Art In The City – Take Me Out

“Take Me Out” is the main exhibition of “Art In The City Festival 2016” that takes place from September 9th to October 9th in Shanghai.

“Art In The City” turns 3 years old and upgrades its festival formula to highlight even more new art from China, more projects, more venues. Showing lovers of art and design, visiting or living in the city, Shanghai’s best creative energies. Bringing art closer to the people.

Curated by Davide Quadrio, Massimo Torrigiani and young local curator Chao Jiaxing, “Take Me Out” is a show about crossovers between art, design and technology that challenges our comprehension of the spaces within which we view art.

The exhibition covers a variety of creative disciplines including: visual art, design, fashion, music, and print media. Individuals of innovation, curators, art institutions, art galleries and artistic communities have all become critical components in the extension and reconstruction of our identity. It is apparent that contemporary art has come closer to the public’s daily lives and that artists’ practices have become miniature utopias, which allows creatives to expand their conceptual derivations beyond the world of art.

Whether it is exploring systems of discourse between people and society or building convenient modes of interaction with financial systems, the relationships between imaginative practices – art and the public, the city and its inhabitants – is being questioned and transformed in varying degrees. These interdisciplinary cooperations have manifested in expansions of urban space and our memory of space itself. In this process everyone gains dynamic and shifting perceptions, as well as new and insightful experiences; the continuous iterations of such experiences forms a fresh urban image.

Among the participating artists are artists with international acclaim: Liu Bolin, Qiu Zhijie, and Michael Wolf; most are emerging: Cai Dongdong, Chen Xi, Dai Chenlian, Huang Songhao, Linghao (Zero) Shen, Liu Ya, Liu Yujia,Inan Wang, Wang Xin, Wang Yefeng, XuBacheng, Xiao Bo, Zhang Lehua, Zhang Ya and Payne Zhu.

Two projects on the relationship between art and fashion – “Women’s Independence” and “Fashion Salutes Art” complement and enrich the “Take Me Out” exhibition.

In 2016, the Etam celebrates its 100 anniversary. For 100 years this French brand has helped the emancipation of women. The company’s President, Laurent Milchior has chosen to celebrate this milestone in an artistic and philanthropic way; he is joined by supermodel Natalia Vodianova, who for many years has been the spokesperson for the brand, and who runs Naked Heart Foundation, an organization aimed at kids’ education in impoverished environments.

International curator Magda Danysz was asked to commission 12 artists to illustrate the Women’s Independence theme. The result is a wide range of works in different media, from photography to drawing and painting to video and installations.

The commissions will be unveiled during two shows, in Shanghai for “Art In The City”, and in Paris, in October. After these exhibitions, the artworks will be auctioned off and all profits will go to the Naked Heart Foundation.

The 12 artists on show are: Ekaterina Anokhina (Russia), Chen Man, Yseult Digan A.K.A. Yz (France), Faile (USA), Rose-Lynn Fisher (France), Nikolai Ishchuk (Russia), Li Hongbo, Liu Bolin, Daniel Otero Torres (Colombia), Stella Sujin (Korea), Jeanne Susplugas (France) and Yi Zhou.

In “Fashion Salutes Art” the London and Shanghai-based talent agency “Favotell” invited 9 fashion designers to create together with artist Guangyu Zhang a fictional world following the cultural collisions and fusions associated with the concept and history of “Chinoiserie”.

Designers and Artist involved are: Zerrin Akinci (Northern Cyprus), Ewa Bednarska (Poland), Li Yunjia, Nita Lipchanskaya (Ukraine), LynJun Park (Korea), Ye Yili, Andrew Yen, Zhang Guangyu, Daria & Anastasia Zhiliaeva (Russia).