Two New Museums Debut with Chengdu Biennale

The capital city of Sichuan province, Chengdu, will hold the official launch of the new Tianfu Art Park in the Jinniu district, with the debut of two newly completed museum buildings and the 2021 edition of the Chengdu Biennale on November 6.

Situated within the Tianfu Art Park and operated under Chengdu Art Academy, the Chengdu Art Museum is separated by a lake into two main areas: the Chengdu Tianfu Art Museum and Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art. The design of the former is inspired by a cotton rose, with its roof adopting the shape of the flower and comprising curved metal plates. The 40,000-square-meter Chengdu Tianfu Art Museum contains 13 galleries, four education spaces, two academic halls, and six storage rooms. Across the lake on the other side of the park sits Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, the grass-roofed structure of which alludes to continuous mountain slopes. The 33,000-square-meters of space includes art galleries, education spaces, a video art space, and other multi-functional spaces, positioned to be more international, focusing more on contemporary art.  

The two museums are the main locations for the Chengdu Biennale 2021, “Super Fusion,” which features more than 270 Chinese and international artists from 35 countries, including Song Dong, Cao Fei, Xu Bing, Anish Kapoor, Tony Cragg, Do Ho Suh, Carsten Höller, and Katharina Grosse. Led by Fan Di’an, the chairman of the China Artists Association, president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and deputy director of the Art Education Committee at the Ministry of Education, the Biennale comprises eight main themed sections, which explore ecological, technological, and social issues, and an academic forum featuring curators and museum directors.

In addition to the Biennale, 17 parallel shows are taking place at multiple art spaces and galleries across the city, including group exhibition “Polyphonic Narration of Contemporary Art” at longtime stalwart of the local scene, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space; Chinese figurative painter Guo Wei’s solo exhibition at Space K; and the Chengdu Art Academy’s graduation show at the He Duoling Art Museum. The Biennale will run through April 6, 2022. 

Pamela Wong is ArtAsiaPacific’s assistant editor.

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