ShContemporary, the Asia Pacific Contemporary Art Fair, takes place this week from 9 - 12 September 2010.
This year's edition includes Discoveries: Re-Value a thematic exhibition that highlights the confrontation between different ideas of artistic and commercial value. Curators Mami Kataoka, Manray Hsu and Colin Chinnery, have selected work by artists whose practices evoke different notions of value: value of the ordinary and the extraordinary, innovation against traditional values, as well as the value of physical objects versus the ephemeral, technique and craftsmanship, or conceptual value associated with political, sociological conditions and backgrounds. It's an exhibition that asks questions about the way we see and consume art.
The fair also includes a conference co-organised with Hou Hanru on the theme Collecting Asian Art: What, When and How? The Chinese-born curator and critic currently based at the San Francisco Art Institute believes that ShContemporary is a seemingly contradictory but effective context for this kind of debate. Somehow, he says, the pragmatic coexistence and interaction between the intellectual and commercial worlds can produce unexpectedly productive and interesting solutions. This link takes you to the conference programme and lineup of speakers.
Image: Shanghai Exhibition Centre, venue for ShContemporary 2010
