Review | Water-themed Shanghai Biennale feels diluted by satellite art shows away from the main venue
- Irrigation, menstruation, immersion - Bodies of Water, the main exhibition at the 13th Shanghai Biennale, takes a wide-ranging view of its theme
- The show is a great introduction to the work of younger, less well known artists
Pandemic-era biennales are bound to have detours and tributaries, like rivulets fanning across parched land when the rain arrives after a long drought.
The main exhibition of the 13th Shanghai Biennale, called “Bodies of Water”, has just opened at the Power Station of Art (PSA) after a near six-month delay. It is smaller than its recent predecessors and builds upon public forums held during the intended opening dates last November and an ongoing series of academic projects.
The biennale is also branching out by having satellite shows and interventions across the city, and an app to take people on guided tours of Shanghai’s waterways. As a result, the main exhibition is left somewhat diluted, instead of making waves with its environmental theme of alliances built across species and nations.
The massive entrance hall of the former power station is designed to make a splash, and ever since the biennale moved there in 2012, that space has tended to feature enormous, often controversial, statement pieces that set the tone for entire shows.
For “Bodies of Water”, though, New York-based curator Andrés Jaque has opted for the sort of quiet, research-based multimedia projects usually relegated to the museum’s labyrinthine upper corridors.
