BLAST! WINNING WORKS ANNOUNCEMENT
BLAST! FOR THE DIGITAL GENERATION
Opening: Thursday, September 14th 2017 from 16:00
Duration: September 15th – October 8th, 2017 10:00-18:00
Curator: Davide Quadrio and Zhu Xiaowen
Venue: Hima Art Space, 6F, Himalayas Center, No. 869, Yinghua Rd., Pudong District, Shanghai
Arthub is very delighted to announce the 16 finalists of BLAST! 2017, and would like to invite you to join the exhibition BLAST! FOR THE DIGITAL GENERATION opening on September 15.
Art In The City’s BLAST! 2017 is coming! By expanding the open call to everyone, the special project provides a larger platform for digital media creativity – consciously reaching out to professionals beyond the field of art. In the age of the Internet, everyone has the necessary tools to realize quality content. The Open Call will explore how this intersection between accessibility and artistic intention affects contemporary digital art in Asia.
BLAST! is disseminated through an array of multidisciplinary platforms and pertinent social media channels. BLAST! Visions seeks cutting-edge moving image, animation, cartoon, and computer-generated video, capable of cultivating interactivity and more. BLAST! Sounds explores new music, including: acoustic, electronic, experimental, noise, pop, rock, found or environmental—anything goes.
BLAST! 2016 was presented at chi K11 art museum, M50 Creative Park, MoCA Pavilion, and alternative venues across Shanghai. After last year’s success, BLAST! 2017 is taking place from September 15 to October 8 at Hima Art Space. The open call is devoted to creating a more compressive stage for audiences to discover the emerging multi-media talents of creators in the 21st century.
BLAST! 2017 Opening at Hima Art Space
Video by FLATMIND
The finalists of the 2017 edition of BLAST! Visions are:
LOOP (Axel Yi, China)
Like The Smell of Your Exile in My Body （Seyyed Sadagh Aleahmad，Iran/UK）
Poor Connection (June Kyu Park, South Korea)
Technological Nature (Daria Jelonek, UK)
Asian Sharing Heaven (Chill Chill, China)
Monsoon (Old Guys, China)
Life Project (Chen Xi, China)
ELECTRA (Geneviève Fvare Petroff, Switzerland)
The finalists of the 2017 edition of BLAST! Sounds are:
You Make Me (Tomoki Kakitani, Japan)
2SiO4 (Yu Jing, China)
Omnipotent Musical Sound Converter (Hu Shuai, China)
Attention Deficit Daydreams (Cruel Buddhist, USA)
Oysters on the Beach (Kristian Mondrup Nielsen, Denmark)
I Want Your Body (Elena Kilina, Russia)
Footprint (Timo Kahlen, Germany)
Son (Cai Yuxiao, China)
Axel Yi is the winner of this year’s finalists, his work was chosen from around hundred of submissions. Axel Yi will receive FUMO Motion Design Class. Curator and the chairman of jury Davide Quadrio’s commented:
“Loop by Axel Yi is a complex computer animated short film that takes the idea of BLAST! and has made in 30 sec a complex story telling, combining a sci-fi inspiration with an energizing editing both of images and sound. ”
This year BLAST! jury has been increased with an amazing group of professionals coming from everywhere and representing institutions and professionals at the core of innovation and experimentation. BLAST! 2017 was chaired by Davide Quadrio – Curator and Arthub Founder; Christopher Doyle –Filmmaker; Massimo Torrigiani – Curator and Shaway Yeh – Group Style Editorial Director, Modern Media. Jury Members include: aaajiao (aka. Xu Wenkai) – New Media Artist; Cao Dan – Publisher of LEAP /The Art Newspaper China; Martino Coffa – Recipient.cc Founder and Director; Colin Siyuan Chinnery – Curator and Artist; N+N Corsino – Choreographers and Researchers; Gao Jiafeng – Musician and Music Producer; Roberto Gianstefani – Founder and Director of Flatmind; Guo Hongwei – Artist; Julian F. Krueger – Executive Creative Director of The Marmalade; Alvin Li – Writer, Translator and Queer Activist; Antonio Scoccimarro ¬– Editor of Mousse; Fito Segrera – Head of Research /Creation of Chronus Art Center; Maria Taniguchi – Artist; Matthias Winckelmann – Design Director and Head of 3D of ManvsMachine; Wu Junyong ¬– Artist; You Mi ¬– Curator and Researcher; Zhu Xiaowen – Media Artist.
