On April 12, 2013, at 4:00 PM, professor Lu Xiaobo, Dean of Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University chaired the themed forum of “public art and the urban development". Professor Sun Zhenhua, Director of Shenzhen Public Art Center and Rhana Devenport, Director of New Zealand Gove brewster Art Gallery gave comments based on four experts’ speech.
Professor Sun Zhenhua thinks, these four experts’ speeches just constitute the four major driving force of public art in China today. "Mr. Huang Yingyan think, public art should provide good art quality for urban public space, make the public more accessible to art; MS Sun Shan points out that public art is the key point to promote the urban public space and cultural connotation and the artistic quality; Professor Wang Shouzhi defined public art from the perspective of the relationship between government and the public; Prof.Yang Qirui himself is more of a activist on the field. Since the urbanization process of the cities in China is not same, so the feature of public art in China is not the same, either.
“The ontology of public art may have three kinds of possibilities: one is the public art initiator or an organizer or a creator build a public art work for the public; the second way is to complete a piece of public art works with the involvement of the public together; the last one is to let the public devoted itself into a public art works." Professor Sun believed that many times people don't think about what public art is when they are actually doing it, but the long process of doing it is a definition of public art, this process must be full of fun in the later review.
Rhana Devenport, who is the director Geva-Brewster Art Gallery in New Zealand, said: "Huang Yingyan talked about the public feature; Professor Sun Shan mentioned Shanghai would become an influential city. I want to add one is ecological element, which is very important, because it represents a trend of the future; Wang Shouzhi talked about urbanism, and talked about the public consciousness, also spoke about the public opinion. Professor Yang Qirui talked that the changes in China is turning the world upside down, and they touch the lives of everyone."
After the two theme of the forum finished, Mr. Lewis Biggs summarized: " the process of public art is changing, we are always in a period of transition, rather than a transition ending period. Therefore, I think what is important, first of all, need to combine internationalism and localism well together. In addition, how to make our place better through the linkage of art works. That is to say, we are not only the master, but visitors too, we will be able to see whether local people really put the space as their own space when we enter a space, in a another word, if they will respect the region that they belong to. This is also how art makes place, shapes space."
"Finally, let’s talk about collaboration; a successful case can reflect a very good collaboration between people, human's essence actually lies in his collaboration. And the fundamental element for place-making is collaboration, therefore that is why the collaboration is very important in place-making." |
