Shenzhen, ready for renewal
Updated: 2014-01-03 07:07
(HK Edition)
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Like Kwun Tong, the setting for the Shenzhen side of UABB is a neighborhood that bridges the city of the past and the city of the future. In 1979, Shekou became the first part of mainland China to undergo economic liberalization under Deng Xiaoping; now that the rest of the country has followed suit, Shekou's old industrial area is set for new life as a residential and commercial district.
UABB Shenzhen's chief curator, Ole Bouman, hopes the biennale can set the tone for that renewal. One of the exhibition's main venues is the Value Factory, a former glassworks that has been transformed into a dramatic exhibition space that also includes a working farm. "The building becomes not just a protagonist of the biennale but of Shekou itself," said Bouman. He hopes to use the Value Factory as a wedge to insert art and culture into Shekou's development. "The next chapter of Shekou can't just be about revenue," he said.
(HK Edition 01/03/2014 page5)