Exhibitions

Yona Friedman Exhibition

The newly opened Yona Friedman exhibition at the Power Station of Art adheres to the influential French architect's outlook by inviting its audience to reconsider their relationship to the built environment. Friedman was born in Hungary in 1923, and later became a French citizen. He is best known for his theory of "mobile architecture," which aimed to "help the inhabitant to become master of his own design." Put forward in 1958, the theory challenged the authority of professional artists to dictate the kind of buildings we live and work in, and proposed a system of highly customizable structures that could be modified by anyone on a trial-and-error basis.

Date: Until August 16, 11 am to 7 pm (closed Mondays)

Venue: Power Station of Art

上海当代艺术博物馆

Address: 200 Huayuangang Road 花园港路200号

Admission: Free

Call 3110-8550 for more information

The Bank Show: Hito Steyerl

If the inaugural The Bank Show: Vive le Capital marked an effort to come to terms with the fact that contemporary at is - and can only be, for a while - embedded and operative in a world calibrated by global capital, its sequel The Bank Show: Hito Steyerl focuses on a single artist whose singular approach to navigating the unstable grounds of contemporary life "in the neo-liberal thick of things" feels more relevant than ever, perhaps eerily so. When Liquidity Inc., the main attraction in this exhibition, first came out in 2014, the fate of its protagonist Jacob Woods - and adopted Vietnam War orphan-turned Lehman Brothers financier-turned MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter after losing his job in the 2008 economic crisis - already felt like an all-too-familiar narrative with the last global financial fiasco securely tucked into the past. Yet now as you sit on the Hokusai-inspired ramp specially constructed to experience this video, 1.93 million euros had just been raised on a crowd-funding platform that ultimately failed to resuscitate the Greek economy and, together with China's stock market downfall, one can only forecast continued instability for today's global economy and the world that it sustains.

Date: Until August 30, 10:30 am to 6:30 pm (closed Mondays)

Venue: BANK Gallery

Address: 1/F, 59 Xianggang Road

香港路59号1楼

Admission: Free

Call 6301-3622 for details

The Eternal Aquatic

The Eternal Aquatic features some of the best of Christy Lee Rogers' sublime underwater photography. Rogers is a visual artist from Kailua, Hawaii. For over a decade Rogers has imagined elaborate scenes of otherworldly colors and entwined bodies that celebrate humankind's vigor, warmth and source. She crafted her vision by using models submerged underwater in deftly designed scenarios, photographed in her native home of Hawaii, that conjure the deepest depths of our world, our origins, our composition, in a profoundly human context. These single shot un-retouched images convey both the decidedly contemporary edge of experimental photography with the gorgeous tones, dramatic lighting and composition influencing early baroque painting from Titian through Caravaggio and onto Rubens. Her work has been exhibited internationally at Lazarides Outsiders Gallery in London in 2014, across the globe from Monaco to Mexico City, and has been featured in many international media. The London Independent described her work as "a mix of masters - the vivid hues of Titian, the straining bodies of Rubens, the sun-dappling chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, but also the loose brush strokes and fluid movement of Delacroix."

Date: Until August 18, 10 am to 7 pm, (closed Mondays)

Venue: ART LABOR Gallery

Address: 1/F, Bldg 4, 570 Yongjia Road 永嘉路570号4号楼一楼

Admission: Free

Call 3460-5331 for details

On Stage

Concert by Asian Youth Orchestra

Since its inaugural performances in 1990, the award-winning Asian Youth Orchestra (AYO) has played more than 350 concerts in Asia, Europe, the US and Australia to an audience of more than one million concertgoers. Millions more have seen and heard the orchestra around the world on CNN, CNBC, NHK, and Radio and Television Hong Kong. The 100-strong members of the Asian Youth Orchestra are among the finest young musicians in China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Steven Isserlis, Wang Jian and Alisa Weilerstein, violinists Gidon Kremer, Gil Shaham, Elmar Oliveira, Young Uck Kim, Stefan Jackiw and Cho-Liang Lin, soprano Elly Ameling, the Beaux Arts Trio, pianists Alicia de Larrocha, Cecile Licad, Leon Fleisher and Jean Louis Steuerman are among those who have performed with AYO under the direction of principal conductor James Judd, music director emeritus Sergiu Comissiona, Alexander Schneider, Tan Dun, and the orchestra's co-founders, Yehudi Menuhin and Richard Pontzious.

Date: August 9, 7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center

上海东方艺术中心

Address: 425 Dingxiang Road

丁香路425号

Tickets: 80 yuan to 280 yuan

Call 6854-1234 for details

Piano Recital by Francesco Tristano

Francesco Tristano from Luxemburg is one of the last students at New York's Juilliard School to complete Bach legend Rosalyn Tureck's master class. He also studied at the music academies in Brussels, Riga, Paris and Luxembourg as well as the Esmuc in Barcelona. In 2004, he won the first prize at the International Piano Competition for Contemporary Music in Orléans, France. Tristano has released 12 albums, among them recordings of Bach Goldberg Variations and complete keyboard concertos, Luciano Berio complete piano works, and Girolamo Frescobaldi Toccatas. Not for Piano (2007), presented his own compositions as well as versions of techno classics at the piano. Idiosynkrasia, his third album on the label inFiné, recorded at Carl Craig's Planet E-communications in Detroit, was released to critical acclaim in 2010. More recently, Tristano has signed with Universal Classics & Jazz. His first project, bachCage, produced by Moritz von Oswald, was released on Deutsche Grammophon in March 2011.

Date: August 22, 7:45 pm

Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center 上海东方艺术中心

Address: 425 Dingxiang Road

丁香路425号

Tickets: 50 yuan to 300 yuan

Call 6854-1234 for details

In the flesh: Nutricula

Minsheng WE Theatre of Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum will present In the flesh: Nutricula for two nights. In the flesh: Nutricula is a show that follows the reverse process of transformation from post-humanity to primordial monstrosity. The text is a post-dramatic montage of monologues and poems. The performance is an examination of non-representational theater that completely separates movement from speech. The show is choreographed Yasen Vasilev, a Bulgarian-born, Shanghai-based playwright and performance artist. His debut play The Walled In Ones premiered in Sofia in 2012 and was nominated for best new play the following year. His second play Borgestriptych was commissioned by Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai and premiered on Halloween night 2014 as an immersive site-specific performance event, both a live show and a video installation. The performances are free but seats are limited. Make a reservation at http://www.minshengart.com/.

Date: July 24 and 25, 8 pm

Venue: Minsheng Art Museum

Address: Bldg F, 570 Huaihai Road West 淮海西路570号F座

Tickets: Free