Neon Urlaub, 1997, Jun-Jieh Wang (b Taipei, 1963), multimedia projection, running time 120 minutes. Part of the recent exhibition,
Cities on the Move: Urban Chaos and Global Change -- East Asian Art, Architecture and Film Now, curated by Hou Hanru and Hans-Ulrich Obrist, at the Hayward Gallery until.
Cities on the Move: Urban Chaos and Global Change
Venue: Hayward Gallery, The South Bank Centre, SE1. 13 May to 27 June 1999
No region in the world has undergone such profound and rapid economic and cultural change as East Asia in the last decade. The speed of East Asia's growth is reflected in an anarchic proliferation of new cities in countries including China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. Cities on the Move is an intense and energetic exploration of this fast-changing East Asian urban scene, through the visual arts, architecture, film and video.
The exhibition includes the work of over 100 artists, architects and filmmakers, much of which is unfamiliar to a European public, exploring themes such as ecology, communication, migration, human rights, traffic, density, growth, boom and bust in a new global economy.
No region in the world has gone through such profound and rapid economic and cultural change as Asia in the last decade. Torn between tradition and modernity, extreme poverty and supreme wealth, Asia's cities epitomise the concept of 'urban chaos', responding constantly to technological innovations and economic challenges.
This rapid growth is reflected in an anarchic proliferation of new cities. Participating artists live and work as far afield as Bandung, Tokyo, Bangkok, Beijing, New York, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Taiwan, Yogjakarta, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Sydney, Paris, London, Singapore, Taichung, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Sri Lanka.
Appropriate to Cities on the Move, the Hayward commissioned a dynamic and interactive exhibition design from internationally renowned architect Rem Koolhaas who, together with Ole Scheeren, has transformed the galleries.
The exhibition spills out beyond the walls of the gallery with mini golf in the foyer, Chinese lanterns on the sculpture court, massive billboard posters at Jubilee Gardens and a decorated tuk tuk -- Thai motocycle taxi -- out and about in London.
Capturing both the heady excess of the tiger economies' financial domination and the harsh realities since the economic meltdown, the exhibition is a riot of colour and life, celebrating the good and bad of urban living.
The exhibition is organised by Secession, Vienna and Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux. An accompanying catalogue extends the scope of the exhibition beyond the Hayward Gallery. Essays by the curators, Hou Hanru and Hans-Ulrich Obrist, and by Mohsen Mostafavi, Chairman of the Architectural Association in London, are accompanied by an interview with Rem Koolhaas, information on all of the artists in the exhibition, and a special section, London on the Move by Julia Diamantis.
Part guidebook, part documentary, it provides a fascinating insight into the complex infusion of East Asian culture into contemporary London life. The book is available at a special price during the exhibition.
