good bye OCAT

By now you probably know that the Overseas Chinese Town Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT) has closed, marking the end of an era and no doubt (in retrospect we will discover) the beginning of another. Those of us who were here when OCAT opened in 2005, remember it as contemporaneous with the first Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture\Urbanism (UABB). Indeed, three of the first four biennales were held in Overseas Chinese Town, a massive endeavor that was facilitated by OCAT and its influential first director, Huang Zhuan. Circa 2005, OCAT was an important signal, a sign that Shenzhen was thinking about urbanization in relation to a diversity of urbanisms and futures.

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return to dalang

Yesterday, for the first time since Covid lockdowns began and ended (three years!) I visited Dalang, where “Fashion Town 时尚小镇” continues to thrive and the biennale continues to serve as a transitional event, where art and creativity replace manufacturing. So two streams that converged. First, the exhibition itself was small, but interesting, occupying two floors in a repurposed late 80s early 90s factory. Indeed, this sub venue reminded me of early biennales, when the exhibitions were situated in such marginal places that curators had degrees of freedom that the main venue no longer enjoys. For example, while the Brewery main venue is larger and more interesting as a space, nevertheless it is obviously part of a redevelopment scheme. In contrast, while the Dalang venue signals the closing of an industrial park, nevertheless the artworks on display were edgy (for the times), several created onsite using the garbage that had accumulated in the park and its abandoned factories.

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Join Handshake 302 at the Longheu P+V Gallery

From December 2017 through February 2018, the P+V Gallery will be the site of the Longhua (Dalang) sub-venue of the 2017 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. The main venue will be at Nantou Ancient City. The theme of the sub-venue is: Migrations—Home and Elsewhere, Rediscovering Hakka History and Chinese-Western Cultural Exchange. The program is curated by Dr. Mary Ann O’Donnell in collaboration with Handshake 302 and the P+V Gallery History Association. The founding of the school and Hakka history are our point of departure for rethinking what it means to be an immigrant. Continue reading