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13th Shanghai Biennale: “Bodies of Water”
By Hutch Wilco
Installation view of COOKING SECTIONS’s Salmon: A Red Herring, 2020, removal of farmed salmon from the institution, cyclorama, powder-coated steel, silk, ETC ColorSource CYC lights, ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr lights, sound, dimensions variable, at "Bodies of Water," the 13th Shanghai Biennale, 2021. Photo by Chen Hao. Courtesy Power Station of Art, Shanghai.
The role of chief curator for the 13th Shanghai Biennale was, in many respects, an unenviable one: appointed in November 2019, Andrés Jacque barely had time to acquaint himself with Shanghai before the world was upended by Covid-19. It was in this context of disruption that Jacque and his fellow curators Lucia Pietroiusti, Filipa Ramos, Marina Verzier, and You Mi worked remotely to develop “Bodies of Water,” a wide-ranging exhibition exploring the fluid possibilities of humanness, and the ways we relate to one another and the environment. Ultimately, the decision was made to deliver it “in crescendo,” as an eight- month extended program that could be stopped and started as the conditions required.
