Shanghai, Sep.3,2010---To mark the closing of the six-month long cultural program of the Netherlands’presentation during the World Expo in Shanghai, and to seal the wonderful cooperation between the Netherlands and China on many different artistic levels, the Netherlands presents a special gift to Shanghai and its people: On Saturday 4 September 2010 the artwork TREE HUGGER by artist Edwin Zwakman will be revealed in Shanghai’s Changfeng park.
The Netherlands has a blossoming tradition of art in public spaces and has found wonderful partners in real estate developer OCT and the Shanghai Putuo district for the establishment of the TREE HUGGER in Shanghai. Both the district and OCT acknowledge from their own experiences the importance of providing enjoyable public spaces. They know how art can contribute to a pleasant living environment and stimulate curiosity for things that go beyond daily life. Art in public spaces connects in no better way to the main theme of the World Expo 2010: Better City, Better Life.
The renowned Dutch conceptual artist and photographer Edwin Zwakman fulfilled an artist-in-residency in Beijing last year and it was then that he developed a great interest in Chinese daily life at street level and the extensive park culture of big Chinese cities. It inspired him to design TREE HUGGER. The artwork uses the iconic form of a pedestrian bridge, taken out of its context, to circle a live tree, providing a unique experience for the public to appreciate the tree at different levels. Many Chinese cities lead their pedestrians through heavy traffic via stairs and bridges. To see the design in a different context than the usual urban landscape, can at first sight be confusing. But the unexpected poetic experience and the different point of view it offers the spectator - in this case in between the leaves of a tree - is what Zwakman’s work is famous for.
TREE HUGGER is placed on a striking spot in Changfeng Park in Putuo district, Shanghai. This park was founded in 1956 and is one of the biggest and oldest parks in Shanghai. It is a landscape park which accommodates more than 160 kinds of plants, a man-made lake and it hosts yearly the China Flower Expo. The park already features several public space artworks, and therefore is the perfect place to welcome TREE HUGGER. The tree and the bridge combine the efforts of man and nature to grow together. The people and guests of Shanghai can benefit from this symbiosis, like the people from China and the Netherlands can benefit from their cooperation now and in the future.
The realisation of this project would not have been possible without the generous support of the OCT Group:
Art Museum without Wall
The artistic temperament of OCT is an extension of humanistic ideas rather than a display or a beautiful coat weaved with money. With over two decades’efforts, under the leadership of the OCT Group, OCT Properties has become the builder of art space, the operation supporter and actual practitioner of art and cultural activities. In this way, artistic temperament has integrated quietly into the city's blood.
Shanghai Pujiang OCT Decade Art Scheme is a bold art project full of creativity put forward by OCT Group in Shanghai, which realizes the ideal of a harmonious coexistence of city and art, and strives for the organic integration of art and life.
The Decade Art Scheme consists of two parts: first, the OCT Group plans to host a large-scale exhibition of the works of representative Chinese and foreign artists; second, through the exhibition, Shanghai Pujiang OCT will collect 1-2 pieces of representative spatial sculptures, art and other media works, and place them in the New Pujiang Town’s urban environment.
From 2007 until 2010, top artists such as Sui Jianguo, Wang Jianwei, Lin Tianmiao and Gu Wenda have successively held public art exhibitions here, from which Shanghai Pujiang OCT enjoys high reputation as an Art Museum without Wall.
The establishment of the artwork TREE HUGGER in Shanghai is realised in
collaboration with:
The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and
Architecture (in Dutch known as the Fonds BKVB), OCT Group, Putuo District
Shanghai, Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Shanghai, Dutch
Culture Centre.