cai guo-qiang: peasant da vincis
rockbund art museum, shanghai
may 7th to august 8th, 2010

the rockbund art museum, housed in a converted 1932 art deco building on shanghai’s
historic riverfront, has been restored and with interior design by british architect david chipperfield.
the building was previously home to the royal asiatic society, and is next to the former site of the
shanghai british consulate. the museum, which is part of a larger development project in shanghai,
opened to the public with a show curated by the artist cai guo-qiang, featuring robots,
DIY flying machines and a rooftop UFO. designboom editor feifei song went to the preview
and shares many images of the exhibition with you.

this is part two of the exhibition report, see part 1 here.


cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang, submarines by li yuming,
helicopters by xu bin and wu zhuzhai, flying saucers by du wenda
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom


coinciding with the shanghai expo 2010, an event in which countries and companies present
their latest inventions, showing off their political, economic, technological and cultural strengths,
cai guo-qiang's 'peasant da vincis' presents stories of 'peasant' inventors from all over china
who show great enthusiasm and courage in the pursuit of their dreams.

besides exhibiting a large number of these inventions, the project invites the inventors to recreate
their works and demonstrate how they function on site, encouraging public discussions on these
rough and amateurish hand-built creations as well as their aesthetics, social and cultural connotations.

'anxiety is present in chinese society over its state of transition between 'made in china'
and 'created in china', and it is the hundreds of millions of peasants who have paid the price
for the construction of modern society and better urban life in the reform era. the slogan
of the shanghai expo is 'better city, better life,' and to this I would add: 'peasants -
making a better city, better life.' - cai guo-qiang

cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang, submarines by li yuming,
helicopters by xu bin and wu zhuzhai, flying saucers by du wenda
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom


housed in the 4th, 5th and 6th floors of the museum is cai's 'fairytale', a presentation of
five submarines, four airplanes, helicopters and flying saucers in a lyrical and spiritual environment,
surrounded by green grass, blossoming flowers and live birds.



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang, submarines by li yuming,
helicopters by xu bin and wu zhuzhai, flying saucers by du wenda
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
detail of the live birds perched upon one of the airplanes
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
detail of the live birds perched upon one of the airplanes
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang, submarines by li yuming,
helicopters by xu bin and wu zhuzhai, flying saucers by du wenda
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang, submarines by li yuming,
helicopters by xu bin and wu zhuzhai, flying saucers by du wenda
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang, submarines by li yuming,
helicopters by xu bin and wu zhuzhai, flying saucers by du wenda
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, helicopters by xu bin and wu zhuzhai
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
detail of a helicopter with china's flag
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, submarines by li yuming,
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom


li yuming (b. 1941 in hanyang, wuhan, hubei province, china) mortgaged his home to fund
his submarines, believing they will benefit humanity. although people can move about freely
on the ground and in the air, more than half of the earth's surface is water, so he hopes to construct
a sightseeing submarine.

cai bought his first peasant invention - yuming's 'twilight no.1'- in february 2005. since then,
he has acquired almost all of yuming's creations.



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, submarines by li yuming,
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, submarines by li yuming,
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, submarines by li yuming,
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
detail of submarine
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
fairytale, 2010
grass lawn, 60 live birds, wild flowering plants, airplanes by chen zong zhi and wang qiang, submarines by li yuming,
helicopters by xu bin and wu zhuzhai, flying saucers by du wenda
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



a prototype
image © desigboom



aircraft carrier by tao xiangli
image © designboom


the second exhibition space, adjacent to the building's lobby, will be activated by the on-site
production of a twenty-meter-long aircraft carrier with planes on deck, out of scrap metal.
cai invited tao xiangli (b. 1974) a peasant from fuyang, anhui province to design the piece.
in the body of the carrier, underneath the broad deck, xiangli has suspended a cluster of submarines.




aircraft carrier by tao xiangli
image © designboom



aircraft carrier by tao xiangli
image © designboom



aircraft carrier by tao xiangli
a cluster of submarines are found suspended from the carrier's broad deck
image © designboom





tao xiangli
land, sea and air vehicle model
image © designboom



submarine by tao xiangli
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
detached, 2010
DVD of 'out of the present' by andrei ujica, flat panel monitor, five floor-length mirrors and one convex circular mirror
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
detached, 2010
DVD of 'out of the present' by andrei ujica, flat panel monitor, five floor-length mirrors and one convex circular mirror
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
kites, 2010
49 handmade paper and bamboo kites, 49 steel stands, 49 miniature electric fans, 49 pocket projectors
installation view at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



installation view of du wenda's 'flying saucer C' at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom


visitors are beckoned to the museum by a glowing UFO, 'flying saucer C' by du wenda,
spinning on the roof, and enter through the museum's courtyard that is transformed
into a makeshift construction site.

image © designboom



image © designboom



cai guo-qiang
'what's important isn't whether you can fly', 2010
installation view at the rockbund art museum
image © designboom


on the rooftop plaza, three large murals with slogans create a propagandistic atmosphere....
extending exhibition to the street:
'never learned how to land'
'what's important isn't whether you can fly'
'peasants - making a better city, a better life'
painted in giant chinese characters on the exterior of the museum and surrounding buildings.



installation view with cai guo-qiang's 'never learned how to land' and du wenda's 'flying saucer C'
and 'flying saucer D' at the rockbund art museum
image © designboom



installation view with cai gguo-qiang's 'never learned how to land' and du wenda's 'flying saucer C'
inset at the rockbund art museum, 2010
image © designboom



image © designboom

the exhibition title and date in chinese and english is spray-painted in red in style of industrial signage
on a silver-colored wall bordering the construction site along huqiu road in the rockbund area.
in the plaza, the slogan 'never learned how to land' is painted in chinese calligraphy style on the
north wall of the museum, which forms a distinct contrast with the glowing UFO made by du wenda,
spinning slowly on the roof of the building. on a wall in the garage, visitors can see the slogan
'what's important isn't whether you can fly'.

image © designboom