In the BLAST! exhibition some of the jury members, being artists, will present their original works to the audience: feature artists among others will be: Zhu Xiaowen, Matthias Winckelmann, Gao Jiafeng, Guo Hongwei, Wu Junyong. Two installations by artists Donato Piccolo (Italy) and MANA’s recommended artist Xie Xin (China) will be also presented as special projects which create a tridimensional pause in the flow of digital presentations in the show. And FUMO presentation introduces some of the world’s best motion design studios and designers in China for the first time. These studios and designers include ManvsMachine (London / Los Angeles), SOMEI (Shanghai), Buda (Buenos Aires), Tendril (Toronto), Future Deluxe (London), Method Studios (New York), Vitaly Grossmann & Vincent Schwenk (Hamburg), Zeitguised (Berlin), CATK (Berlin), foam.studio (Berlin), Panoply (London), Raoul Marks (Melbourne), Aixsponza (Munich).
BLAST! In the center of this exploration:
Art In The City 2017 brings, after the success of the first two editions, BLAST! as the core presentation and main exhibition. In the last two editions we realized that BLAST! provides not only a larger platform for digital media creativity – consciously reaching out to professionals beyond the field of art- but also brings to the attention of the general public a fresh, unexpected sight on what is new in the digital and creative world. In the age of the Internet, everyone has the necessary tools to realize quality content. BLAST! explores how this intersection between accessibility and artistic intention affects contemporary digital art in Asia and the rest of the world. From this year on, everyone will be called to be part of this adventure and this year we are happy to say that we had contributions from over 22 countries. The BLAST! exhibition 2017 will show in a special, sensorial environment the previous years’ winners works together with an original presentation of this year’s winners and some outstanding works by jury members, FUMO’s and MANA’s networks. MANA and FUMO, which enter into a new collaboration with Art In The City this year, provide inspirational content and a fresh look into social design and creativity.
BLAST! is organized by Shanghai International Culture Association, co-organized by Art In The City, Arthub, Flatmind, and Hima Art space, with the collaboration of FUMO, MANA and Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel.
MEDIA CONTACT
Shanghai City Brand Event & Exhibition Ltd.
Ms. Even Sun
Tel.: +86-21 62051626
Email: even@citybrandevent.com
ABOUT THE JURY
Chair of the Jury
Davide Quadrio, founded and directed the BizArt Center between 1998 and 2010, the first non-profit artistic/creative workshop in Shanghai. In 2007, he founded Arthub Asia, a platform for producing and promoting contemporary art of and in Asia.
Christopher Doyle is an Australian-Hong Kong cinematographer and film director, who often works on Chinese language films. He has won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, as well as AFI Award for cinematography, the Golden Horse awards (four times), and Hong Kong Film Award (six times). Besides cinematographer, Doyle has also directed the documentary “Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous” in 2015.
Massimo Torrigiani is the artistic director of the new complex for contemporary art and culture of Bari and a member of the Curatorial Board of Teatro dell’Arte, the theatre of the Triennale of Milan. From 2014-16 he was the chairman of the Curatorial Board of PAC, museum of contemporary art of the City of Milan.
Shaway Yeh, Group Style Editorial Director, Modern Media，Modern Weekly Editorial Director.She leads China’s most influential lifestyle publication Modern Weekly. It reaches China’s elite readers with the latest international news, trends, phenomena and discussion in the fields of Style and Culture.
Jury Member
aaajiao, is the online handle of Xu Wenkai, a Shanghai- and Berlin-based artist, avid blogger and free thinker.
Cao Dan has worked as an artist, filmmaker, and designer in both China and France. She is the executive publisher and editorial director of LEAP magazine since July 2012, and the executive publisher of The Art Newspaper China since its launch in March 2013.
Martino Coffa is founder and director of Recipient.cc an artistic/creative production house based in Milan.Full time geek and global team manager, Martino’s field goes from Hardware, to video and sound design passing through many languages to develop the needed new protocols knowledge.
Colin Siyuan Chinnery is an artist and curator based in Beijing. He is currently setting upa major art project called Sound Museumand a contributing editor for Frieze magazine. Chinnery was Director in 2009 and 2010 of ShContemporary Art Fair in Shanghai, and between 2006-2008 he was Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing.
Nicole Corsino & Norbert Corsino ( n + n Corsino) are choreographers and researchers. Winners of the Villa Medicis hors les murs Prize (1994), and first winners of the CMA-CGM Foundation Prize ( 2007), since 2013, they are artistic directors of SCENE44, European scene for choreographic creation and digital innovation, in Marseilles.
Gao Jiafeng is saxophone musician and music producer. Gao currently lives in Shanghai. His solo performance is a fusion of experimental music, pop music, electronics, and stand-up show.
