From the towering chimneys and roaring riverside docks to the open and shared space, Yangpu Riverside carries the century old industrial civilization of Shanghai, and is drawing upon art and technology to revitalize industrial heritage and intervene in urban renewal. The factory has transformed into a fashion center, the warehouse has became an exhibition hall, public art works complement the river scenery, and various cultural and artistic activities flood in. The rusty texture of the industrial era has integrated into the lifestyle of the modern city. Yangpu Riverside has always upheld the important concept of a people's city, writing a new urban life landscape in an artistic way.

"The Shanghai Urban Space Art Season 2019", an eye-catching art event aiming at encouraging people to form an attachment to their community through cultural understanding, has rejuvenated the 5.5-kilometer public space along the Yangpu Riverside with its 20 large-scale permanent site-specific installations created by internationally acclaimed artists, including Esther Stocker from Italy, Oscar Oiwa from Brazil, Liu Jianhua, Xu Zhen, Song Dong from China, Richard Wilson from the UK, Felice Varini from Switzerland, Pascale Martine Tayou from Cameroon, José de Guimarães from Portugal, and Yusuki Asai, Yoshiyuki Kawazoe, Keisuke Takahashi, Mé from Japan.

By 2024, with the epidemic over and the city recovering, Art Pioneer Studio has, once again, been commissioned by the organizer, this time inviting the renowned contemporary artist Ding Yi to design the 21st new public artwork. We hope that this work will become a brand new landmark shining along the Yangpu Riverside, waiting for people to meet again.

The site-specific commissioned public artwork is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024. Stay tuned as we share more about this incredible artwork!

Retrospective video
© APS, SHANGHAI

The public artwork is located in the Green Open Space of Minghua Sugar Factory, south of Anpu Road in Yangpu District, Shanghai, to which east is the original Minghua Sugar Factory building, west the Green Hill, and south is the Yangpu Riverside Trail.

Three other public artworks near the site are Yusuki Asai's "Wilderness Growing up in the City", Oscar Oiwa's "Time Shipper" and Pascale Martine Tayou's "Streeg".

Ding Yi (b. 1962) was born and currently resides in Shanghai. The practice of Ding Yi encompasses painting, sculpture, spatial installation and architecture. He works primarily with "+" and its variant "x" as formal visual signals, above and against the political and social allegories typical of painting in China. He chose this sign in the second half of the 80s as a synonym of structure, rationality and of a pictorial expressiveness that reflects the essence of things.

Ding Yi has exhibited extensively at various institutions and galleries, among many others, The British Museum (London, 2021); M+ Museum (Hong Kong, 2021); Power Station of Art (Shanghai, 2020); San Francisco MoMA (2018-2019); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York / Bilbao, 2017-2018); Daimler Contemporary (Berlin, 2017); Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2015); Lehmbruck Museum (Duisburg, 2015); Museo Nazionale Delle Arti Del XXI Secolo MAXXI (Rome, 2011); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2007); Exhibition tour in museums in Bern, Hamburger, Barcelona, etc. (2005-2009); Hamburger Bahkhof Museum Für Gegenwart (Berlin, 2001). His works has also been included in 45th Venice Biennale (1993), The First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (1993), 11th Biennale of Sydney (1998), Yokohama 2001 International Triennale of Contemporary Art (2001), 6th Shanghai Biennale (2006), 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012), 6th Busan Biennale (2016).

He has recent solo exhibitions at Ningbo Museum of Art and Huamao Museum of Art Education (Ningbo, 2023), Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (Shenzhen, 2023), Mojie Art Museum (Taiyuan, 2023), TAG Art Museum (Qingdao, 2022), Jebum-gang Art Center (Lhasa, 2022), Galería RGR (Mexico City, 2022), ShanghART Gallery (Shanghai, 2018 / Singapore, 2022), Timothy Taylor Gallery (New York, 2021 / London, 2019), Long Museum (Chongqing, 2020 / West Bund, Shanghai, 2015), Galerie Karsten Greve (Cologne, 2020 / Paris&St.Moritz, 2021), Nova Contemporary (Bangkok, 2020), Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle (Munich, 2019), Guangdong Museum of Art (Guangzhou, 2018), Xi'an Art Museum (Xi'an, 2017), Hubei Museum of Art (Wuhan, 2016), Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai, 2011), Museo d'Arte Modena di Bologna (Bologna, 2008), Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, 2005), etc.