The news from Sichuan. The Chengdu (come “Chengdoo” –go figure) website reports that it will create the largest stand-alone structure known to man. The amenities include two, five star hotels, a beach, a coastal town and a hot springs.
New Global City, Chengdu
The project has already released an English-language promotional video:
Happily, 1/3 of the entire project will be dedicated to a Contemporary Art Center, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Certainly looking impressive:
The modern art gallery will cover 30,000 square meters and be the largest such structure in China. That’s a fraction of MOMA’s 185,000, and about 1/2 the size of the Louvre, but plenty large in the context of such a massive project. Such a project will certainly put Chengdu on the map (not that its not already) in terms of contemporary art. That said, curatorial decisions will be key in terms of how much cultural ROI such investment brings.
[…] See on chinaavantgarde.com […]
Wouldn’t it be sweet if Chinese municipal authorities showed half as much interest in the makers of art as they show in these “legacy” real-estate projects… Music, opera and dance ensembles have tanked over the last 20 years as they were left to their own marketing devices, while giant buildings for the arts were lavished with cash and are now, predictably, mostly unused… (Remind anyone of the now rotting “Birds Nest” in Beijing?…)
How about taking the money for the light bulbs for such a building and covering the cost of an opera troupe or a Chinese “guo yue” orchestra or a theater ensemble for a year?