Roberto Gianstefani, more than 15 years of experience in Filmaking and Video Production.Founder and Director of FLATMIND Video Productions Italy, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Guo Hongwei, currently lives and works in Beijing. His art practice mainly focuses on oil painting, as well as collage, photography, and video. From 2011 to 2016, he established independent art space “Gland”.
Julian F. Krueger is Executive Creative Director at the german production house TheMarmalade and brings several years of experience as a Creative Director to the workshop.
Alvin Li is a writer, translator and queer activist splitting his time between Shanghai and Beijing. He recently co-curated the group exhibition.
Antonio Scoccimarro, lives and works in Milan, where he’s Associate Editor at Mousse Magazine – a contemporary art magazine established in 2006 –, and Publishing Editor for Mousse Publishing – a publishing house of catalogues, essays, curatorial projects, artist books, and editions.
Fito Segrera is an artist, technologist and Head of Research/Creation at Chronus Art Center, Shanghai. His current research and creative practice appropriates elements from digital philosophy, artificial intelligence, monism and modern physics.
Maria Taniguchi lives and works in Manila. She won the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award in 2015 and was a LUX Associate Artist in 2009.
Matthias Winckelmann works as Design Director and Head of 3D at the internationally acclaimed studio ManvsMachine in London.
Wu Junyong earned his MFA in New Media Arts from the same school. Besides being a professional artist.
You Mi is a Beijing-born curator, researcher, and academic staff at Academy of Media Arts Cologne, where she lectures on media theory, performance philosophy and globalization theory through transhistorical and transcultural perspectives.
Xiaowen Zhu is a London-based award-winning artist, filmmaker and writer.She is a mentor of the British Film Institute’s Film Academy, a member of the Los Angeles Art Association, and formerly a Visiting Professor of Media Art at Syracuse University and Marymount College in USA.
ABOUT ART IN THE CITY
With their ever expanding system of museums, foundations, galleries and art-related initiatives, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong King are the region’s artistic epicenter.
Art in the City is a project supporting art in Shanghai and China, bringing together fine arts, design, and lifestyle, in a seamless flow of information and events.
The 3 main features of Art in the City are:
•a digital platform: a mobile app and a website constantly updated with the latest information on exhibitions, events, galleries and institutional activities in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. For download, please search in App Store: artinthecity.
•an agency for the creation and production of art-related projects and events for companies, brands and institutions.
•a series of events and PR activities to introduce collectors and art lovers to new art, to galleries, museums and artists’ studios. A series of seminars, talks and educational activities, with trips around China and abroad to see art and design where they happen.
HIMA ART SPACE
Zendai Gallery was established in 2014 at Shanghai Himalayas Arts Center, which is designed by the world famous architect Arata Isozaki. Based on the operational experience and resources of “Zendai Art” over the decade, Zendai Gallery has worked closely with the Himalayas Museum, the Himalayas Cultural and Arts Foundation, as well as other major art institutions, curators and critics, and has established a series of distinctive programs and exhibitions since the first day of its opening. In 2017, Zendai Gallery has moved into a new space on the 6th floor of Shanghai Himalayas Arts Center, and has officially renamed “Hima Art Space.” It is committed to an open, inclusive and experimental space, a platform for the exchange of different culture and creativity, and for experimental and interdisciplinary cooperation. Through imagination, they are going to explore and practice a new dynamic force of contemporary art.
FUMO
Motion Design can range from 3D animation to filmed advertisement, from On Air Design for TV channels to branding and logo development, from car show backgrounds to title sequences for feature films, from infographics for news broadcasting to UX design for games – the applications are endless. In recent years it has become more and more clear that motion design will play the major role in the design of the future. More and more tasks usually addressed by classical graphic designers are replaced by forward thinking multidisciplinary motion design.
MANA
MANA is the new media art media and an arts resource platform. We share the latest works over the world in the field of art, design and technology collaborative innovation, to support the popularization of the industry.
Online: MANA brings top new media arts talents together to create a resource platform. Offline: We promote artists to non-profit institutions and commercial world. At the same time, we hold MANA salon, MANA festival, MANA forum…for archiving, researching or just for fun.
Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel
Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel, which is part of thelandmark Himalayas Centre, is perfectly placed for business and leisure. The five-star Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel Shanghai is a masterpiece of modern luxury infused with Chinese soul. The distinctive building, which is
designed by world-renowned architect Arata Isozaki, who also created the Barcelona Olympic Stadium, is patterned after a unique piece of jade with Feng Shui element. While the stunning
interiors with heavenly inscriptions that breaks forth from the ground were styled by KCA international, the interior designers of the seven-star Burj Al Arab in Dubai.