Art attack

More commercial buildings are seeing the value of art in attracting customers and encouraging a creative, fun space. Zhang Kun looks at some of the buildings that are mixing business with pleasure in Shanghai.

Shanghai's luxury shopping malls are no longer satisfied with hanging festive decorations and running sales for promotion and branding. The new hot attraction to lure shoppers is art. Many new malls are reserving prime spaces for art, putting on regular exhibitions and even commissioning works from renowned artists. Real estate developers in China are trying to pair contemporary art with their branding, says Mathieu Borysevicz, a gallery owner and contemporary art curator from the United States based in Shanghai. He was one of four curators who put together an exhibition to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Shanghai World Financial Center in the heart of the Lujiazui financial area.

Leo Xu, a curator and owner of Leo Xu Projects, has worked with several shopping malls and office buildings in Shanghai, curating art shows and designing art projects.

Xu worked with South American artist Leandro Erlich to present an interactive installation at the Kerry Center in downtown Shanghai's Nanjing West Road in November.

The project consisted of a life-size facade of an authentic shikumen-style terrace house lying horizontally on the ground with a large mirror hung overhead at a 45-degree angle. It encouraged visitors to sit, stand and lie on it, to create a surreal reflection of people climbing or dangling against gravity.

People waited in line to play on Erlich's installation, treating it like a ride at Disneyland. It was so popular that the Kerry Center extended the exhibition by two weeks.

Xu says the interactive installation brought the concrete building closer to the community. It connected the modern skyscraper with the old shikumen houses and reminded people of the past and changing urban landscape.

Galleries and contemporary artists are like "people who talk to themselves", says curator Borysevicz. By bringing art work to public spaces, such as commercial buildings, art becomes relevant, and artists connect with the public.

By hosting art shows, the commercial buildings provide not only shopping but also a cultural experience. It enhances the appreciation of beautiful things, Borysevicz adds.

Earlier this year Xu curated the show Shanghai Surprise, bringing together important works from the city's contemporary art scene over recent decades. The exhibition took place at K11, a newly revamped mall on Huaihai Middle Road.

Xu was glad to find, months later, an image from the show appearing as the avatar of an online social network user. "That brings contemporary art to a new context," he says. "It melts into modern life."

K11 Shanghai identifies itself as the first and only "art mall" in China. It was developed by the Hong Kong-based New World Group. The executive director, Adrian Cheng, is a collector of contemporary art himself. The mall has a whole floor reserved for art in the basement, where it puts on exhibitions and hosts lectures and other art events.