Shanghai Urban Public Space

Since 1992, when Deng Xiaoping famously declared Shanghai the “Head of the Dragon,” effectively making it China's economic motor, the city's housing developments have multiplied with breathtaking speed: entire districts have been demolished, residents relocated and numerous districts selected for demolition and redevelopment. Foreign companies have also flooded the city, inscribing its surfaces with the imagery of Western consumerism that so rapidly became an integral part of China's economic fabric—and accelerating its visual transformation. This two-volume slipcased book documents an exhibition and conference, held in 2008 and curated by Anke Haarmann, for which artists such as Pu Jie, Wang Wei, Yang Yongliang, Dieter Hassenpflug, Sonia Schoon, Rufina Wu and Stefan Canham were called upon to address Shanghai's complex array of urban issues. Topics range from European influences on Shanghai's character to segregation, homelessness, rooftop communities, “New Urbanism” and the disorientation experienced by the city's long-term residents as their habitat becomes almost unrecognizable to them.