rm! shanghai perspective

exhibition and workshop design
directed by yongwoo lee and hans ulrich obrist. curated by bruno latour, martin guinard-terrin, christophe leclercq and donato ricci

shanghai project
himalayas museum
shaghai

2017

bruno latour and his team organized a set of workshops called “reset modernity! shanghai perspective” in may 2017, which resulted in an exhibition. we concentrated on a set of issues that modernity encounters at a time of deep ecological mutation, emphasizing a comparative perspective between europe and china. the four-day program took place at the shanghai himalayas museum, and used documentations assembled specifically for the discussions, which speak to conceptions of science, our understanding of territory and sovereignty, and handling the role of technology. it a complex process of translating and negotiating differences that the team wishes to launch. the chinese participants are encouraged to bring documents, examples, sites, situations, and concepts to light, thus sharing a different view of what constitutes modernity. the purpose of these workshops is to embrace the process of reassessment to compare how european and chinese thinkers, artists, intellectuals, activists, and officials can handle new situations. the goal is not to reopen the tired cliché of an east/west comparison, but to use the formidable trial of ecological mutation to compare how two cultures react and furthermore, how they reassess their own trajectories of modernization. cooperating with two highly complex civilizations that were initially shocked by various forms of modernizations and then, more recently, endured an enormous counter shock as a result of the new climatic regime, offers an ideal situation for productive encounters.

team: bruno latour, martin guinard-terrin, jamie allen, òbelo (claude marzotto & maia sambonet), donato ricci, christophe leclercq, paolo patelli, benoît verjat.

ongoing & upcoming:

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in construction