).